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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Lisa Cox (now) Melissa Davey (earlier)

Masks still not recommended for community to protect against Covid-19 in Australia as death toll rises to 30 – as it happened

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Summary

We’re going to wrap up the blog here for today. Here are the key moments from today:

  • The fallout from the Ruby Princess saga continues with the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard defending health officials who allowed passengers to disembark. The NSW opposition called for Hazzard to stand down.
  • The number of Covid-19 cases in Australia surpassed 5,500 and now sits at 5,544. There have been 30 deaths, including a woman in her 70s in Victoria on Friday and a man in his 80s in Canberra on Saturday.
  • NSW police conducted the largest operation in Sydney Harbour outside of wartime to move crew and supplies between a series of stranded cruise ships before they depart Australian waters.
  • The federal government announced changes for temporary visa holders help support those who may be stood down or lose work hours as a result of Covid-19. In line with changes being made for Australian citizens and permanent residents, most temporary visa holders with work rights will now be able to access their Australian superannuation to help support themselves during this crisis.
  • International students working in essential industries such as aged care, nursing and supermarkets have had the number of hours they are permitted to work per fortnight extended.
  • NSW Health said 110 returned travellers in quarantine in Sydney hotels have been tested for coronavirus after experiencing symptoms. Their test results were expected today.
  • The deputy chief health officer, Paul Kelly, advised the wider public against wearing face masks, in part due to supply constraints.

Thank you, as always, for following along with us today. We’ll be back to bring you the latest developments tomorrow. In the meantime, stay well and safe.

Updated

From AAP: Five cruise ships docked in Sydney harbour will be sent out to sea as the NSW government deals with the ugly fallout of the Ruby Princess affair.

NSW Police on Saturday helped reprovision two ships, the Spectrum of the Seas and the Radiance of the Seas, before they departed for their home ports.

The ships were allowed to dock in Sydney Harbour during the past 24 hours, with 600 foreign national crew members moved between the two before fuel, food and medical supplies were loaded on board.

NSW Police said that they both departed on Saturday afternoon as part of “Operation Nemesis”.

A third ship, the Celebrity Solstice, entered the harbour on Saturday afternoon with another two - Voyager of the Seas and Ovation of the Seas - to follow.

Read more here.

12 more infringement notices in NSW

NSW Police have given an update on their enforcement of social distancing laws. 12 penalty notices were issued on Friday. They include:

  • Four men at a Wagga home where they were not residents. Police were called to the home after reports of a disturbance. While at the home, officers found and seized methamphetamine and cannabis. Inquiries are continuing, with charges expected, police say.
  • A group of men sitting on a park bench that was fenced off by council tape. Police say one man was given an infringement notice after he did not move along when asked.
  • A 37-year-old man and his 35-year-old female passenger were stopped by Bankstown Police on Bransgrove Road, Revesby. The man submitted to a roadside drug test which proved positive. Police searched the car and located a knife as well as four envelopes in the names of other people. The man was arrested and taken to Bankstown Police Station where he was charged with custody of a knife in a public place, and goods in custody. Police said the pair were also given infringement notices for not having a legitimate reason for being in public.

Updated

Have you encountered police enforcing Australia’s social distancing laws? Guardian Australia would like to hear about your experience.

You can get in touch, anonymously if you wish, via a form here.

110 people in quarantine in Sydney hotels tested for coronavirus

NSW Health has released its daily Covid-19 update. Here are the key points:

  • 104 new cases were diagnosed between 8pm Thursday and 8pm Friday.
  • 251 patients are being treated in hospitals, including 41 in intensive care, 23 of whom require ventilators.
  • 110 people currently in quarantine in Sydney hotels are being tested for Covid-19 after reporting symptoms. Tests have been done, with the results expected today (so we can expect to hear more about this by Sunday). NSW Health is alerting passengers who were close contacts on flights to monitor for symptoms.
  • There is a second positive case at TAFE Ultimo that is unrelated to the first case. Contact tracing is underway. Parts of the TAFE remain open.
  • A student at Bankstown Senior College has tested positive for Covid-19. Investigations are ongoing to trace close contacts.
  • At the Rose of Sharon childcare centre in Blacktown there are now seven confirmed cases in staff, six confirmed cases in children, and 12 secondary cases (11 household contacts and one friend). The centre is closed.
  • St Mary’s Senior High School has one confirmed case, a student. The school is closed and investigations are ongoing.
  • Gloucester Primary School has one confirmed case in a staff member. The school remains open as it has been over two weeks since staff member’s last attendance.

Updated

Ben Smee has written an updated piece on the Ruby Princess fallout.

The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, has defended the role of health experts who allowed 2,700 passengers to disembark the Ruby Princess cruise ship and make their own way home, following reports that authorities knew about the widespread respiratory sickness on board.

The NSW opposition has called for Hazzard to stand down, with the Labor leader, Jodi McKay, describing the incident as one of the most significant health failures in the state’s history.

Updated

The speed and volume of Covid-19 news has made it difficult to keep up with stories happening elsewhere.

We’ve started a new section ICYMI to help you catch up. Naaman Zhou has rounded up some of the big non-coronavirus stories of the past week:

Updated

One of the messages coming through strongly at these press conferences today is governments are reminding people who are not frontline workers to stay home over Easter.

“We want to make sure that people get the message that this Easter, stay-at-home. Don’t travel, and certainly don’t travel unnecessarily,” Cook says.

Updated

Cook speaks about the Artania: “While the cruise ship remains in WA waters, the ship is under the control of the commonwealth,” he says.

“The WA Department of Health maintains a watching brief at this stage and we continue to liaise with the commonwealth to assist them with any patients or any passengers or crew that need hospitalisation.”

He says the ship is in lockdown for an isolation period of 14 days and the remaining crew on board are isolated to their cabins.

“Obviously they have been on the boat now for quite a while, and we want to just simply have them quarantined to their quarters, isolating from each other, and they will undertake a period of self-isolation until we can be satisfied that there is no further potential outbreaks on board the ship,” Cook says.

“At that stage, we would like to see the ship move away from Australian waters, but that is under the control of the commonwealth.”

Updated

Cook says one of the new cases was in the Kimberley region. He says three medical teams have been deployed to the region, which is subject to tough travel restrictions. They will work with frontline staff already there.

Updated

Western Australia has 14 new cases with five related to Artania cruise

Roger Cook, Western Australia’s health minister, is now speaking.

He says there were 14 new cases of Covid-19 overnight, nine of which are Western Australian and the remaining five are related to the Artania cruise ship.

The patients are aged between 26 and 84.

Updated

Kelly is asked a question about why they are not recommending mask use for the broader public. He says one reason is the supply constraints.

He says the other is that “using a mask incorrectly can actually make it more dangerous”.

“If you are not used to wearing a mask, it can become quite uncomfortable, even claustrophobic,” he says.

“And indeed, it can become quite itchy underneath the mask. So touching a surface with the virus, scratching yourself underneath the mask, can in fact increase your risk rather than decrease your risk.”

Kelly is saying authorities are still not recommending the use of masks broadly in the community because of pressure on supplies.

“For the moment, mask use is not recommended for the Australian public, and we can continue to look at ways, and indeed we are actively looking at ways of thinking about mask use into the future,” he says.

Updated

Kelly says while there are promising signs some of the measures taken to reduce physical contact are working, we need to remain “vigilant”.

“I really would caution against thinking we have got through this completely, because we definitely have not, and we really have to be hypervigilant now in collecting the information and making some decisions about what that means in terms of the people that are getting infected, the people that are getting sick, those that are using a hospital system, those that need to be admitted to intensive care, and so on,” he says.

He acknowledges the measures are tough.

“Many people have been separated from loved ones,” he says. In my own family, there are people in New York, in the UK, in Italy. They cannot be seeing their parents at the moment, my siblings. So these are tricky times,” he says.

“And it is a difficult balancing act, which we will continue to be led by the data and information that we are gathering, experiences we are gathering from other parts of the world, for some months.”

Updated

The deputy chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, is speaking.

He speaks first about the “unfortunate” rise in deaths in the past 24 hours, up by five to 30.

He says the good news is that daily increases in new infections are less than they were a week ago.

Updated

Labor has welcomed some of those changes the government has announced for temporary visa holders and migrant workers.

Labor had been calling for relaxed conditions for “trapped” temporary visa holders in Australia thrown into chaos by global travel bans and border closures.

The conditions announced today include allowing backpackers to extend their visas and allowing temporary visa holders to access their superannuation.

“The government has implemented Labor’s calls to relax the requirements for fully qualified nurses in Australia on working holiday maker (WHM) visas to be able to continue working in hospitals rather than being forced to meet visa requirements – such as completing “specified work” often picking fruit,” Labor’s Kristina Keneally and Andrew Giles said in a statement.

But they said the announcements today didn’t cover all temporary visa holders and migrant workers.

“Labor remains concerned for the hundreds of thousands of temporary visa holders in Australia who are trapped here, who can’t go home, and are being forced out of their accommodation,” they said.

Updated

The United Workers Union, representing workers for Australia’s largest out of hours school care provider, is calling for extra protection for staff and children.

In a letter to management signed by 61 staff, Camp Australia workers called for increased access to hand sanitiser, temperature checks for children, and lower children-to-staff ratios so workers could properly care for children while also maintaining social distancing requirements.

The United Workers Union says Camp Australia employees want staff currently not eligible for the jobkeeper payment under the government’s guidelines, “including international students and casuals who have been with the company for less than 12 months, to also receive the jobkeeper payment”.

Updated

Good afternoon everyone, Lisa Cox, here, taking over the blog from Melissa Davey.

The ABC is reporting about 50 Qantas and Jetstar staff, including pilots and cabin crew, have tested positive for coronavirus.

The company’s medical officer Russell Brown yesterday told staff that, in addition to previously announced cases of baggage handlers, the airlines’ numbers included eight pilots and 19 cabin crew, according to the ABC.

“Most of those were from overseas, but they were taking the precautions,” Dr Brown said via a webinar.

“They are wearing masks when flying and being careful, and we’re still seeing these cases.

“When you’re dealing with a community that has more spread, the risk goes up, and we have to start thinking about what’s going on here.”

Afternoon summary – Australia records 30th death

Thanks so much for joining me for Guardian Australia’s live coverage throughout the day. I am about to handover to my colleague Lisa Cox to take you through the afternoon. It has been quite an eventful Saturday, with a few key announcements. To recap:

  • Cases in Australia have exceeded 5,500 and there are now 30 deaths after ACT Health reported on Saturday a man in his 80s died at Canberra Hospital. The ACT has had two deaths overall and 93 cases.
  • Amid being called on to resign the NSW health minister Brad Hazzard has strongly defended the handling of the Ruby Princess cruise ship saga by senior health department officials.
  • Changes to visa arrangements have been made. International students working in aged care, as nurses and in supermarkets have had the amount of hours they can work extended to support critical sectors. New Zealanders who are on 444 visas and arrived before 26 February 2001 will have access to welfare payments and the jobkeeper payment. Temporary skilled visa holders who have been stood down, but not laid off, will maintain their visa validity and businesses will have the opportunity to extend their visa as per normal arrangements. They will also be able to access up to $10,000 superannuation this financial year.

Stay safe, and inside.

Updated

Some tragic news from the UK overnight, where two nurses have died after acquiring Covid-19.

Areema Nasreen, a 36-year-old NHS nurse from Walsall in the West Midlands, who was believed to have had no underlying health issues, died shortly after midnight on Thursday in intensive care at Walsall Manor hospital, where she had worked for 16 years. Tributes were also paid to another NHS nurse, mother of three Aimee O’Rourke, who is is believed to have contracted the virus before she died.

You can read more here.

Updated

We are expecting the WA premier Mark McGowan to give an update at about 2.15pm AEDT, or 11.15am AWST. Here’s where the situation in WA was as of Friday evening:

Updated

I put out a call asking for your home gardening projects that you’ve been working on in isolation and got some pretty lovely examples in response. While there are many tough aspects of having to stay home, it looks like some of you are using it as a chance to grow veggies and acquire a green thumb. Here are some of the best responses - thanks for sharing!

Updated

I put a call out on Twitter earlier asking people what hobbies they’ve picked up during isolation and the overwhelming response was “gardening”. There were reports over the past few weeks that some Bunnings stores had run out of seedlings as people rushed in to buy supplies for home garden projects. So for something a bit more positive, tweet your isolation gardening attempts good or bad at me @MelissaLDavey - I want to see your veggie patches, flower gardens and chickens. I’ll share some of your responses a little later on this live blog.

Updated

Supermarkets announce new measures for Easter

The week before Easter is traditionally very busy for supermarkets. AAP reports Coles and Woolworths have announced new measures to ensure their stores do not breach physical distancing rules during the expected surge next week. Both supermarkets will limit the number of customers allowed in-store, based on the size of the store.

“Team members will be at store entrances to provide assistance and let you know when it is OK to come in,” Coles chief executive Steven Cain said. Woolworths managing director Claire Peters said: “Traditionally, the Thursday in the lead-up to Easter is one of our busiest times in-store. We ask our customers to pre-plan their Easter shopping to avoid the usual Thursday spike in numbers.”

Woolworths also announced it would be switching on its pick-up service on Monday for Priority Assistance customers. Family members, neighbours or friends will be able to collect goods.

NSW health minister called on to resign

New South Wales opposition leader, Jodi McKay, has called for the NSW health minister Brad Hazzard to resign over the Ruby Princess cruise ship saga. She said:

The Ruby Princess is one of the greatest public health failures in New South Wales history. Not only is this government responsible for the crisis, they have sought to cover it up every day since. The buck stops with the health minister. And as a result we are today calling for the health minister to stand aside. He must take responsibility. This is his agency.

Updated

Australian Greens senator for NSW Dr Mehreen Faruqi has said that the federal government has abandoned international students to the risk of poverty and homelessness. Today the government confirmed it would provide no financial support for international student visa holders during the pandemic. Senator Faruqi has called for income support for international students during the Covid-19 crisis, saying:

In this pandemic, international students have lost their jobs, found themselves unable to pay rent or put food on the table, and face living in squalid conditions. Hundreds of international students have contacted me over the last few days to share their stories of unemployment, financial stress and precarious living situations.

Now, the government has confirmed they will not lift a finger to support these hundreds of thousands of students who we welcomed into our country and whose fees and work we’ve all benefited from.

International students contribute enormously to the Australian community. But the government has abandoned them completely. The government must extend the coronavirus supplement to international students and make jobkeeper payments available to them as well. Minister Tudge says students should look to family support to get them through this. But many of these students come from countries also severely impacted by the pandemic, where lockdowns and health crises have resulted in business closures and losses of income. Family support can no longer be relied upon.”

Updated

Tasmania Covid-19 total at 80

Tasmania has recorded six new cases overnight, including two regional hospital staff. The state government has announced an investigation into the situation. The tally in Tasmania is now 80.

Updated

Another Covid-19 death in Victoria

The total number of cases in Victoria is 1115 – an increase of 30 from yesterday.

Last night a woman in her 70s died in hospital, taking the number of people who have died in Victoria from coronavirus to eight. The total number of cases in the state includes 587 men and 528 women. Cases range in age from babies to people in their early 90s.

There are 73 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Victoria that may have been acquired through community transmission. More than 54,000 tests have been conducted to date. Currently 42 people are in hospital – including 10 patients in intensive care – and 527 people have recovered. Of the 1115 cases, there have been 894 in Melbourne and 209 in regional Victoria. A number of cases remain under investigation.

Updated

Over to Victoria now where health minister Jenny Mikakos is giving an update. She says police carried out 391 checks on return travellers and of those 99 people were not at home. She says:

That’s incredibly disappointing. Those individuals are putting their fellow Victorians at risk. They are putting themselves and other members of the community at risk and it’s really important that they understand that since last Sunday we have now been quarantining return travellers in hotels, but for those who returned prior to the start of those changes they are still required to self-quarantine for the full 14 days. No exceptions. So they need to be staying at home.

Queensland has 900 Covid-19 cases

OK I’m going to leave that NSW Health press conference there because it’s going around in circles and there are sound issues, plus there are a few updates that have come through in the meantime from Queensland. We will have a full story on that NSW press conference up a bit later, where the health minister defended senior health staff over the handling of the Ruby Princess cruise ship, saying they had made difficult decisions under immense pressure.

But in Queensland there have been 27 new cases overnight, raising the state total to 900. The majority of cases are from patients who have travelled overseas, or have had direct contact with a confirmed case who had travelled overseas.

Meanwhile Palm Island police have arrested and charged five men with breaches of the Biosecurity Act and chief health officer Queensland directions.

On March 26, a determination was made under the Biosecurity Act restricting non-essential travel to designated remote communities, which included the community of Palm Island. Police allege that five men departed Palm Island in a private dingy on March 30 and travelled to Townsville. Townsville police spoke to the men and advised them they were not permitted to return to Palm Island.

Police will allege all five men were located on Palm Island on April 3.

Three men aged 19 and two men aged 30 and 46 have been arrested and charged with one count each of failing to comply with an emergency requirement and failing to comply with Covid-19 public health directions.

One of the 19-year-old men was also charged with possessing dangerous drugs and two counts of supplying dangerous drugs (methamphetamines and cannabis). The 30-year-old man was also charged with possession of cannabis.

All five men have been denied police bail and are due to appear in the Townsville Magistrates Court tomorrow.

Townsville district disaster coordinator, acting chief superintendent Glen Pointing said: “The reckless actions of a few have placed the remainder of the Palm Island community at risk.”

“It is even more disappointing given the great work undertaken by the Palm Island council and broader community in putting measures in place to ensure their island is protected,” he said

Updated

It’s also important to note that no ship has the capacity to test for Covid-19 on board.

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard says New South Wales Health had assured him back on 14 February that they had stepped up their protocols. A when the new federal protocol came out, what New South Wales health was doing was actually far higher than those protocols. Under the federal protocol in place from 6 March, it was entirely discretionary as to whether those processes had to be followed. Hazzard says he’s:

... not blaming the federal government here because it was evolving so fast at the time. As you would recall, this all was moving slowly, between mid-January and the end of January, we only had four people. But Health was still preparing and doing all they needed to do, doing all the work behind the scenes and they took it upon themselves to step up the protocol that they had previously applied for many years to other infectious diseases. So when the 6 March protocol came from the federal government, basically making it discretionary, they [NSW Health] didn’t adopt that. The Health team, the senior practitioner, decided they were going to do an assessment on every ship and that is what they did.

Given the risk assessment they did – regardless of federal advice they did not have to do an assessment – the NSW Health staff decided the ship was low risk as only flu was found, and at non-outbreak levels. However, they did order everyone to go home and self-isolate anyway, the chief health officer Kerry Chant says.

Updated

I have to say NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant is doing a tough job here, calmly explaining the steps that led to senior public health officials making the decisions they did about the Ruby Princess cruise ship while the health minister takes a back seat. One reporter in particular keeps jumping in giving her a grilling and calling on her to resign. It needs to be said that Australia Border Force also had a role to play in this saga – it’s not all on NSW Health who were following protocol and assessment processes in place at the time. Chant says:

If I could just take you back to some of the facts. There was influenza circulating on the cruise ship. And we know that because the point of care test, is pretty accurate and showed it is influenza. So we know that influenza was circulating in that cruise ship, and the majority of patients, over half of the samples that were collected at the time, that the cause of illness was flu. Notwithstanding, it didn’t breach the outbreak level of flu because that would have itself triggered a different response.

Can I just assure the public, because I think this is really critical, New South Wales Health has learned lessons and had extensive planning under way to actually disembark people and passengers should we suspect Covid-19 on a cruise ship, or should that have been confirmed. We had always planned to ensure self-isolation for people in the Sydney region, safe transport home through use of health share and other modes of transport and also using hotels for the accommodation of people. If we had known that Covid was on this ship, or it had of been suspected, we would have chosen that way of disembarkation.

Having said that, the people who acquired the infection, to the best of our knowledge, got it on the cruise ship. A couple of people may have acquired it earlier on with earlier onset dates and may have acquired it from other means. But certainly, the later ones acquired it on the cruise ship and the reason we suspect that amplified so quickly on the cruise ship was because we know some crew members were actually in the galley area, the food preparation area, when unwell and that would have led to a significant risk of transmission there.

So the incubation period of the disease, just to refresh everybody’s memory, is 14 days. We have been following up new cases and linking it to the Ruby Princess for that period because that reflects the fact that they were infected on that time.

Be clear, the actions of New South Wales health on the day and the advice of the public health panel was based on the assessment of that information presented to them. They concluded it was a low risk, took the action and tested the results. But we would have got them off in a different way [if the risk assessment had of been high]. As I said, this goes to the fact that the clinicians knew there was activity in influenza. It was low-level influenza.

Updated

A reporter asks NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant – who has worked tirelessly since the epidemic began – why her resignation isn’t on the premier’s desk over NSW Health’s handling of the Ruby Princess. Hazzard answers the question, saying:

Can I just say that the experts who made the decision were the best in the world. And the appropriate thing at this point is for the investigation to continue. I will make this point, too. Each of the staff of the chief health officer made the decision made it to the best of their ability. And those people are experts in their fields.

Updated

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard confronts Ruby Princess cruise ship criticisms

Hazzard is now addressing criticisms of the handling of the Ruby Princess following reports overnight that NSW Health advisors let passengers disembark from the ship after exchanging emails with its physician and assessing the ship as “low risk”. A chain of emails has been leaked that indicate the department knew about the risk of coronavirus aboard the cruise. Seven of the ship’s passengers have now died after getting the virus and more than 600 passenger are infected. Hazzard is angry at the criticisms, and has defended the handling of the situation by senior NSW Health staff.

I have seen senior health staff, allI will say is that I have seen them extremely emotional because of the long hours they have worked and because of the challenges they are facing. And I find it disappointing in the strongest way possible that there can be any suggestion that those people are not doing their best.

In general terms, can I just say, this city of ours is the gateway to Australia. In normal times we pride ourselves on that. We believe that we actually do lead the way in this country, through Sydney and through New South Wales. But part of that is we have more people coming through our airports and more people coming through our ports than any other state or territory. We have more cruise ships that come through the port of Sydney than any other port in Australia. In a normal course of events, there are about 300 of these cruise ships that come in through the port of Sydney every year.

The very senior health staff that make the assessments on those cruise ships are actually among the world’s best. There were four, generally, involved in each decision made [about the ships]. Four very senior health staff. They are specialist physicians, doctors with extraordinary training and experience in public health. We have people in that group who make these decisions who are consulting to the World Health Organization, in communicable diseases. When they make decisions, they make decisions the rest of us, if we were one-on-one with that doctor, would be very, very happy to have that advice.

I would say to all of you in the public, and actually, it is not so much, I think, the public, there are others who are making comments, but I would say to people who are being critical, know that these frontline staff are sometimes working, as Dr Kerry Chant did, she won’t want me to say this, but last Saturday she worked for 31 straight hours before she stood before the media. She hadn’t slept. People don’t do that unless they have extraordinary commitment to all of us.

What I would say to the community and to those who are leaping to criticise is, take a step back, and realise that we need everyone of these people, who have worked their hearts out, worked every aspect, every possible thing they could do to keep us safe, and we should be very temperate and careful in any criticism of those people. I think if the average person got some of the criticism that was being thrown at them, they would say, ‘I am not doing this job any more’.

Updated

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is once again having a go at young people for disobeying social distancing measures. However, people of all ages have been seen breaking social distancing rules. However, Hazzard says:

Some young people think it won’t affect them, my message as health minister is be very aware this can have extremely deleterious health effects, you could possibly die from this. Young people who think they are not going to be affected, you are wrong. It is quite possible you will be. You won’t be, perhaps, be affected to the extent older people will be, but you could be one of the unlucky ones.

No doubt once this update and chastising of young people is over Hazzard will face a grilling over the handling of the Ruby Princess cruise ship saga.

The NSW health minister Brad Hazzard made orders last night that there will be slight changes to funeral arrangements. Up until last night a funeral could have a total of 10 people including funeral staff and a celebrant or priest. Upon reflection and working with Victoria and the way that state has implemented the rules, Hazzard says there will now be 10 people allowed in attendance at funerals in addition to those officiating the service.

Hazzard has also clarified that caravan parks in NSW can be used by overnight travellers by people, working in the local area and by people whose primary place of residence is unavailable. For example, some people lost their primary homes in bushfires, Hazzard said. He continues:

Another issue causing anxiety was our truck drivers have found it challenging because truck stops and places they can stay and rest to comply with work safety requirements have closed. We reviewed that and we need to make sure our city and state functions as best it can and people have access to supplies they need. I want truck drivers to know now they can stop at truck stops and that truck stop operators know we want you to open up those truck stops.”

Updated

NSW health minister Brad Hazzard is giving an update

As of 8pm Friday there are a further 104 confirmed cases in NSW, the health minister says. Those additional cases make a total of 2,493. In the past 24 hours more than 3,500 tests have been carried out in NSW. That means 117,633 tests have now been undertaken in the state.

Twelve people have died from Covid-19 in NSW.

Updated

We mentioned that abrasive press conference from US president Donald Trump a little earlier. Here is more from the reporter Trump attacked.

Updated

More visa changes announced

Acting immigration minister Alan Tudge said the government is making a number of changes to temporary visa holder arrangements. There are 2.17 million people presently in Australia on a temporary visa. There are more than 8,000 skilled medical professionals on temporary visas supporting the health system.

While citizens, permanent residents and many New Zealanders have access to unconditional work rights and government payments (including the new jobkeeper and jobseeker payments), temporary visa holders do not. There has always been an expectation that temporary visa holders are able to support themselves while in Australia.

But changes announced by the government today will help support those who may be stood down or lose work hours as a result of Covid-19. In line with changes being made for Australian citizens and permanent residents, most temporary visa holders with work rights will now be able to access their Australian superannuation to help support themselves during this crisis.

Temporary visa holders who are unable to support themselves under these arrangements over the next six months are being strongly encouraged by the government to return home.

  • International students are able to work up to 40 hours per fortnight. Those students working in aged care, as nurses and in supermarkets have now had these hours extended to support critical sectors. From 1 May, their hours will
    return to the maximum 40 hours a fortnight as more Australians are being recruited into these roles.
  • New Zealanders who are on 444 visas and arrived before 26 February 2001 will have access to welfare payments and the jobkeeper payment. Those who arrived after 2001 have access to the jobkeeper payment. They do not
    have access to jobseeker or other welfare payments.
  • Temporary skilled visa holders who have been stood down, but not laid off, will maintain their visa validity and businesses will have the opportunity to extend their visa as per normal arrangements. They will also be able to access up to $10,000 superannuation this financial year.
  • And as we mentioned earlier, temporary visa changes to secure food supply and support farmers have also been announced.

Updated

The Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos and the state’s deputy chief health officer are due to give an update at noon AEDT.

In the meantime, Victoria Police have issued a statement saying police conducted 707 spot checks at homes, businesses and non-essential services across the state in the past 24 hours. Twenty-five fines have been issued in that time. The total number of fines is now 57. Since 21 March, police have conducted a total of 12,541 spot checks.

Updated

Urgent support for frontline domestic violence services

The federal government will provide $32.5m to states and territories to immediately bolster frontline services to protect those most at risk of domestic violence as a result of living changes enforced due to the coronavirus pandemic.

This week the inaugural Council of Australian Governments Women’s Safety Council was held. It was agreed that, as a priority, funding should be directed to safer housing and emergency accommodation, counselling and outreach, crisis support and helplines as well as men’s behavioural change programs and other perpetrator interventions.

This initial round of funding includes a fixed 3% payment to all states and territories with the remainder provided on a per capita basis with a small contingency set aside. The money will flow this month to support services through to 30 June.

$20m has already been committed to Commonwealth funded initiatives including 1800RESPECT, Mensline and a new national information campaign with clear information on where Australians experiencing violence during this period can access support.

It follows a report on Thursday from Women’s Safety NSW that the impact of Covid-19 was significant, with a higher percentage of frontline domestic violence workers reporting:

  • An increase in client numbers overall (50% up from 41% the week prior)
  • Increasing complexity of client needs (75% up from 70.8%)
  • Escalating or worsening violence (50% up from 44.9%)
  • Violence specifically relating to COVID-19 (50% up from 36.2%)
  • A sharp increase in violence being reported for the first time (47.5% up from 15.9%)

“What we’re observing is a ramping up on each indicator”, Hayley Foster, Women’s Safety NSW chief executive officer, said. “Not only are we seeing increased client numbers in more locations, we’re also seeing instances where the Covid-19 pandemic is contributing to more extreme violence and abuse as well as cases where violence is erupting in relationships for the first time.”

We have some brilliant virologists, epidemiologists and public health experts here in Australia and many of them who have been providing expertise on the Covid-19 response can be found on Twitter, sharing their thoughts about the latest data and developments. I thought I’d share with readers a very quick round-up of just a few of them, because it’s pretty cool to be able to have such access to these minds.

Professor Mary-Louise McLaws is a member of the World Health Organization Health Emergencies Program Experts Advisory Panel for Infection Prevention and Control. Follow her here.

Professor Lyn Gilbert is an infectious disease and clinical microbiology specialist who is helping to inform the government’s Covid-19 response. She’s dedicated her impressive career to communicable diseases. Follow her here.

Professor Jodie McVernon is director of Doherty Epidemiology, with expertise in mathematical modelling of infectious diseases and clinical vaccine trials. She has also been advising the government almost every day on Covid-19. Follow her here.

Professor Julie Leask from the University of Sydney is a social scientist and an expert in public health, immunisation, human behaviour, and health communication. Follow her here.

Professor Peter Collignon is an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist at the Canberra Hospital. He is currently executive director of ACT Pathology. He is also a Professor at the Australian National University medical school. Follow him here.

Dr Kathryn Snow is an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Melbourne, working in health services research for vulnerable populations. She posts lots of cool and interesting stuff about epidemiological modelling. Follow her here.

Updated

Just turning quickly to the US where once again, president Donald Trump is displaying hostility toward reporters in a press briefing.

The US Centers for Disease Control has just recommended that US citizens wear non-medical cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (for example, in grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.

However, Trump said he wouldn’t be taking this advice on board himself.

“I won’t be doing it, personally,” he said, adding he doesn’t want to greet world leaders, “presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings, queens” while wearing a face covering. “I don’t know, somehow, I don’t see it for myself.”

Updated

More on the Ruby Princess saga. The Australian reports that it has obtained emails between NSW Health and Australian Border Force that show health officials did not board the cruise ship to test passengers for Covid-19 even though the cruise liner’s on-board doctor told them explicitly in emails there were sick travellers on the ship. You can read the full report by The Australian’s Yoni Bashan here.

The New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, and NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, are due to give an update in a couple of hours, at 11am AEDT. I’ll bring you updates from that here when it happens.

Updated

Australia’s national science agency CSIRO says zoonotic diseases – diseases which pass from animals to humans – such as Covid-19 and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars) now account for almost 75% of human infectious diseases.

This morning CSIRO announced that with the increasing threat of zoonotic diseases, $220m would be directed to upgrading CSIRO’s containment biosecurity research facility in Geelong, Victoria, which is currently testing vaccines to combat the disease. The facility’s rapid work on Covid-19 has also been supported by a further $10m in funding from the government.

If you’re interested in learning more about the spread of Covid-19 from bats to humans, here is some great listening for your Saturday morning. In this podcast episode ABC reporter and Science Friction host Natasha Mitchell asks what is it about bats that makes them such exceptional incubators of viruses that – if they jump species – can be so darn deadly to humans. She also asks whether before we blame bats for Covid-19, we need to take a good look at our ourselves.

Updated

In case you missed it the chair of the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance, Jennifer Doggett has written that maximising the value of our health system resources should be important every day, not just in the middle of a health crisis, and that private hospitals should not be allowed to return to ‘business as usual’ once the pandemic ends. She says:

Most of our private hospitals are now operated on a ‘for profit’ basis and many are owned by companies based outside of Australia. Healthscope, Australia’s second largest provider of private hospitals, is owned by Canadian private equity firm Brookfield. The third largest private hospital provider, Healthe Care, is part of the Luye Medical Group, owned by Chinese billionaire Liu Dian Bo. Their primary accountability is to their shareholders and not the Australian public.

The negative impacts of this ‘hands off’ approach have been apparent in the difficulties experienced in mobilising private hospitals to support Australia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.”

You can read the full piece here, and can follow her on Twitter here.

Updated

Temporary visa changes to help farmers

The announcements are rolling in this morning. Following the release from the health minister outlined below, the department of agriculture has said temporary changes to visa arrangements are being made to help farmers get the workforce they need to secure Australia’s food and produce supply during the pandemic.

The changes allow those within the Pacific Labour Scheme, Seasonal Worker Program and working holiday makers to continue to work in agriculture and food processing until the coronavirus crisis has passed.

Deputy prime minister Michael McCormack said the measure meant supporting businesses, providing job opportunities and securing food supply. He said:

We can’t afford to see fruit rotting on trees and vines and vegetables left unpicked. It is vital our farmers maximise their hard work and economic returns. We are acting to enable seasonal workers to extend their stay and remain lawfully in Australia until they are able to return to their home countries.

The agriculture sector relies on an ongoing workforce and we are committed to providing the means for that to continue while ensuring strict health and safety measures are adhered to, including visa holders following self-isolation requirements when they move between regions.”

Before moving to other parts of the country, working holiday makers will need to self-isolate for 14 days and register at the Australia.gov.au website. Those who do not comply will face having their visas cancelled. The National Farmers Federation has developed best practice guidance for farmers regarding requirements for the living and working arrangements for farm workers during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The key points:

  • Seasonal Worker Programme and Pacific Labour Scheme workers can extend their stay for up to 12 months to work for approved employers.
  • Approved employers will need to continue to ensure recruitment of Australians first.
  • Working Holiday Makers who work in agriculture or food processing will be exempt from the six month work limitation with the one employer and eligible for a further visa to keep working in these critical sectors if their current visa is due to expire in the next six months.

Updated

Health minister announces $1.5m to support clinical management of Covid-19 cases

Greg Hunt has just issued a statement saying the government is investing $1.5m into support for clinicians to ensure they are given the best advice on managing Covid-19 patients.

The National Covid-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce will receive the funding from the Medical Research Future Fund to deliver guidelines on the clinical management of patients with suspected or confirmed cases.

The Taskforce, which includes a large coalition of peak health professional bodies, will analyse emerging national and international research and data on Covid-19 to provide frontline health care workers with the most up-to-date information and advice. Their recommendations will be continually reviewed and updated in near real-time.

The initial set of recommendations will be launched on Saturday and will address priority topics in urgent need of clear and unified guidance, including:

  • Drug treatment of COVID-19 infection
  • Use of oxygen therapies
  • Key elements of critical care, and
  • Disease categories and monitoring.

The recommendations will be published in a mobile web app to make it easier for clinicians to access information at point of care.

New Covid-19 cases in Darwin

Four residents of Darwin tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, and all cases are related to interstate or international travel, the Northern Territory chief minister said in a statement overnight. It brings the Territory’s total to 26 cases.

A Darwin man, aged in his 40s, had been in self-quarantine after returning home from Africa when he became unwell. Another man, in his 50s, became unwell while in self-quarantine after returning from the United Kingdom. A woman, aged in her 50s, who had travelled to South America became unwell while in self-quarantine.

Under national medical guidelines, contact tracing on flights is not required due to the delay between their return to Darwin and becoming unwell.

The fourth case, a woman in her 20s, was in self-quarantine and is a close family contact of another Territorian already diagnosed with Covid-19 who had returned from overseas.

All four people are now in the care of Royal Darwin Hospital.

Good morning, Melissa Davey joining you for another Saturday to bring you all of the Covid-19 updates for Australia throughout the day. If I miss anything, let me know at melissa.davey@theguardian.com or over at Twitter.

Let’s recap the last 24 hours or so by starting with some good news. Australia’s chief health officer, Brendan Murphy, said he was “quietly pleased” with the numbers of new cases of Covid-19 slowing, with the rate of the number of new confirmed cases in single digits. However, community transmissions have been growing. There are now 300 community transmission cases in Sydney, 60 in Melbourne and 30 in Brisbane. Australia is now in the “suppression” phase of containing the virus, the prime minister said on Friday.

In other updates:

  • Last night, New South Wales Health confirmed that to date, there have been 342 confirmed cases of Covid-19 diagnosed in NSW related to Ruby Princess cruise ship passengers. Defending their handling of the debacle, NSW Health said “Transmission of Covid-19 amongst these passengers could not have been prevented by NSW Health staff. No cases of Covid-19 were identified on board the ship before it docked. The vast majority of these passengers reported they did not develop symptoms until after leaving the Ruby Princess.”
  • Australia’s death toll for Covid-19 is now 28, after WA premier Mark McGowan said on Friday afternoon that a passenger from the Artania cruise ship, in his 60s, had died.
  • My colleague, federal political reporter Daniel Hurst, wrote a handy explainer about what the government’s free childcare package in response to the virus means for you. Meanwhile, sociologist Eva Cox asks whether the announcement is too good to be true.
  • Calls are growing for governments to support the evacuation of Aboriginal elders from remote and regional communities as Covid-19 spreads, indigenous affairs editor, Lorena Allam, reports.
  • Australia exceeded 5,300 confirmed cases on Friday.
  • After seemingly endless back and forth about whether Australia’s modelling on coronavirus will be made public, the prime minister said this information will be released by the government next week after more work, and review by the national cabinet. It is a complex data-set to release.

Thanks for joining me this morning, and I hope everyone is coping okay with isolation, checking in on their neighbours, and managing to get out for fresh air and maybe even a cheeky kebab without copping a fine.

Updated

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