Summary
We’ll leave it there for now. Thanks for reading. Before we go, let’s recap some of the main events of the day.
- Australia experienced its worst day of new cases since the pandemic begun, driven by 532 new infections recorded in Victoria.
- There were also six new deaths in Victoria, five of which were linked to the aged care sector, which has more than 500 active cases.
- A baby at the neonatal intensive care unit at the Royal Children’s hospital has also tested positive, with four cases linked to the ward.
- Victorian premier Daniel Andrews suggested key industries may need to close in response to the worsening crisis.
- NSW recorded 17 new cases.
- The NSW court of appeal upheld an earlier court decision that ruled a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sydney tomorrow was “unauthorised”.
- The Northern Territory closed its borders to greater Sydney residents.
We’ll see you tomorrow. Stay safe, look out for each other and, if you’re in Victoria, wear a mask.
Updated
The Apollo, a Greek restaurant in Potts Point, has been forced to close after a staff member tested positive to Covid-19. It is the fourth restaurant in two days to close in Sydney.
In a statement on Monday night, NSW Health said it was contacting people who had visited the eatery between 23-25 July and asking them to quarantine for 14 days.
“Any diners who develop symptoms should be tested,” the statement read. “NSW Health is also asking all people who live in or have visited the Potts Point area in the past two weeks to get tested if they have any symptoms of Covid-19.”
Another Potts Point restaurant, Thai Rock, is also closed after a diner tested positive last week. NSW Health said today there were now two cases linked to the eatery and anyone who dined there between 15-25 July should get a test and self-isolate, regardless of symptoms.
NSW Health said it is also contacting staff and patrons who attended two further venues in Mt Pritchard recently and asking them to get a Covid-19. The venues are Mounties and Pritchard’s Hotel. A person who attended both venues has since tested positive.
Updated
Staying in Melbourne, this Melbourne private school has been criticised after students were told they had to wear masks that also matched the school’s uniform.
VicHealth chief executive Dr Sandro Demaio made some interesting comments earlier on the ABC:
This is really one of the tough things about this virus – it will take at least two weeks to see whether we’ve made a clear difference from any major new measure we put in place.
We probably won’t see those cases come down to single digits, some experts are saying, [for] many, many weeks.
The delay between taking measures and then seeing those hospitalisation numbers come down, that could take between two and even eight weeks.
Then finally the death rates coming down, based on other countries ... that could even take two or two-and-a-half months to start to come down.
Updated
Channel Seven is reporting that 20 to 30 people have been evacuated from St Basil’s aged care home in Fawkner.
There are 84 cases linked to the home in Melbourne’s north.
Updated
You might remember this stoush over toilet paper in a Woolworths store in March.
The cash-strapped Northern Territory government will spend $20m on extra police officers to protect its borders as part of its response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The chief minister, Michael Gunner, said 66 frontline officers would join the force along with 30 Aboriginal liaison officers and 10 Aboriginal community officers.
An extra 25 support staff would also be employed to provide administrative and welfare assistance to officers, AAP reported.
The Northern Territory had planned to open its borders to the entire nation on 17 July, removing the need for travellers to go into quarantine
However, Melbourne’s second wave and coronavirus outbreaks in Sydney have led to all of Victoria being declared a hotspot indefinitely and greater Sydney for at least another month, meaning travellers from there must go into supervised quarantine, costing them $2,500 if they show up.
Having to protect the NT’s borders through quarantine supervision and compliance checks as well as fulfil normal policing duties is stretching the force’s resources.
The Australian federal police have been helping but 70 of 102 officers deployed to the territory are due to leave this week.
Updated
The NSW police minister, David Elliott, is pleased by the court of appeal’s decision on the Black Lives Matter protest planned for tomorrow.
In a statement, he said:
I welcome the court of appeal’s decision to uphold the supreme court’s verdict on the authorisation of a protest planned for Tuesday 28 July.
The NSW government urges both the organisers and anyone thinking of attending to stay away, abide by the law and seriously consider the consequences of their potential actions. A pandemic is no time to attend a mass gathering, no matter how honourable the cause.
The state is at a critical point in the fight against this pandemic. We must all work together with police and health authorities to save lives and keep the community safe.
Updated
Dozens of people with disability have raised concerns with a royal commission about their experiences during the coronavirus pandemic.
The Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability will hold a public hearing next month focused on the pandemic’s impact.
It has received 73 submissions specifically about Covid-19 and its associated restrictions, AAP reports.
They are among 1,141 submissions the royal commission has received so far from people with disability and their family members, as well as advocates and support workers.
“People have shared their experiences of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation across a range of settings including the health and medical system, in schools, in group homes and other accommodation,” the commission said on Monday.
The commission has also had almost 400 requests for a private session, conducted in a confidential setting with a commissioner.
Updated
The Australian Meat Industry Council’s chief executive, Patrick Hutchison, has issued a statement claiming there is an “over-emphasis of cases being linked to the Australian meat industry”.
He said:
This is a public health issue and a community transmitted virus, not a meat industry or food safety issue.
There has been an over-emphasis of cases being linked to the Australian meat industry, yet the virus is being transmitted in the community, not generated from within any particular industry.
The Australian meat industry has extremely controlled measures in place and should not be viewed through the same lens as meat industries in other countries.
The actual percentage of staff that make up the total amount of cases within a ‘cluster’ linked to a meat processing facility is small relative to total community transmissions, in some cases less than 3%, across our red meat and smallgoods members.
Further, there is a negligible amount reported in our independent retail butcher chain.
Meat industry-related outbreaks in Victoria include:
- 95 cases linked to Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham.
- 71 cases linked to JBS in Brooklyn.
- 69 cases linked to Bertocchi Smallgoods in Thomastown.
- 47 cases linked to Australian Lamb Company in Colac.
- 8 cases linked to Diamond Valley Pork in Laverton North.
- 6 cases linked to Don KR Castlemaine.
The statement from Hutchinson is in response to comments from Daniel Andrews suggesting specific industries may need to be shut down.
Updated
The health minister, Greg Hunt, has issued a statement on the death of the RACGP president, Harry Nespolon:
On behalf of the Australian government, I extend my deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Dr Harry Nespolon, who passed away on Sunday night.
As president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners for the past two years, Dr Nespolon worked very closely with myself and the government.
He was a passionate but also reasoned advocate for GPs and, above all, for their patients – the Australian people.
His tenure as president coincided with a period of reform and then, of emergency – both the bushfire emergency and more recently the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Throughout these challenges, and his own personal battle with cancer over the past nine months, he remained tireless, eloquent and cogent in his leadership and drive for positive change.
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, he played a crucial role working with the government to devise general practice elements of the comprehensive $2.4bn health package.
These included dozens of new telehealth measures under Medicare and incentives for GPs to keep their practices open for patients who required face to face consultations.
These measures allowed Australians to continue receiving vital health care, while keeping doctors and patients safe. They were a critical element in Australia’s very successful national response to the coronavirus threat.
Dr Nespolon will long be remembered by all who knew him for his intellect, passion, dedication and professionalism.
Above all, Harry was partner to Lindy, and a father to two beautiful young girls. They should be immensely proud of him. He will be irreplaceable.
His passing is a great loss to the RACGP, to general practice and to all Australians.
Updated
Some more information about the baby, two parents and health worker associated with the neonatal intensive care unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital [RCH] infected with the virus.
The hospital tells me that the hospital has not allowed any visitors on site since March apart from the family and carers of children. Any parent, guardian or staff member entering the hospital undergoes health screening and temperature checking before being allowed access. In a statement a hospital spokeswoman said:
Under the government’s visitor restrictions, parents/guardians are not considered visitors. Even so, we have insisted that only one parent/guardian is allowed with their child at any time. While this has caused upset for many families, there is no intention to strengthen this any further as this would mean our patients would not ever see their parents – this is not an outcome anyone would want.
We are working closely with the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure contact tracing is completed and all individuals supported throughout the process.
There are currently 17 RCH staff, seven patients and three parents identified as close contacts, all of whom are undertaking the mandatory self-quarantine requirements. As the RCH has sufficient numbers of trained intensive care staff, patient care for our most vulnerable patients will not be compromised. All parents on Butterfly ward [in the neonatal intensive care unit] were notified of the positive cases as they came to light.
Updated
The Australian share market has edged higher as investors await direction from Wall Street ahead of a busy week of economic data, although surging gold prices have boosted miners of the precious metal.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index gained 20.2 points, or 0.34%, at 6,044.2 points, while the All Ordinaries index was up 21.6 points, or 0.35%, at 6,169.6.
AAP reports that the Australian dollar was trading higher after weakness in the US greenback against major currencies, buying 71.32 US cents, up from 70.94 US cents at Friday’s close.
These Melburnians are offering their neighbours free masks from their front lawn.
Updated
The NSW court of appeal has effectively upheld an earlier ruling that the protest is a prohibited public assembly under current public health regulations.
Demonstrators will now risk arrest and fines if they breach coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings when attending tomorrow.
Chief Justice Tom Bathurst said he would provide his reasons at a later date, but that the appeal had to be dismissed.
Organisers say they have a Covid-19 safety plan. Attendees are being asked to avoid public transport, wear a mask and “practice thorough hand hygiene”. Protesters will be expected to stand at least 1.5 metre apart at all times, and anyone who feels at all unwell or has any cold or flu-like symptoms is being asked to stay at home.
All attendees will be asked to provide contact details for tracing purposes and anyone who develops symptoms in the two weeks following the rally must be tested and let the organisers know.
Earlier, the NSW Police Minister, David Elliott, described the protest going ahead as “the most dangerous act during a pandemic”.
Black Lives Matter rally organisers said earlier they would consider calling off Tuesday’s protest if the New South Wales premier commits to asking SafeWork NSW and the director of public prosecutions to investigate whether charges should be laid against the guards involved in the death in custody of David Dungay Jr in 2015.
The 26-year-old Dunghutti man died after five guards rushed his cell to stop him eating biscuits, dragged him to another cell, then held him face down and injected him with a sedative. In harrowing footage shown to the court and partly released to the public, Dungay said 12 times that he couldn’t breathe, before losing consciousness and dying.
Updated
Baby at Royal Children's hospital tests positive
Just coming back to the update from Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services.
The four cases at the neonatal intensive care unit at the Royal Children’s hospital includes a patient. Tom Connell, the chief of medicine at the Royal Children’s hospital, said earlier today the baby was less than three weeks old.
The other cases are: two parents and a staff member. The department says any Royal Children’s hospital staff who have spent more than two hours on the butterfly ward since 12 July will be tested.
Updated
Court dismisses Black Lives Matter appeal for Sydney rally
The NSW court of appeal has dismissed an appeal from the organisers of a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sydney.
It means that the rally tomorrow will be an “unauthorised event”.
Organisers have previously said the protest would go ahead regardless of the court’s decision.
Updated
Key outbreaks and stats in Victoria
Here are some key statistics and points from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services daily update.
Four cases have been linked to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.
According to the department:
The cases are two parents, one patient and a healthcare worker.
All babies, staff and parents, including any RCH staff who have spent more than two hours on Butterfly Ward since 12 July will be tested.
Here are the current aged care outbreaks: 84 cases have been linked to St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner.
- 82 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer.
- 77 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping.
- 62 cases have been linked to Menarock Life Aged Care Facility in Essendon.
- 53 cases have been linked to Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee.
- 57 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth.
- 50 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg.
Other current outbreaks include:
- 95 cases have been linked to Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham.
- 71 cases have been linked to JBS in Brooklyn.
- 69 cases have been linked to Bertocchi Smallgoods in Thomastown.
- 47 cases have been linked to Australian Lamb Company in Colac.
- 13 cases have been linked to the Linfox Warehouse in Truganina.
- 8 cases have been linked to Diamond Valley Pork in Laverton North.
- 6 cases have been linked to Don KR Castlemaine.
- 26 cases have been linked to LaManna Supermarket in Essendon Fields.
- 22 cases have been linked to Brunswick Private Hospital.
- 6 cases have been linked to Parkville Youth Justice.
- 12 cases have been linked to Respite Services Australia in Moonee Ponds.
Across Victoria, there are 683 active cases relating to outbreaks across 61 aged care facilities, and 400 active health care worker cases.
Updated
Does Victoria need to do more testing?
Kidd says testing is already at record levels and authorities need to ensure they do not overwhelm the system.
Asked why masks were only mandated for aged care workers a few weeks ago, Kidd says authorities have taken an incremental approach in their response to the pandemic.
This is the first time that we have dealt with a situation like this in Australia in over 100 years as you are aware.
Updated
Kidd explains how the aged care surge workforce has been pulled together.
We have lots of health care workers who are putting up their hands, we have many people who have recently retired, particularly as nurses but also as doctors who have put up their hands to come back and be part of the workforce, and thank you to all the people who are committed to providing care to Australians at this time of national emergency.
Updated
Kidd is asked what authorities can do to stop the spread of conspiracy theories, which you might have seen in various videos and other content posted to social media.
He says:
You need to listen to the messages which are coming from government. The single source of advice or truth is health.gov.au. Please go to that website, use this as your source of credible information, don’t listen to myths on social media.
Updated
A reporter notes Scott Morrison’s comments earlier today saying NSW is doing better than Victoria. What are they doing better?
Kidd says:
Well we are seeing smaller numbers in New South Wales each day. Each of those cases is being followed up very quickly, and their contacts are being followed up very quickly and being tested. Requirement in New South Wales, particularly for people in a number of facilities where we have seen outbreaks is there have been a cool for each of the people who have been at those centres to get tested, but also to stay in isolation a 14-day period to prevent further possible transmission to other people occurring within Sydney and other parts of the state.
Updated
RACGP president Harry Nespolon dies
Kidd pays tribute to Dr Harry Nespolon, the president of the Australian Royal College of General Practitioners, who lost a battle with cancer overnight.
He has been leading the members of the nation’s largest medical college in their response to the Covid-19 pandemic up until last week.”
That included strong support for telehealth during the pandemic.
People will speak about his many contributions and his legacy over the coming days. I want to say that Harry Nespolon was a remarkable leader, and inspirational to many, undervalued, loved and respected friend and colleague.
Updated
Kidd is focusing on the situation in aged care. He notes, as Daniel Andrews did early, that there are now 600 cases in aged care facilities.
He says 5% of all cases of Covid-19 in Victoria since April have been among the residents of aged care facilities, while 4% have been among the staff working in aged care.
Kidd says an aged care response centre has been established over the weekend and commenced operations today.
Updated
Michael Kidd notes the 549 new cases today is the single largest daily number and eclipses the 502 new cases recorded five days ago.
He says the figures are “very concerning”.
Kidd says 2,884 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in Australia in the past seven days, while 259 people are in hospital.
The tragedy of Covid-19 is that we know with the number of new infections that we have seen today, that there will be many further deaths in the days ahead.
Updated
The deputy chief medical officer, Michael Kidd, has just started the national Covid-19 update.
As we discussed earlier, there is growing concern about the situation in Victoria’s aged care system.
The United Workers Union has conducted a survey of 1,000 workers. The findings, as summarised by AAP, include:
- Three in 10 residential aged care workers say they’ve received no additional training in coronavirus safety measures or correctly using PPE.
- More than two thirds of aged care workers do not feel very prepared to deal with a virus outbreak.
- Four in 10 workers do not feel their aged care facility has communicated their infection plan well.
- One in three home care workers say they do not have enough hand sanitiser and gloves.
- Nine out of 10 aged care workers are worried their colleagues may have to work if they have mild symptoms because of a lack of leave.
- Only 16% of workers report their providers have offered some form of paid pandemic sick leave.
Updated
Hello to you all. Hope you’re having a wonderful Monday afternoon. Thanks to Calla for her work today.
As Calla says, we’re awaiting a court decision on tomorrow’s Black Lives Matter rally planned for Sydney.
If you want to get in touch, you can send me a note at luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com or via on Twitter @lukehgomes.
On that note I will hand over to Luke Henriques-Gomes who will take you through the afternoon’s news, including the outcome of the court of appeal hearing on tomorrow’s Black Lives Matter rally.
Stay well, and exercise your human right to be considerate of others and wear a mask when recommended to do so.
Updated
An update from the Australian council of attorneys general meeting today, which considered the question of whether the age of criminal responsibility in Australia should be lifted from 10-years-old:
NSW AG @MarkSpeakman says no major updates on raising the age of criminal responsibility from CAG meeting. Says more work to be done to understand alternatives to imprisonment. Report will be handed to the council next year.
— Isabella Higgins (@isabellahiggins) July 27, 2020
Police in NSW have fined three people for failing to self-isolate upon their return from Victoria, after they were apparently dobbed in by other community members.
On Saturday, police checked on a 33-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man living in a house in Deniliquin, following “reports” that two people who had recently returned to the town on the Riverina from Victoria had been spotted at the shops.
Deniliquin is about 78km north of the Murray River. The man and the woman had returned to the town from Victoria on 21 July and were four days into their 14-day self-isolation period.
They allegedly told police “it’s a free country”, and were fined $1,000 each.
Yesterday, police on the NSW south coast spoke to a 63-year-old woman who was supposed to be self-isolating at home at the Batemans Bay suburb of Surf Beach. Police had received “reports” she had visited a supermarket in town. She was also fined $1,000.
Updated
I do not have moody photographs of Daniel Andrews for you today but I do have a very rare smiling Daniel Andrews and Brett Sutton.
It is also, based on my very quick counting, the 25th day in a row that Andrews has given the daily coronavirus press conference and Sutton has been at most of them. So it’s nice to see a brief moment of levity, even on the worst day.
The court of appeal in NSW is currently hearing the appeal by organisers against its decision yesterday, banning a Black Lives Matter rally from going ahead.
We cut away from the prime minister’s press conference earlier today to bring you the bad news out of Victoria.
But readers of this blog will probably be very interested in what Scott Morrison had to say when asked for his opinion on treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s comments that he was drawing some inspiration from Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in addressing the economic crisis.
Morrison:
Well we’re leading an Australian response to this. A uniquely Australian response and that Australian response requires us to address the supply side issues in our economy.
And I’ve gone through them. And this is why the Covid commission today is so important.
So, it won’t be Thatcherism or Reaganomics, because it will be an Australian solution, but it will still be heavily reliant on supply side economics. Maybe we’ll get our own portmanteau.
Updated
The Australian Council of Trade Unions has called on the federal government to publish the retirement income review and publicly affirm their commitment to the superannuation guarantee rising to 12%.
This is particularly urgent when considered alongside the data, which I mentioned earlier, showing that $28bn has been withdrawn from superannuation funds in Australia under the coronavirus early release scheme.
The ACTU assistant secretary, Scott Connolly, said:
This government can’t be trusted with workers’ retirement savings, tens of billions have been ripped out through its disastrous early access scheme. The size and scale of the early release of superannuation shows that now more than ever, all workers need 12 cents on every dollar earned to ensure a dignified retirement.
The early access scheme will push huge numbers of workers into poverty when they retire. This will be the legacy of the Morrison government.
The government should immediately rule out cutting the legislated increase of the superannuation guarantee to 12% and focus on improving the superannuation balances and retirement incomes of women and Indigenous workers.
Updated
The NT will spend $20m to recruit new police officers and buy new police vehicles in order to keep manning the border checkpoints.
The recruitment will begin straight away, Gunner said, and will continue until November next year. It comes because the Australian Federal Police has reduced its contingent that was providing support on the NT border, leaving the local police short about 70 sworn officers.
NT police commissioner Jamie Chalker said:
We have been very fortunate and had 102 sworn constables and above provided by the Australian Federal Police since March as of this Friday. That now reduces down to 30.
Chalker said the police in the NT had been under “significant” pressure to maintain border checkpoints and maintaining other public health orders.
He said they were moving to use automatic number plate recognition to help maintain border checkpoints, but said that when people enter the NT by road they will “continue to engage with those people and thank them for the preparedness for the arrival forms they’re putting in place”.
He said the new recruits will include 30 Aboriginal liaison officers to work in remote communities.
Chalker said he was making other temporary staffing changes to cover the short-fall left by the AFP officers.
We have much to do, we need to ensure we’re in a prepared state in the event that Covid-19 does penetrate the Northern Territory borders...
We have significant plans in place to deal with those things and have a heavy engagement with community to ensure that people understand how to follow the relevant guidelines we’ll put out in respect of that.
It won’t be a time for panic. We’ll be able to engage with communities and the Aboriginal liaison officers will provide a great pathway for us to give much-needed reassurance into the community in the event that occurs.
He added that “the future for the Northern Territory police force is one of some uncertainty, as it relates to how long this response will go”.
Updated
NT borders will be closed to greater Sydney residents until at least 28 August
Northern Territory chief minister, Michael Gunner, has extended its travel restrictions against greater Sydney for another four weeks.
Gunner had already declared all of greater Sydney to be a coronavirus hotspot, meaning anyone who has been in greater Sydney in the past 14-days will not be allowed to travel to the NT, unless they are prepared to be held in quarantine at their own expense.
To provide certainty for all Territorians, we’re extending our hotspot declaration to all of greater Sydney for at least another four weeks.
That means our borders will stay closed to all of greater Sydney, anyone who lives there and who has been there until at least Friday, 28 August. That’s the earliest possible date before any change. I make no promises about that date. If our borders need to stay closed, they will stay closed.
For anybody who does come, they know what’s waiting for them. Two weeks in a supervised facility and a bill for $2,500.
Gunner said the NT border would remain closed to Victoria indefinitely.
I would say it is months away at the least. The situation there continues to be grim, confronting and tragic. I know we’re all thinking of friend and family in Melbourne right now. They are doing what needs to be done to get on top of this, not just to protect themselves but ultimately to protect all of us.
In recent weeks I think the entire nation got a reality check. Any hopes that we’d be through the crisis in a few short months have been dashed. Right now we can’t see the finish line. We are all in this for the long haul. Coronavirus not going anywhere, which means our hard borders are not going anywhere.
Updated
Information released today by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) shows that one million people have made a repeat application to draw down their superannuation, under the early release scheme.
That is, one million people have already drawn down on their super and have applied to draw it down again.
The data shows that $28bn has been withdrawn from superannuation funds in Australia from the inception of the scheme in March to 19 July 2020. It payed out $2.7bn just in the last week.
Almost three million people have applied to withdraw some of their super, and the average withdrawal amount was $7,719.
The size of the withdrawal is increasing – the average amount withdrawn in initial applications is $7,407, but the average amount requested by the one million repeat applications is $8,619.
Updated
The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, held a press conference a short time ago in which he called people who do refuse to wear a face mask in a high risk area “dropkicks” and said mining magnate Clive Palmer, who is challenging WA’s hard domestic border in the high court, is in a demographic at a higher risk from Covid-19.
Premier @MarkMcGowanMP says Clive Palmer, whose launched a High Court challenge to WA's hard borders, is ironically at a greater risk of contracting the coronavirus. @10NewsFirstPER @10NewsFirst #ClivePalmer #CoronavirusAustralia #perthnews #WAnews pic.twitter.com/4xWCkms3Vn
— Lee Steele (@LeeSteele_) July 27, 2020
McGowan was speaking in Perth to announce a new “green jobs plan”, a $60.3m package which is part of the state’s coronavirus economic recovery plan. It includes $15m to set up a native vegetation rehabilitation scheme to provide environmental offsets, and shore up the habitat for threatened species like the Carnaby’s cockatoo.
Updated
The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, is wearing a hard hat and high-vis vest and giving a press conference that he would like to be about jobs, but that is actually about him losing three ministers to an expenses scandal.
How refreshing to have something as normal as an expenses scandal!
Marshall:
All will be revealed very quickly. I’m not looking to take a long time to do this reshuffle. What the people of South Australia want is a government which is getting on with dealing with the real challenges that we face here in South Australia because of the Covid-19 pandemic. I’ll be making my decisions in the next 24-hours and as soon as I’ve made them the media will be informed.
Updated
10 people fined for attending a church in Melbourne
Police have fined 10 people for attending a church in St Albans, in Melbourne’s northwestern suburbs, as part of 152 fines issued in the past 24-hours to people alleged to have breached public health orders.
Attending a place of worship is not one of the four permitted reasons that people in the greater Melbourne lockdown area are allowed to leave their home.
The fines also included 23 people who were fined $200 for failing to wear a face covering outside their home in greater Melbourne or the Mitchell Shire.
They also issued fines for “multiple gatherings and parties at short-term rental accommodation in Melbourne’s CBD”.
Police said they conducted 12,283 vehicle checks and 4,073 spot checks on people in their homes, business, or out in public in the past 24-hours.
The deputy commissioner of police, Rick Nugent, also, obliquely, commented on the Bunnings lady.
He said:
Victoria police is aware of a number of incidents over the weekend where people have deliberately breached the chief health officer directions and are not wearing face coverings.
Thankfully this selfish behaviour is an exception and the vast majority of people are doing the right thing to protect the health and safety of our community.
However, the behaviour of those who blatantly choose to disregard the rules on the insistence their human rights being breached is alarming.
Worse yet, it seems these people are more interested in notoriety and getting likes on social media than the health and wellbeing of their fellow Victorians.
My message to anyone planning to break the rules is simple: no one has a human right to infect other people and place the entire Victoria community at risk.
In fact, this type of behaviour is childish and is completely unacceptable when police are working incredibly hard to keep the community safe.
Victoria police will continue to use the powers available to them under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 to enforce the chief health officer directions.
We will not hesitate to issue $200 fines to people who are obviously and blatantly failing to wear a face covering without a valid reason, such as a medical condition.
Updated
Cool.
meanwhile, carriageworks' farmers market will be re-opening on Saturday week https://t.co/A8fLqTHwpk
— steph harmon (@stephharmon) July 27, 2020
Some scary maths, although the positive results reported today weren’t necessarily all conducted in the past 24-hours – only priority cases have results back in 24-hours at the moment.
Today Victoria is reporting a lot of new cases, out of relatively few test results.
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) July 27, 2020
Which means 3% of yesterdays tests came back positive. pic.twitter.com/pYQnQkspXU
Finally, Berejiklian was asked for her comment on the Sydney Black Lives Matter rally.
The reporter who asked the question, asked the premier what her message is to people who may go to the protest.
It is scheduled to go ahead tomorrow despite the supreme court on Sunday ruling in favour of police to invalidate the protest. The organisers are appealing that decision in the supreme court today and, notably, said yesterday that they would call off the protest if Berejiklian commits to asking SafeWork NSW and the director of public prosecutions to investigate whether charges should be laid against the guards involved in the 2015 death in custody of David Dungay Jr.
I am telling you that context, because Berejiklian was not asked whether she would agree to asking for the investigation – she was just asked for her “message”.
Her message was:
Please don’t [attend] for your on safety and the safety of your loved ones. This is not a comment on the issues you feel strongly about. Many of us feel strongly about those issues, but a pandemic is not the time to do this. Pick a different way, through social media or through letter or any other way the get your point across. Conducting a protest at this time is highly irresponsible. We are in a pandemic. This is not usual circumstances.
She said police will make arrests.
Do not breach the health orders. Do not breach the rulings of the court.Police don’t want to have to make arrests, but they will have if they have to keep the community safe. We are at a critical junction. We are still at high risk.
Updated
To regional areas now.
Chant said she is “incredibly pleased with the response of the Bateman’s Bay community” to the outbreak at the Soldiers Club earlier this month.
I am always a bit more of a cautious person. I just want to wait for a few more days, but the fact that the community responded, the fact that the community have heeded the messages, public health measures, gives me confidence that we can bring that under control.
Berejiklian said that NSW-based health staff staff who work at Wangaratta hospital, about an hour’s drive into Victoria, had been granted an exemption to quarantine requirements to allow them to continue to attend work.
She said that concession was granted based on health advice.
We have been really, trying to be as thoughtful as possible about the broader communities and making sure we capture all of the categories of people who need to cross frequently.
Updated
At the same press conference, NSW treasurer Dominic Perrottet announced a $78m stamp duty relief program for first home buyers, which will remove the stamp duty on newly-built homes valued at below $800,000 and give a stamp duty concession on homes valued up to $1m.
More detail from AAP:
The state government expects more than 6,000 first home-buyers to benefit from the changes, in a move set to cost the NSW budget about $78m.
Gladys Berejiklian said the change to stamp duty thresholds would support new home construction and create jobs.
“Thousands of people will see their bank balances benefit from this change – it will help get more keys into more front doors of more new homes,” she said.
Under the changes the stamp duty threshold on vacant land will rise from $350,000 to $400,000 and will phase out at $500,000.
The change to the thresholds will only apply to newly-built homes and vacant land – not to existing homes – and will last for a 12-month period, commencing on 1 August.
Other purchases will continue to benefit from existing schemes.
Perrottet said the changes would save first home-buyers stamp duty of up to $31,335 on a new $800,000 home.
“We need to ensure our building sites keep ringing with hammers and saws as that means more people working, and first home owners will save money in the process,” Perrottet said.
The treasurer has previously indicated he wants to abolish stamp duty as part of a bid to revive the economy.
Updated
Chant reported the warnings, mentioned here previously, asking people who attended the Thai Rock restaurant at Potts Point to self-isolate and get tested.
But she also asked all residents in two western Sydney suburbs to come forward and get tested to ensure there’s no undetected spread in those communities.
Chant said:
We are asking the community in particular suburbs to can forward, in particular for testing that is Harris Park and Middleton Grange. So residents in those communities with the most minimal of symptoms, we are asking you to come forward and get testing. That is to assure ourselves we are not missing transmission in those suburbs.
Updated
More detail on the NSW cases
The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has praised hospitality businesses in that state for complying with new laws, which came into effect on Friday, saying there has been a “marked improvement in businesses being Covid-safe”.
Berejiklian said:
At the end of the day, it is up to all of us to getting tested if we have the mildest symptoms. If we are asked to stay home for 14 days, make sure it is 14 days. Not 12 or 13, but the full two weeks. This is critical in controlling the spread and making sure that New South Wales gets on top of the virus so with control the virus and the virus doesn’t get in control of our state.
The chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said three of the 17 new cases recorded in NSW in the past 24-hours were close contacts of cases connected to the outbreak centred around the Thai Rock restaurant in Wetherill Park.
Four more cases were linked to the funeral cluster at St Brendan church. Eight were travellers in hotel quarantine. Two more are still under investigation.
The two under investigation are the case linked to the Thai Rock restaurant at Potts Point, reported last night, and a man in his 40s in south-western Sydney.
There are currently five people with Covid-19 in intensive care in NSW, and one person on a ventilator.
Updated
New Zealand has reported another day with no new cases of Covid-19 – the third day in a row.
All of the country’s 21 active cases of the virus were diagnosed in travellers returning to the country, all of whom are quarantined in government-managed isolation facilities.
Only New Zealanders, and essential workers given exemptions, are allowed to enter the country. All travellers spend two weeks in quarantine, during which they are tested twice for the coronavirus.
New Zealand has recorded 1,206 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began, with 22 deaths.
There is no known community transmission of the virus, widely attributed to a swift, early lockdown of the country. Health officials said on Monday that it had been 87 days since the last case of Covid-19 was acquired locally from an unknown source.
New Zealand now has no restrictions in place on daily life other than the border measures.
That is it from the Victorian update. I’ll bring you some more details from NSW shortly but first, New Zealand has to brag.
Andrews said he did not want to talk about people peddling coronavirus conspiracy theories or filming themselves breaching public health orders for the purpose of ... views? Defending rights that are not actually rights?
But then he got annoyed and talked about it anyway.
The thing with conspiracy theorists, the more you engage in an argument with them, the more oxygen are giving them. Ultimately, I think people can judge for themselves the efficacy, the credibility of people who are running those sort of keyboard warrior campaigns.
Seriously, one more comment about human rights – honestly. It is about human life. If we continue with this stuff, standing in the car park of Bunnings reading whatever nonsense you have pulled up from some obscure website.
Having said that, now that will run in the news tonight. That is not what I was wanting to achieve. Today’s message, the message that will be the most powerful and impactful, the message that will save lives is not focusing on people whose – frankly, their behaviour is appalling. Their views have no basis in science or fact or law. Don’t focus on them. What we should be focusing on is appealing to every single worker – don’t go to work if you have got symptoms.
You have lured me into making some comments, but it is frustrating and again perhaps I apologise for letting my frustration get the better of me, but ultimately this is not about those issues and it is not about those people, frankly.
It is about not diminishing our gratitude for the vast majority of Victorians who are doing a fantastic job and it is also about not taking away from what should be and what really must be the central message and that is if you are sick, stay home.
Updated
Andrews said that state parliament is still resuming on Tuesday, but may have to be limited in number.
How that looks, though, how it’s structured, the number of people that will be there, the not insignificant challenge of having regional MPs that are outside that lockdown area coming into Melbourne, all of those things will need to be the subject of public health advice. And some discussions between the public health team and the president and the Speaker.
Updated
A few other points that have been made during this lengthy press conference.
Whenever there is an outbreak in aged care, all residents and staff are tested.
Genomic testing is underway to trace the aged care outbreaks, but Sutton hasn’t seen it yet.
Andrews maintains it would not be “feasible” to move all aged care residents to hospital when an outbreak occurs, “and I don’t think it would be the safest thing for that to occur”.
There’ll be circumstances where residents are looked after right where they are. That’s often especially the case for dementia-affected residents, and the familiarity of those who care for them normally is a really critical point ... But we’ll do it as is required.
Since the Cedar Meats outbreak, Victoria has changed its policy around outbreaks in abattoirs so that every employee at a facility with a positive case is now classed as a close contact and asked to quarantine as a precaution. Andrews said:
If we see any transmission within a facility, we include all 700, 1,200, whatever, the number might be, of stamp as close contacts and require them to quarantine.
Sutton says Victoria’s contact-tracing team is not yet overwhelmed, that it can handle “600, 700, 800 interviews a day. I hope we don’t get there but we could if we get there”.
He said the ADF is door-knocking as part of contact tracing now, and they have discovered a number of people who are not at home.
We need to follow up as to why any case might not be at home. Sometimes that means they might have isolated elsewhere, but we need to check that they’re being compliant. But they’re also identifying people who are ready to do the interview and we’re working on having that interview done on the doorstep for people who haven’t picked up the phone or haven’t completed their interview to date.
Updated
Sutton said it was a “huge challenge” for public health staff to monitor more than 4,000 active coronavirus cases.
We know that people need to isolate and that those 4,000 cases represent at least as many close contacts.
There aren’t as many close contacts for each case now because people are staying home. It’s a great indication.
But the hospital numbers will increase based on the numbers that we’re seeing today. Those individuals from today will be hospitalised in the next fortnight. So there will be challenges for hospital admissions and there will be increasing challenges for those who require ICU.
Sutton said there was a lag in people presenting in intensive care, and he expected to see an increase in people in the ICU and needing ventilators the next few weeks.
Modelling suggests the Victorian outbreak could peak today
Sutton said it can take longer in a second wave to contain the outbreak, but that modelling produced for the health department suggests that today could be the peak of cases in Victoria.
Again, modelling with our effective reproductive number that I have seen most recently suggests that today should be the peak. Now I’m not going to sit back and say today is the peak. We have to see what happens in coming days. But driving that effective reproduction number down below one is the thing that will start to see numbers drop. And as numbers drop, outbreaks drop.
At the moment, I’m more concerned that we’ll probably see a rise in numbers because the outbreaks are really volatile in aged care settings. The numbers can increase very significantly in a very short period of time even as community transmission might becoming down. So, you know, it’s encouraging to see that effective reproduction number come to one or just below one, but we have to keep at it every day.
He said if the public is alarmed by the numbers, and “if that motivates you to do the right thing, please consider what the consequences are of our increase in daily numbers”.
It is causing an increase in hospitalisation of scores of people.
He said a consequence of the increase in daily numbers would be more people in hospital, more in ICU, and more dead.
So that should be alarming to all of us and it should be something that we keep in our minds in terms of how we think about, you know, going about our daily lives, how we follow the rules.
Updated
Sutton said there is “some stability” in the daily infection numbers in Victoria, and there are “some postcodes where there has either been plateauing or a decrease in daily numbers”.
Suburbs where that is happening include North Melbourne and Flemington, which Sutton said reflected the “intensive management of those cases in the towers and speaks to the fact that if you can support people to get tested, support them in their isolation and quarantine, then you can drive down numbers across entire postcodes”.
Conversely numbers in suburbs like Brimbank and greater Dandenong have increased.
We’re looking into what might be driving that, but again sometimes it’s related to those aged care or other work settings where outbreaks occur. Or the spillover from those outbreaks where the close contacts in the household then become cases. So we’re always looking into where we’re seeing trends going in the right direction or the wrong direction so we can understand it better.
Key industries may need to close if workplace transmission continues, Andrews says
Andrews said he will look at closing certain industries if the workplace transmission of coronavirus is not slowed.
But he said his health advisors have not recommend taking that step at this stage.
He was asked the question specifically with regards to meatworks.
If we were to continue to see outbreaks, if we were to continue to see people quite obviously attending work when they shouldn’t be, then every option becomes on the table. And that’s not the position at the moment and I’m very grateful to those employers and they’re not the only high-risk sites. We shouldn’t single them out to the exclusion of others. It’s not just cool stores, meat works, abattoirs, whatever you want to term them, it’s not just big warehouses, distribution, freight, logistic centres, there’s lot of different sites, aged care, healthcare, the list goes on.
But ... You know, next steps may well have to include closing a number of these industries if we continue to see people attending work.
He added:
So employers have got, business owners have got, a really big stake in this also. We have to work together to keep anyone who’s got symptoms away from work. Otherwise businesses will have to close and the thing is this: when you have an outbreak, that business will shut, they’ll be the subject of deep-cleaning, they’ll be the subject of literally of hundreds of thousands of hours of public health team work, contact-tracing, testing, all of that.
There’s an economic cost to that, there’s a very significant public health cost also. So that work is not just me standing here asking people to do it. It’s got to be enterprise by enterprise workplace by workplace and I’m really confident that they are stepping up to do that work with us because they need to.
Updated
As of last week 1,200 people in Victoria have applied for the $1,500 hardship payment available to people who test positive to Covid-19 and don’t have access to sick leave, but only 192 people had actually received that money.
Andrews agreed that was not acceptable, and said he had “asked for any and all resources that need to be deployed to get those payments made as quickly as possible”.
I think that we can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good. We can’t let that be the enemy of getting those payments made quickly and I think that – you know, whilst we never encourage people to be claiming things they’re not entitled to, I’m very keen to get that money out as fast as we possibly can because the benefits will far outweigh any minor issues that we might have.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said that aged care residents are being moved out of aged care facilities and into hospital “when it is deemed clinically appropriate for their safety, for their care”.
That won’t mean every single patient gets taken into a public hospital. There’s capacity for us, it’s not a function whether there’s capacity or not, it’s a function of the individual decisions that treating doctors make both about the infection, prevention and control risks in a given aged care setting, and also the clinical circumstances of that patient.
Andrews said managing aged care was a “shared responsibility” between the state and federal government, and the private and not-for-profit and religious sectors.
Any sense that any private sector aged care facility has not got what they need, I’m more than happy you to follow that up. There are meetings – multiple meetings each day to check on progress that we are making.
On the issue of understaffing in aged care, he said “staffing matters are principally a matter for the federal government and the people who run those aged care facilities”.
But he said he would not comment on what was a federal government responsibility or a private responsibility and what was the responsibility of the state government, because he said that was unhelpful.
Ultimately, if you’re a family that’s got a grandparent or a great-grandparent in a facility where there’s been an outbreak, you don’t much care who runs it. You don’t much care whether it’s a public sector or private sector, a church or charitable or a for-profit, what you want is your loved one taken care of and what I’m saying to every single Victorian is that we’re doing everything we possibly can and working with the people who actually run this sector, so private providers and the commonwealth government, we are unified in that work and we need to be.
Updated
Sutton said he is not aware of any aged care facility that is short of PPE.
Obviously the commonwealth has made a commitment to all facilities in Victoria to provide PPE as is required. Again, it is not the whole solution. You have to wear it properly, you have to wear it both in terms of your provision of care to residents, but also between staff and, indeed, on the way to and from work because these are all opportunities for those staff to get infected.
He said a “significant number” of aged care workers have tested positive, “coming to hundreds now”.
So between those who are infected and those who are close contacts and need to be in quarantine, the number is hundreds. So it’s a significant impact.
Updated
Back in Victoria, the chief health officer Brett Sutton said the majority of the 683 active cases linked to aged care outbreaks in Victoria are residents.
He said the biggest outbreaks also included a number of staff who had tested positive.
When you got a number of staff who might be transmitting to each other, or are infecting residents and maybe getting infected by residents, that makes the size of an outbreak much more significant. It is unusual to have, you know, 60, 70, 80 cases in residences without multiple staff being infected.
He said some cases had spread because of staff working casually at more than one aged care facility, which is why that had been curbed earlier this month.
We knew that that had challenges for some casualised workers, but we knew how critically important it was. Again, lessons from Europe that multiple outbreaks across multiple settings happened because of that mobile workforce, and so that has been addressed and that will limit the number of aged care facilities that are affected in Victoria but it’s not the only solution.
NSW records 17 new cases of coronavirus
New South Wales recorded 17 new cases of Covid-19 to 8pm last night.
Of those, eight are international travellers in hotel quarantine. Another four are linked to the funeral gatherings cluster, three are household contacts of cases associated with Thai Rock Wetherill Park, and two are under investigation.
There are now 70 cases linked to the cluster at Thai Rock Wetherill Park. The Crossroads Hotel cluster, which did not record any new cases yesterday, is at 56.
Updated
Aged care numbers 'disturbing'
The chief health officer, Professor Brett Sutton, said Victoria was at a “very challenging stage” of the outbreak.
That’s in part because those infected are, on average, younger and of working age, and infected at the workplace.
Our areas of transmission are occurring in workplaces, mostly essential workplaces, and that it’s spilling over into aged care. The aged care outbreaks are absolutely a consequence of community transmission, but they represent a tragedy for the families involved for some private aged care facilities, the numbers are disturbing.
There are 84 cases connected to St Basil’s home for the aged in Fawkner, 82 at Estia aged care, 77 at Epping Gardens aged care in Epping, 62 in Menarock life aged care in Essendon, 53 at Glenndale aged care in Werribee, 57 in Kirk Bray presbyterian homes in Kilsyth and 50 in Estia aged care in Heidelberg.
Said Sutton:
It’s hard to read these out without considering the residents in these facilities will be people’s parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and they are at significant risk of dying. That’s an inescapable fact in these settings. Where there are outbreaks in aged care, the mortality is extremely high.
He urged aged care workers not to go to work when they have symptoms.
I understand that there’ll be people who’ll turn up and who’s develop symptoms while they’re at work. That’s where mask-wearing comes into place, not only in aged care, but all the settings we have been talking about.
Updated
Andrews said there were 150 additional on-site inspections by WorkSafe last week, particularly in high-risk worksites, and he would report on the findings of those inspections on compliance later.
In the main, those WorkSafe inspectors have found employers to be doing the right thing, employees to be doing the right thing, people taking this very, very seriously, but if we got further information along those lines, then we’re more than happy to continue to provide that.
Updated
Andrews said he had been told that some people were concerned about getting tested because they thought that testing positive to the coronavirus would lead to discrimination against them.
He said that should not happen, and people should be “proud” to get tested because it showed they were helping the community.
I do want to address that issue where I had a bit of feedback from people that there might be some reticence to come forward.
There might be a sense that you would be looked upon badly, that you would be somehow judged, that you would be not necessarily seen as doing the right thing – nothing could be further from the truth. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you have symptoms coming forward and getting tested, it will be something we’ll be grateful for and it’s you making a powerful contribution and doing the right thing.
Beyond that, to not go to work because you feel sick to give us a list of names, to speak to people who you have been in contact with because you have got a positive diagnosis, that’s something to be proud of and every Victorian who is doing that, I am very, very proud of you and very grateful to you.
... It’s wildly infectious, it doesn’t discriminate, it is in no way a commentary on who you are, your family, your circumstances, it doesn’t discriminate. And on that basis, we’re all in this together, we’re all susceptible to it and to protect your family, to protect rather than embarrassing your family, you are protecting your family and every single family.
Updated
'The lockdown will not end until people stop going to work with symptoms': Andrews
Andrews said the lockdown in Melbourne will not end so long as people continue to go to work with Covid-19 symptoms.
The key message today for every single Victorian, regardless of where they work and regardless of where they live, you simply can’t go to work if you have symptoms.
You can’t go to work if you feel sick even mildly. You got to come forward and get tested.
He added:
This is what is driving these numbers up and the lockdown will not end until people stop going to work with symptoms and instead go and get tested because they have symptoms.
It’s not a matter of blame, it’s not a matter of judgment, these are the facts and unless we see a change, then we’re going to continue to see these numbers at unacceptably high levels. So, please, do something that will we will all be so grateful for – act on your symptoms.
Andrews said they continued to see people, including people in aged care, who were going to work when they were sick or had symptoms.
This is the biggest driver, it’s not the only issue, but it is the biggest driver of transmission. It is the biggest driver of these numbers going up rather than going down.
Updated
There are now 683 active coronavirus cases connected to aged care in Victoria.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said there are now 245 people in hospital in Victoria with Covid-19, including 44 in intensive care.
The six people who have died in the past 24 hours are a woman in her 90s, a woman in her 80s, a man in his 80s, a woman in her 70s, a man in his 70s, and a man in his 50s.
Andrews said:
Five of those six deaths are connected to outbreaks in aged care. Beyond that, there are 4,542 total active cases, 683 active cases connected in some way to aged care.
And around 400 health workers who are active cases as of the situation report first thing this morning.
Updated
Victoria records 532 new cases of coronavirus and six more deaths
Victoria has recorded 532 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and six more deaths.
That’s a new daily record for case numbers.
Updated
New commissioners added to National Covid-19 Coordination Commission
Morrison has announced a new set of members for a revamped National Covid-19 Coordination Commission, which will still be helmed by the former Fortescue Metals executive Nev Power.
The commission was established on 25 May to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus on business and manage procurement and supply issues during the first round of shutdowns.
Today, Morrison said, he has re-established the commission as “an advisory board to myself as prime minister to work across the full spectrum of our jobmaker plan”.
We draw our advice from many sources over the course of the pandemic. We have been careful to listen and to listen carefully. We obviously have listened to the health advice, but also we have been listening to the economic advice whether it is from the Treasury or the Reserve Bank or listening to those in the industry sectors, the unions and others who we have drawn advice from through the various processes we have had.
Equally, we have been listening carefully to those in the economy who have had tremendous experience in many different sectors that has come through the Covid Coordination Commission. Today, as I said, we are re-establishing that commission and drawing together some new members who we believe will give it a broader spectrum of experience and expertise.
Greg Combet and Catherine Tanna, the managing director of Energy Australia, have stood down as part of the new commission.
Former Bendigo Bank boss Mike Hearst, former Transurban CFO Samantha Hogg, agriculture and rural Australia expert Su McCluskey, Rolld restaurant chain founder Bao Hoang, former AWU national secretary Paul Howes, and Indigenous business expert Laura Berry are joining the commission.
Updated
Morrison said people in aged care who test positive to Covid-19 are being moved into hospital. It sounds, from what he just said, that everyone is being moved, but the federal aged care minister Richard Colbeck said earlier this morning that those moves were only happening on a case-by-case basis.
One of the key things being done in the aged care sector currently is transferring people who have contracted Covid into hospital facilities and we are making use of the private hospital as agreement that we put in place some months ago to free up beds in the private hospital area so we can transfer people out of those facilities into those beds, and we are working closely with the Victorian state government about that process.
I was in contact earlier today with the premier on those issues.
On PPE, Morrison said the federal government has put 1.5m masks into aged care facilities, but says that the responsibility for putting PPE in aged care is shared between the federal and state governments.
I should stress that the commonwealth is not the only level of government that provides PPE material into the health system. Of course the state governments also do that and, in fact, are the primary providers of that equipment into healthcare facilities in their jurisdiction. But the national stockpile is being drawn upon to support their efforts to ensure that is in place.
It is vital that in those aged-care facilities that those infection control procedures are being followed. The commonwealth put in place training for infection control in relation to Covid in recent months and it is a matter now of ensuring that those infection control procedures are being adhered to strictly in those facilities. Because, obviously in aged-care facilities you are dealing with the most vulnerable members of our community and that is where you see the most awful of the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. That is where the loss of life, in particular occurs, far more significantly than any other part of the community.
Updated
Morrison said the outbreak in aged care in Melbourne, which by Sunday had grown to 560 cases across 71 residential and non-residential aged care facilities, was a reminder that when community transmission increases, people living in aged care are at risk.
It is important to understand that the challenges – and they are significant in the aged care sector – are a reminder that when community transmission occurs with Covid-19, the aged care sector will all be impacted. That is certainly the experience we have seen in other countries. When you have problems in aged care, it is a function of the community transmission.
Now, this is an important point to note because it involves all of us. If you want to protect the most vulnerable in our community, that is why it is so important. Those of us who are in a less vulnerable position, are continuing to follow the advice, performing the safe distancing and other practices about getting tested and remaining isolated when you are a close contact. All of this is incredibly important because when community transmission takes place, it is inevitable that it will find its way into the poor vulnerable parts of our community, and the aged care community is certainly one of those.
Updated
Prime minister Scott Morrison speaking in Sydney
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is speaking in Sydney about the joint coordination centre for the aged care response, which is being stood up today.
The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, told 2SM radio this morning that Labor has some questions about the impact of the changes to the jobkeeper program, announced last week.
He said he was concerned that the brief window between outbreaks in Melbourne, and the window with lower restrictions in Sydney, would mean that some businesses would fail the income test because they had one month of stronger revenue.
For example, businesses having to prove that their income has gone down on two quarters means that for some, what happens in places like Melbourne and happened in Sydney too, when people had restrictions lifted, they went and got out and about.
So, for example, I know in Victoria, places that were visited by a whole lot of people who arrived there. So, their incomes went up in June, but they’ve gone straight back down again at the moment because of the reimposition of restrictions. And so, the concern there is that some might miss out. And that will add to those who have missed out from the very beginning like casual workers.
We also think that there’s a concern about just a failure to look forward. That’s reflected in the fact that there’s still no increase in jobseeker payments. The government’s put its hand up and they admitted that $40 a day isn’t enough to live on. Well, they should give some certainty there, we believe.
Updated
The organisers of tomorrow’s Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney say they are still trying to “negotiate an alternative plan of gathering in the Domain” to allow the protest to go ahead.
The supreme court yesterday ruled in favour of a police application to prohibit the protest from going ahead.
In a Facebook post, organisers of the rally told supporters:
We are trying to negotiate an alternative plan of gathering in the Domain – Djarrbarrgalli, a huge public space just behind NSW Parliament House. We will be able to spread out there and abide by the Covid-19 regulations if people stay in groups of less than 20. We are still fighting in court for our original plan... If we succeed in court however, we will try and negotiate with police to allow us to alter the Form 1 to begin in the Domain.
Updated
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews will give a press conference at 11am.
The defence minister, Linda Reynolds, and foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, are travelling to the United States to attend the 2020 Australia-United States Ministerial Consultations (Ausmin), which are scheduled to take place in Washington on Tuesday.
It is, as a few people have commented, an indication of the seriousness of the issues under discussion that the ministers are travelling to the US at this time to hold the meetings in person, rather than conducting them remotely.
In a joint statement, Reynolds and Payne said:
This 30th Ausmin meeting comes at a critical time, amid significant strategic challenges, and a global pandemic with far-reaching social and economic impacts. Our relationship is built on our shared values, and a shared understanding of the importance of maintaining presence and leadership in our region.
In the face of an increasingly complex and contested regional environment, it is vital we continue working together across the breadth of our relationship.
They said the visit would be conducted with strict adherence to coronavirus safety protocols, and they and their teams will quarantine for 14 days upon return to Australia.
.@MarisePayne and I will travel to the United States to attend the 2020 #AUSMIN in Washington on 28 July, at the invitation of Secretary of State @SecPompeo and Secretary of Defense @EsperDoD. pic.twitter.com/Su3trItZPV
— Linda Reynolds (@lindareynoldswa) July 24, 2020
Updated
The Australian Council of Attorneys-General will meet today and discuss the campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility.
Children as young as 10 can be charged with a crime and jailed in Australia, while the global median age is 14. A campaign to raise the age, led by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (Natsils) has been gathering steam for several weeks.
A survey conducted by the Australia Institute earlier this month as part of joint research with the Change the Record coalition found that 73% of the 1,012 people polled think the age of criminal responsibility is already higher than 10 years old, with 51% believing it is 14 or older. Only 7% of respondents knew that children in Australia could be charged with a crime from the age of 10.
Fifty-one percent of respondents said they supported raising the age of criminal responsibility to 14 years old. Only 26% of respondents opposed such a change.
Updated
Prime minister Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 10.30am.
Queensland is prepared to 'slam the border shut' if necessary
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has told reporters this morning that she is prepared to “slam the border shut” to protect Queensland from the growing community transmission of Covid-19 in NSW and Victoria.
There are already restrictions in place for travellers from Victoria and three Sydney local government areas.
More from AAP:
“If there are outbreaks of community transmission or it cannot be sourced or there are clusters, we will not hesitate to declare hotspots or we will not hesitate – if it gets out of control – to slam the border shut,” Palaszczuk told reporters on Monday.
She says any decisions on further hotspots or border closures will be made on the advice of chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young.
“That advice has stood Queensland in a very good position,” the premier said. “Every single day we are monitoring the situation in NSW.”
It follows the winding back of some freedoms in Queensland restaurants, pubs and clubs. All patrons will have to be seated when drinking or eating, the CHO announced on Friday, blindsiding the hospitality industry.
Opposition leader Deb Frecklington says business deserved more warning.
“The premier is creating this chaos ... at five minutes to midnight the premier is changing the rules and businesses can’t keep up,” Frecklington said. “The businesses are telling me they need lead time. The premier needs to give business more notice in terms of regulations.”
Treasurer Cameron Dick said “complacency is the enemy” and the way to stay on top of the pandemic was to remain vigilant.
“The virus is so unpredictable. It’s only reason for existence is to find another host to infect another person. We just need to monitor it so carefully to ensure when we need to take action we will,” he told reporters on Sunday.
Updated
The deputy national chief medical officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, told Channel Nine’s Today show this morning that the virus was “deeply embedded within the community in Victoria” and would take some time to control.
These quotes are via AAP. Coatsworth said:
We know that Victorians in those lockdown zones are mixing far less, the movement data shows us we’re about where we were in that first wave when the curve started to flatten.
The other bit of silver lining is that those numbers, whilst deeply concerning, are bouncing between about 350 and 450 a day and certainly we’re not seeing doubling during the week, which has to be a good thing.
A reminder from the Victorian health minister:
#COVID19 is not an old persons’ disease. The biggest age group of Victorians diagnosed since 1 July are aged 20-29 years of age & account for a quarter of Victorian cases. And 20% of patients hospitalised in recent days have been aged under 50 years. So please stay home #springst pic.twitter.com/KAlpIke2QE
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) July 23, 2020
I’ll let you know, as soon as I know, when we can expect the Victorian press conference today. Hopefully the numbers will continue to stabilise.
A bit of international context, to remind us here in Melbourne that it could be worse: Florida recorded 12,199 new cases yesterday, and that’s only that state’s sixth-biggest one-day jump.
You can follow our rolling global coverage here.
Still on the aged care outbreaks, there is a push from within the sector to move residents who test positive to Covid-19 to hospital as a matter of course, rather than on a case-by-case basis.
Patricia Sparrow, the chief executive of Aged and Community Services Australia (ACSA), an industry body representing aged care facilities, has been calling for this for a few weeks now. ACSA represents about 50 aged care facilities in Victoria that have been linked to at least one positive case, but Sparrow said they have had no fatalities among residents at those facilities at this stage.
She said they are “absolutely looking for state governments to change that policy”.
The South Australian state government has a policy, it’s the only state in the country that I’m aware of that has a policy that means that residents who test positive go to hospital and we think all state governments should do that.
She said a sub-acute hospital facility, as suggested by the Australian Medical Association, could be one solution to ensure people who test positive are moved out of residential aged care facilities immediately.
I think where we’ve got empty beds and where we have got sub-acute services or private hospitals that have capacity, that’s absolutely what should be happening right now.
Sparrow repeated claims that some aged care providers have tried to take residents with Covid-19 to hospital and been turned back.
This is aged care trying to do the right thing. We are not set up as hospitals. We manage infection controls like flu, where there are vaccines and treatments, but we are not set up to the level that hospitals are set up to manage something like coronavirus which is a new virus and deadly in our settings.
Sparrow said aged care facilities are facing staffing difficulties because at least 250 staff have tested positive to Covid-19, and many more are in self-isolation as a close contact.
Up to 30% of aged care staff also work across multiple facilities, but have now been told, as part of efforts to control the spread, that they must be restricted to just one facility.
So the staffing issue is going to get more difficult and we need more staff and we need to use every possible means of bringing in staff who know how to work with older people and can provide that critical support.
Updated
Labor aged care spokeswoman Julie Collins said the establishment of an aged care response centre in Melbourne is welcome but “sadly too late for some residents, staff and families already impacted”.
In a statement, Collins said:
Why was the Morrison government not doing this work sooner?
We have seen the devastating impact of Covid-19 outbreaks in aged care in Australia and across the globe.
Australia’s aged care system was broken before the Covid-19 pandemic and this is only putting extra stress on the system.
She accused the federal government of failing to audit stocks of PPE in nursing homes, prior to the second wave outbreak in Melbourne.
Labor has repeatedly raised concerns about the availability of PPE in aged care – the Morrison government must now ensure nursing homes have adequate supplies.
The federal aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, told the ABC earlier this morning that there was “no shortage of PPE” in the aged care sector. We have heard differently from some aged care workers this morning, who emailed us on the back of that comment.
If you work in aged care in Victoria and also have a view on the availability of PPE, you can reach me at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com
Updated
Queensland records no new cases of coronavirus
Queensland has recorded no new cases of coronavirus overnight, and still has five active cases.
A reminder that if you visited the Thai Rock restaurant in Potts Point – that’s a different restaurant with the same owners as the Weatherill Park restaurant at the centre of the outbreak – you should be alert for coronavirus symptoms.
Anyone who attended the Potts Point restaurant for more than two hours between 15 and 25 July has been directed by NSW Health to immediately get tested for Covid-19 and self-isolate for 14 days since they were last at the restaurant, regardless of symptoms or test result.
There are also coronavirus alerts out for people who were at the An Restaurant in Bankstown between 9am-11am on 23 July, and the Tan Viet Noodle House (also known as the Crispy Chicken Noodle House) in Cabramatta on 22 July, from 1pm-2pm.
Anyone who attended either restaurants during those times has been advised to monitor themselves for symptoms and seek testing immediately should they appear.
The Georges River Grammar School is also closed for cleaning today after a student tested positive to Covid-19.
Updated
Nick Coatsworth was asked when the daily new coronavirus figures in Australia might be expected to decrease. He said yesterday that they had stabilised at between 350 and 450 a day, which is higher than we would like but better than case numbers doubling every few days:
The reason this is taking longer [than during the first outbreak in March] is because the disease is now embedded within the Victorian community in greater Melbourne and Mitchell shire which means whilst we know the curve will flatten and will bend down the other side, it is going to take longer.
We know that people are mixing less. We know that they’re mixing at about the same levels as when we got it under control in the first wave. So, there will be light at the end of the tunnel. But those day-on-day numbers now are still concerning.
He said the numbers in aged care facilities were “deeply concerning”:
We have got over 250 residents with Covid-19, over 250 staff members. This is reflective of the community transmission of Covid-19. There will be staff members, of course, that are pre-symptomatic and want to go to work and end up bringing Covd-19 into the facilities and that’s what makes this different from New South Wales, the broad range of community transmission.
In terms of are we doing enough, well, the Victorian aged care response centre is bringing some of our best managers of this sort of situation together from the federal government, the Department of Health, from emergency management Australia and from emergency management Victoria. Of course, the aged care quality and safety commissioner, Janet Anderson, has taken personal interest in making sure the standards are upheld across Victorian aged care facilities.
Updated
The deputy national chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth has also commented on the Bunnings video. He told ABC News Breakfast:
The vast majority of Australians will have been disturbed by that. This is a small minority. I would like to commend the staff member and the staff in Bunnings and I’m sorry they had to deal with that.
There is no room for that behaviour in Australian society. It might be better placed elsewhere in the world. We see it happening in other countries, but not our own. We’re in this fight together against coronavirus and mandatory mask wearing is not an enormous ask. I don’t view it as a human rights or civil liberties issue. It is something that we need to do to help bend the curve and bring us down the other side.
I’m not sure I’m allowed to use emojis in the blog so just imagine the eyes emoji at that oblique reference to the US.
Updated
A video of a woman at Bunnings asserting her right to not wear a mask has been a popular topic of discussion on breakfast television this morning.
I won’t share it here, because it’s my right as a living human woman not to share that kind of grandstanding, and because I’m sure if you have been on the internet at all in the past 24 hours you have already seen it.
Senator Jacqui Lambie told the Today show on Nine:
I don’t think Australians will put up with that behaviour ... doing that sort of stuff is not helping and it’s not considerate and just making trouble.
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, was also asked about it and other similar videos yesterday:
If you are just making a selfish choice that your alleged personal liberty, quoting something you’ve read on some website – this is not about human rights.
There are 10 families that are going to be burying someone in the next few days. Wear a mask.
Supermarkets and other stores in Melbourne and the Mitchell shire, including Bunnings, have repeatedly said they will deny entry to people defying the public health orders and not wearing a mask. That’s within their rights – stores are private property and can set whatever conditions of entry that they wish. Don’t put the lives of retail staff at risk and just generally ruin their day by grandstanding about your lack of care for others.
Updated
People are continuing to drive straight past police at the South Australian border checkpoints.
On Friday night a car with blacked-out number plates drove past the checkpoint on the Barrier Highway at Oodla Wirra “at speed and on the wrong side of the highway”. SA police said:
Police followed the vehicle and located it a short time later abandoned in bushes off a dirt road.
The alleged driver of the vehicle, a 30-year-old man from Elizabeth Downs, SA, was arrested after he appeared from bushes nearby.
The man was a non-essential traveller who returned to South Australia from New South Wales and was required to quarantine at Elizabeth Park accommodation.
The man was charged with failing to comply with quarantine directions, speeding, obscuring a number plate, driving unlicensed and breaching bail, and was denied bail to appear before the Port Pirie magistrates court today.
Updated
In case you missed it yesterday, the supreme court in NSW has upheld an application by police to stop a Black Lives Matter protest from going ahead.
Organisers of the protest, scheduled for Sydney tomorrow, are appealing against the court decision. They have said they will consider calling it off if the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, commits to asking SafeWork NSW and the director of public prosecution to investigate whether charges should be laid against the prison guards involved in the 2015 death in custody of the Dunghuttii man David Dungay Jr.
Dungay’s nephew Paul Silva said:
We won’t stop until there is justice for my uncle’s death. The reason we are protesting is because after five years not a single person has been held accountable for the death of my uncle.
I tell you what, if the premier can commit to asking SafeWork NSW and the DPP to investigate whether charges can be laid in relation to my Uncle’s death I’m sure that we can put off the protest.
If she refuses then it just goes to show that no one cares about our lives and we will see you on Tuesday.
Updated
From today, state and federal health authorities will stand up a joint coordination centre to manage the aged care response, bringing in the Australian defence force and the aged care quality and safety regulator.
Colbeck told News Breakfast that coordination centre would be:
Making sure that there’s supply chains for PPE running smoothly, and we’ve had some issues with that so we need to make sure that they’re running OK. One of the big efforts will be workforce, because with so many staff from residential aged care facilities and the health sector more broadly who are out with Covid or are close contacts, workforce is a major challenge for us all, and so they’ll be doing a lot of work with the sector in relation to coordinating workforce.
He repeated there was “now no shortage of PPE. We have very, very plentiful stocks.”
I think that the aged care sector has done a fantastic job during the Covid outbreak. Yes, it’s shown up some of the issues that we have to deal with and we’re throwing every resource that we have available for that. And we have set up the response centre in Victoria to deal with the very troubling situation that we have now.
He said the scale of the outbreak in the aged care sector in Melbourne now was a function of the level of virus in the community:
So what’s happening is that there is so much virus within the community that people are going to work not realising that they have the virus, so the virus can be infectious before symptoms come to light ... So what we have to do to resolve this is to stop the community spread, because what’s happening in residential aged care in Victoria is purely a function of the community spread within the community.
He repeated that aged care residents who test positive would only be moved to hospital on a “case-by-case basis”.
Updated
Aged care minister says sector is managing the coronavirus outbreak 'very well'
The aged care minister, Richard Colbeck, says the aged care sector has done a “fantastic job during the Covid outbreak” and denied that poor staffing practices had contributed to the number of positive coronavirus cases linked to aged care facilities in Melbourne, saying that was just “a function of community spread”.
There are 560 active cases linked to aged care settings in Victoria, according to the state’s health department, in 71 different outbreaks, Colbeck said.
But he told Radio National that while some of the outbreaks are “concerning” the industry as a whole is handling it “pretty well”.
He has dismissed criticism, in back-to-back interviews on ABC News Breakfast and Radio National, that aged care workers were unprepared, ill-equipped and were not given appropriate PPE. Colbeck told RN:
I would dispute that there’s a shortage of PPE. I’ve seen the figures so I know what’s there and I know what’s been rolled out ... I think we are trying to paint the sector and the workers in a bad light, I think they are doing a great job.
He said aged care facilities had demonstrated good infection control protocols which clicked into place as soon as the first case was detected in a staff member or resident. But, because of the way the virus spreads, by the time the first case is detected it had already spread to other people.
Colbeck did not directly answer when asked whether, given the rate of community spread in Melbourne, those protocols should be set up before an outbreak is detected in a facility. He said:
Once we realise that there’s an infection in there I think the sector is doing very, very well at preventing further spread.
Updated
Morning,
The Victorian and Australian governments will set up a joint response centre to manage the growing crisis in aged care in Melbourne, with 536 active cases linked to the aged care sector along with a significant number of deaths – including seven of the 10 deaths reported yesterday.
The joint response will include Australian defence force resources, the aged care regulator, and state and federal government resources and emergency management experts, the health minister, Greg Hunt, said yesterday:
That is a very important step forward in helping coordinate, and helping to ensure a rapid response where these cases are occurring.
Australia experienced its deadliest day of the pandemic so far yesterday, but health officials say the numbers are stabilising, indicating that the stage-three lockdown in greater Melbourne and the Mitchell shire, which is into its third week, is having an effect. One death reported yesterday was of a man in his 40s.
The deputy national chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth told reporters:
Those numbers are not doubling on a week-by-week basis, we have reached a relatively steady state for the moment of numbers between about 350 and 450 per day.
But the outbreak is not confined to those areas under lockdown. There are now 47 active cases linked to the outbreak at the Australian Lamb Company in the regional Victorian town of Colac, about 150km west of Melbourne, which is not under lockdown orders.
In Sydney the number of cases linked to the Thai Rock Restaurant outbreak, now the biggest outbreak in NSW, has risen to 67. Last night health authorities warned that a staff member at a second Thai Rock restaurant in Potts Point – which is owned by the same people as the Wetherill Park restaurant, the centre of the first outbreak – had also tested positive. Anyone who attended the Potts Point restaurant for more than two hours between 15 and 25 July has been told to get tested and self-isolate for 14 days since they were last there, regardless of symptoms.
Meanwhile, South Australians in Victoria have until midnight on Tuesday to travel home or they will face being locked out by the state’s hard border.
Let’s crack on. You can follow me on Twitter at @callapilla or email me at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com.
Updated
