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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Elias Visontay and Calla Wahlquist

Sydney restaurant patrons told to get tests as Victoria records 428 new cases – as it happened

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What we learned: Friday, 17 July

That is where I will leave you tonight. Thanks for reading.

Here’s what we learned today:

  • Victoria announced another record day of new coronavirus cases today, with more than 428 people diagnosed with Covid-19 and three deaths. Authorities warned the massive growth in infections would lead to further fatalities and dozens more in hospital.
  • After recording eight new coronavirus cases on Friday, the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, announced restrictions would be tightened in the state. From next Friday, the restrictions that were imposed on pubs – maximum group bookings of 10 people, down from 20 people, maximum venue capacity of 300 – will be extended to clubs, restaurants, cafes and “all indoor hospitality venues”.
  • The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, also said people living in regional Victoria were now requested to wear face masks if they are out in public, in circumstances where they cannot guarantee physical distancing.
  • The Australian government has announced a new $10.2m international research program into the growing rates of zoonotic diseases across south-east Asia and the Pacific. Zoonotic diseases are diseases that pass from animals or insects to humans, such as coronavirus. Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease.
  • The Victorian Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the treatment of public housing residents living at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, the only one of the nine public housing towers still in hard lockdown.
  • In a conversation with Scott Morrison, the US president, Donald Trump, was “very complimentary” of Australia’s coronavirus response. However, Morrison said he and Trump did not discuss the coronavirus situation in America because they both know it “very well”.

Updated

In case you missed it earlier, Victoria announced another record day of new coronavirus cases today, with more than 428 people diagnosed with Covid-19 and three deaths. Authorities warned the massive growth in infections would lead to further fatalities and dozens more in hospital.

My colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes has filed this report:

Following the confirmation a prisoner has been diagnosed with Covid-19, the Victorian Greens have called on the state government to “release low-risk prisoners and prisoners due for release in the coming weeks”.

It’s important to note the prisoner, who had recently entered custody, tested positive while serving a 14-day quarantine period for new prisoners.

Greens spokesman for justice Tim Read said:

Our prisoners are sitting ducks right now. It would take very little effort on the state government’s part to make low-risk prisoners eligible for early release to help reduce our prison numbers substantially and protect inmates and staff alike from a potential outbreak.

Updated

Roger Cook, deputy premier of Western Australia, has explained how entry into the state for those who have travelled through NSW will change.

Cook, who is also the health minister, said:

Anyone coming into WA who has come from or has travelled through Victoria in the last 14 days will be directed to hotel quarantine at their own expense.

As of today, anyone coming into WA from New South Wales and is exempt or has travelled through New South Wales in the last 14 days will be subject to mandatory Covid-19 testing.

As of 11.59, Sunday, 19th July, anyone travelling from New South Wales or who has travelled through New South Wales in the last 14 days will now need to meet the same limited exemptions we have in place for people coming from Victoria.

Western Australia has the toughest border controls in the country by far and we will make it tougher if we need to do so.”

Updated

Sydney restaurant patrons told to get tested

NSW Health has directed anyone who visited the Thai Rock restaurant in Stockland Mall, Wetherill Park on 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14 July to get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14 days, regardless of symptoms.

The warnings come after the identification of a third case linked to the restaurant, a customer who dined at Thai Rock on 10 July.

A NSW Health statement said:

Earlier today, NSW Health advised that a woman in her 30s from South West Sydney worked at the Thai Rock restaurant in Stockland Mall Wetherill Park on 9, 10, 11, 12 and 14 July. A previously identified case was a customer who also dined at the restaurant on 10 July.

All those who attended the restaurant in this period are being contact traced and investigations are continuing.

As the Crossroads Hotel cluster expands, a number of venues attended by cases linked to the cluster are under investigation, with ongoing assessment and contact tracing continuing. Information on all venues is available here.

Updated

Some further information on the case of Covid-19 in a Victorian prison.

He had recently entered custody and returned the positive result during the 14-day quarantine period for all new prisoners.

A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokeswoman said:

An asymptomatic prisoner, who was in protective quarantine at the Metropolitan Remand Centre, has returned a positive result to coronavirus (Covid-19) and has since been placed into isolation.

The prisoner was swabbed as part of measures for new receptions, who are tested upon arrival and required to undergo a 14-day protective quarantine process.

He will continue to be monitored and assessed while in isolation, and is being provided with a range of support.

Working with the Department of Health and Human Services, measures are being taken in line with Corrections Victoria’s coronavirus (Covid-19) management plans. This includes isolation measures, contact tracing and thorough cleaning.

Updated

I’ll leave you now in the very capable hands of Elias Visontay, who will take you through the rest of the afternoon.

Remember, my fellow Melbournians: we have to stay at home this weekend, and keep our exercise to the “minimum time and minimum distance”. I know I will.

Man charged with travelling from Victoria to ACT without exemption

Police in the Australian Capital Territory have charged a 41-year-old man for travelling into Canberra from Victoria without an exemption.

The man is alleged to have entered the ACT from Victoria on Wednesday. He is the first person to be charged under the Public Health Act for failing to comply with Covid-19 health directions.

In a statement, detective superintendent Jason Kennedy, who heads ACT Policing’s Covid-19 taskforce, said there were “serious” concerns about the health risks posed to the community by the man’s behaviour. He said:

ACT Policing will continue to take all necessary action to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The man was cooperative when taken into custody, police say, and will face court on Friday.

Updated

Labor’s government services spokesman, Bill Shorten, had some things to say about Stuart Robert’s comment that the app has not been used to identify any previously unidentified close contacts because Australians have, ah, very good memories.

Shorten says Robert is “trying to spin the Australian public”.

On this twisted logic, Mr Robert could also celebrate the multiple crashes of the myGov website he has presided over as the triumph of landlines and traditional face-to-face communications.

In Stueyworld perhaps charging taxpayers $2,832 a month for his home internet is not rorting but a triumph of entrepreneurial innovation.

It’s nice to see someone in Shorten’s office is having fun. He continues:

Let’s be clear: a virus tracing app is a good idea and we encourage the public to engage with the concept — but it must work and it must make a difference.

I’m glad Mr Robert agrees with me that pen and paper is currently our best tracing app. But that is not something, after much hype and spending $2m of taxpayers’ money, the Minister should be celebrating.

Yesterday, government services minister Stuart Robert was on 5AA radio in Adelaide defending the Covidsafe app still not identifying any unknown close contacts not picked up through manual contact tracing.

He argued this just “simply means that Australian memories are actually working quite well”.

The app is designed to augment manual contact tracing when you come in close contact with people you don’t know (like, say, sitting in the Crossroads Hotel). As Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton has said, it is likely to be less useful in Victoria because people aren’t moving around as much, but better for the Crossroads situation. It still hasn’t identified any unknown close contacts, despite over 300 uses.

To defend the app, Robert then quotes the Sax institute to claim that the app is “critical to containing the second wave”.

That’s true, but the study operated on the assumption the app would work as described.
He also said the University of Adelaide ranked it the best out of 34 apps worldwide. Also true, but it was assessing the privacy and security of user data, not the efficacy of the app.

Also importantly, none of the apps reviewed had implemented the Google and Apple exposure notification framework which would fix the issues Covidsafe is suffering from, but the government has so far refused to adopt.

Updated

Virus reproduction rate in Victoria 'looking very positive': acting CMO

Kelly said he authorities had been analysing data around the effective reproduction rate in Victoria, and he would provide more information about that tomorrow.

He added:

Suffice to say that it’s looking very positive compared to what it was about three weeks ago.

Updated

Why are pubs in particular a problem? The first round of restrictions, or re-restrictions, in NSW limits the number of people who can be at a pub to 300. Those rules came into force at midnight last night, and from next Friday they will also apply to restaurants, clubs, and all other hospitality venues.

Kelly said that alcohol decreases inhibitions “and may also decrease our ability to follow instructions”.

A circumstance I’m sure many of us would be familiar with.

Updated

Kelly said there would not be any restrictions on the movement of freight across state lines, but said there was a need to ensure the safety protocols in place were top-notch and protected against accidentally spreading the virus.

Kelly was asked if the virus has mutated to become more serious, and more virulent, in the months since its discovery.

He says it hasn’t necessarily become more serious, but as the virus is transmitted from human to human it becomes able to transmit more quickly.

That is what happened with the outbreak in southwest Sydney around the Crossroads hotel.

We have seen very quickly several generations of transmission... very short periods between being exposed to the virus and becoming infectious themselves leading to further infections and leading to further infections. Four generations like that since the end of June

Kelly said the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has provided “very clear advice” about what each of the stages of lockdown would look like, including the much-discussed and much-feared prospect of stage-four restrictions in Melbourne.

He said the Victorian government would make whatever decisions it makes “based on that general advice”.

It is their decision they need to make, we are in close contact with our Victorian colleagues, we continue to discuss [this] every day.

Kelly urged people in Sydney not to take the announcement that some restrictions would be imposed from next Friday to have a “big party” this weekend.

So, there are a number of restrictions being announced today. Some of those are already coming into play over this weekend, others will come into play next weekend.

The fact that those restrictions will come into place in those areas of south-west Sydney next weekend is not an excuse to have a huge party this weekend. This is a very dangerous time. The virus is circulating in Victoria, we have seen what happened in Melbourne, we do not want to see that happening in other parts of Australia, and in this case especially south-western Sydney.

Kelly said Australia would continue to see cases of community transmission, particularly in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire.

To people living under lockdown, he said:

My message is to be patient. It does take time because of the biology of the virus, before these types of restrictions, and the isolation of cases and contact will demonstrate that we are starting to get on top of the situation in Victoria. These are large numbers today, that is disturbing, but we do have good indications, that those mobility restrictions, and movement restrictions around Melbourne, in particular, are working and people are taking notice.

We know that people are taking notice of the physical distancing rules, and we hope that everyone is remembering about hygiene, both in the way you cough and sneeze but frequently washing your hands. These things are absolutely crucial for us getting on top of the virus, and it does take a couple of weeks before we see those signs, and so I remain hopeful about the situation in Victoria. But, please, take note of everything that is being asked of you from the Victorian government.

Australia's coronavirus total reaches 11,000

The acting chief medical officer, Prof Paul Kelly, said that Australia’s coronavirus tally has now exceeded 11,000, with 438 new cases recorded in the past 24-hours. There are currently about 2,500 active cases in Victoria.

That’s 428 cases in Victoria, eight in NSW, and two, both from hotel quarantine, in WA.

There were also three more deaths in Victoria, bringing the national death toll to 116.

Kelly:

That brings to mind that this is not just numbers, these are real people with families and friends. Our condolences go to those families.

Kelly said there were 126 people in hospital with Covid-19 in Australia, of whom 32 were in intensive care.

Updated

The Victorian government has sent out its detailed statement on the new coronavirus cases. It says that there are 2,462 active cases in Victoria (about half of the total number recorded since the pandemic began) and 935 cases of community transmission, up 33 from yesterday.

There are 280 cases in the public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne, up 30 from yesterday, and 47 connected to public housing towers in Carlton, up six from yesterday.

Other major outbreaks:

  • 160 cases have been linked to Al-Taqwa College
  • 51 cases have been linked to Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham
  • 38 cases have been linked to Menarock Life Aged Care facility in Essendon
  • 36 cases have been linked to Estia Health aged care facility in Ardeer
  • 32 cases have been linked to JBS abattoir in Brooklyn
  • 23 cases have been linked to Glendale Aged Care facility in Werribee
  • 19 cases have been linked to the Northern Hospital
  • 16 cases have been linked to the Alfred Hospital
  • 16 cases have been linked to Brunswick Private Hospital
  • 16 cases have been linked to LaManna Supermarket Essendon
  • 14 cases have been linked to St Vincent’s Hospital
  • 12 cases have been linked to Western Health
  • 8 cases have been linked to the Royal Melbourne Hospital
  • 2 cases have been linked to the Mercy Hospital for Women in Heidelberg
  • 2 cases have been linked to Kmart in Endeavour Hills
  • Five new nursing homes have reported cases: two cases have been linked to Aurrum Aged Care facility in Plenty. Single cases have been linked to Regis in Brighton; Grace Villa in Greensborough; Baptcare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee; and Bupa aged care facility in Sunshine.

If you need a very strong visual to help you wear a facemask correctly, Prof Bruce Thompson, a respiratory pathologist from the Alfred Hospital and researcher with Monash University, has you covered.

He told ABC News:

The thing is wearing a mask is not straightforward either. You can contaminate yourself. So if you imagine as soon as you put a mask on, it has now got virus on it. That is how you have to think about it.

So you need to work out how you are going to take this off without infecting your hands. You can’t just take your mask off and put it in your back pocket, for example. I keep saying, it is rather weird, but it is like your underwear. You don’t play with it in public and you don’t take it off and put it in your pocket either.

I hope that helps.

Guardian Australia’s Alyx Gorman is on the NSW/Queensland border and has been talking to local residents about their experience with the border closure, and the border declaration passes that you need to fill out to get across.

Michelle, who runs a party planning business in NSW, says she has to cross the border for work.

It is what it is. Some people are going crazy about it, playing the blame game. But the authorities are trying to warn us. There’s a website where you can look everything up.

Jim Wilson, a solicitor, told Gorman he walked across the border to avoid coronavirus-related traffic delays.

We haven’t got Covid here. The Gold Coast and the Tweed run together, it’s the biggest cross border region in Australia and the authorities … have kept us Covid-free.

Whilst it’s awfully painful in the short term, I’m sure it’s going to benefit us as a tourism destination and as a place to live in the long term … I’ve not met anybody who is up in arms about it. We’re clear, we haven’t got any relatives or people in hospital!

You can read more here:

Western Australian health minister Roger Cook will give an update about coronavirus in that state at 2pm in Perth, or 4pm in east coast money.

Donald Trump 'very complimentary' of Australia's coronavirus response

Morrison is asked if Trump expressed any concerns about the number of coronavirus cases in the US. Florida yesterday recorded the highest one-day increase in deaths from Covid-19 since the pandemic began, with 156 people dying in 24 hours. The US to date has recorded more than 138,000 deaths and 3.5 million positive cases.

Morrison said he and Trump did not discuss the coronavirus situation in America because they both know it “very well”.

I was also able to say how seven states and territories were going in Australia, which is extremely well. I mean, Australia’s success in managing Covid has been well-recognised around the world, and Australia is not the only country who is dealing with an outbreak like we are in Victoria.

He said Trump was “very complimentary” of Australia’s response to the coronavirus “and the responsibility we take in the region”.

United States is a key partner in that stability working with many other like-minded countries in the region, [and] you want to have a partner that carries their own weight, and Australia certainly does that. We are no passenger in any relationship we have, and that is greatly appreciated by American friends.

Updated

The US is Australia's 'most important alliance': Morrison

Morrison said he had a “very good discussion” this morning with US president Donald Trump.

We speak regularly. It was about half-an-hour’s discussion. Of course, the pandemic issues, the work that is being done by like-minded partners across the region, a lot of the global economic issues, and we were both able to speak in recent times, and both the US economy and Australian economy, our recent jobs numbers were encouraging, just as they were in the US.

And we both want to see our economies go forward. We want to see people back in jobs, and we share a lot of common views on those things. But the United States is our most important alliance, and it will always continue to be along those lines. It was good to be able to [bring him up to] date on what we have been doing on our front. We have [US] troops on rotation now out through the Northern Territory. That is proceeding incredibly well, and this remains a big part of our joint effort. But we have a very respectful partnership with the United States, and we appreciate the opportunity to engage regularly.

Updated

Morrison was asked if he foresaw any further lockdowns in Victoria, with 428 new cases and three deaths in 24 hours.

He said:

Well, that will be a decision for the Victorian premier and his government. At this stage he has indicated publicly, as well as to us, that it is premature to be making any decisions on that.

We would not have expected to see the results of the lockdown measures put in place in Victoria as yet, and I made very clear earlier this week, as indeed the premier has, that we would expect to see some rather concerning numbers for a while, and we have. And as concerning as they are, that is not not anticipated.

We would hope to see that change and we would be watching them closely in terms of any further supports we are called upon. We have an open account with Victoria. I have said that to the Premier. He has got an open book with us. He can call down what he needs as is required, and I have got to say all the premiers and chief ministers have been equally supportive to the Victorian government. So it is a problem to solve in Victoria by the Victorian government, but they are getting no shortage of help and assistance from the rest of the country. It is a national effort.

Morrison is asked by a local reporter if he had spoken to the Queensland opposition leader, Deb Frecklington. She’s on his side of politics; the Queensland government is Labor.

He says he spoke to her last night.

On the border closure, he said:

I had my paperwork filled out, so I can tell you I am certified and able to travel into Queensland, and so that is welcome news. But we hope to see these arrangements a lot more easy to deal with in the future.

We look forward to our economy continuing to open up, because the more it opens up, the more jobs there are. The more jobs there are, the stronger we will all be, and we need every part of the country to succeed.

For Australia to succeed, we need Victoria to succeed, we need Melbourne to succeed, we need the Gold Coast to succeed, and that is why we’re here. The Gold Coast has done it tough in the tourism and hospitality industries. My colleagues have shared with me on regular basis, doing it really tough. So today I hope is a real shot in the arm for the Gold Coast. A big GC shot in the arm, and that will boost local businesses and give them that greater confidence to get out there.

Updated

Morrison and Cash keep referring to an individual dubbed ‘Cowboy Dave’, who apparently used to be a DJ and is a regular associate of the prime minister on these Gold Coast film industry gigs.

Dave is one of the local business owners who will benefit from this funding, Cash says. Good for Dave. I’m not sure why he’s a cowboy, maybe its an honorific.

Ron Howard and Jerry Bruckheimer 'very interested' in filming in Australia: Scott Morrison

Morrison said Ron Howard and Jerry Bruckheimer (or their people, at any rate) had already reached out to Australia about the possibility of filming projects here, in the hours since the federal government announced $400m for film and TV projects.

They are “very interested,” Morrison said.

We have Disney making films here, we got the Marvel syndicate, they have known it for many years, our capability. They know this is a safe place to make a film. This is an industry that can be drawn on here in Australia to produce world class productions.

Whether it’s Hollywood or Bollywood, or wherever they’re coming for, they know they can come here and make the films that will create great success.

But will generate the jobs, whether it’s from making coffees or the quite sophisticated work which is done on prefabrication of sets, the film industry reaches in so many different sectors and people who work in the sector also work in other industries, particularly here around the Gold Coast. And so this is an investment in jobs. 8,000 jobs every year, every year, supported by this investment alone.

You can tell from the smile he let out that Morrison is very pleased with the “Hollywood or Bollywood” line.

Michaelia Cash said the investment would support small, local businesses that supply the film industry.

Thousands and thousands of small local businesses are part of the screen industry.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison is talking on the Gold Coast now, a cool hour and 20 minutes later than scheduled.

It’s fine. I’m in Melbourne. I’m not going anywhere, as the prime minister reminded us in his opening remarks:

It’s great to be here on the Gold Coast, certainly warmer than it was in Canberra earlier this morning, I know many southerners are enjoying that as well. Sadly our friends in Victoria are unable to do that.

Thanks Scott.

Eleven people are now in mandatory quarantine in the Northern Territory after crossing the border on Friday.

More from AAP:

Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker says about 1000 people had crossed into the Territory up to 9am on Friday, with 11 of those directed into supervised quarantine for 14 days.

The reason why each person was quarantined was not disclosed.

Chalker says more than 500 caravans had also been spotted on the South Australian side of the border heading north.

“So we’re expecting a bit of surge here over the weekend from the grey nomad market but equally Territorians who are choosing to return,” the commissioner said.

“The Territory, unfortunately, cannot be open to all.

“But we’re still providing a means and we understand that people will have to come here for compassionate grounds.”

The Territory has also increased the fine to $5000 for anyone who provides false information in relation to COVID-19 and their movements.

It has also reopened the Howard Springs quarantine centre for people in supervised isolation, who will be charged $2500 for their 14-day stay.

Some very specific detail about the rule saying that, from next Friday, no one can dance, sing, or mingle at a wedding in NSW.

Bride and groom (or bride and bride or groom and groom or any combination therein with spouse) presumably exempt because they’ve already kissed at the ceremony (and, you know, other times). The corona horse has already bolted.

Sports teams are not having much luck fleeing Melbourne as community transmission numbers here grow. Two super netball teams, Collingwood and Melbourne, were due to fly to Sydney on Wednesday, but that was put on hold because of the Crossroads Hotel outbreak. They’re now looking at the season being hosted in Queensland or WA, when the competition starts on 1 August.

Said Collingwood coach Rob Wright:

We could be flying somewhere tonight or tomorrow but we’re not sure and we don’t know where it is. The girls don’t know whether to pack a bikini or a beanie and we’re all waiting by the phone for our destination so it’s like Amazing Race.

More here:

A Queensland man who sailed alone from Tahiti to Brisbane – spending 35 days on his own at sea, or 2.5 quarantine periods – has been made to do 14-days of hotel quarantine upon his arrival in Brisbane.

David Fair told Nine news that he thought he would be able to avoid quarantine, as he has effectively been quarantining at sea for, again, 35 days. Instead, he has to pay the cost — about $200 a night — of another 14 days alone.

I left Tahiti, effectively it took me 35 days to sail from Tahiti to Brisbane. I’ve effectively done 35 days quarantine on my own in a boat from a country that’s been declared as coronavirus free.

French Polynesia declared itself coronavirus free on 19 May.

Fair said he was initially told by Border Force officers that he’d only have to spend one night in quarantine.

My partner and I have been separated for about five months now due to the coronavirus travel ban so I was actually stuck over in Panama and I’ve had to sail singlehanded over to Australia in order to be able to actually meet her again. It’s disappointing, the thought that once I reached the border I can’t even see her. So even though she’s quite close, she’s still quite far from me. So it’s quite frustrating.

It’s Australian policy that people on private yachts have to complete the full 14-day quarantine. Professional seafarers, so people on cargo ships, usually quarantine for a shorter period because they go back out to sea.

Updated

Slightly off-topic but I suspect it will be of interest to many of you: we have historian Jenny Hocking writing in Guardian Australia today about the Palace Letters, which were released due to her tenacity.

You can read it here.

South Australian premier Steven Marshall says the hard border closure with Victoria will remain in place “for an extended period of time”.

Marshall spoke to local media after the announcement that Victoria had recorded a record high daily total of 428 new cases.

This hard border remains in place and quite frankly I think it’s going to remain in place for an extended period of time.

I think the entire nation now is on high alert with what is happening in Victoria.

He said SA would also keep quarantine measures in place with NSW and the ACT, because of the Crossroads Hotel cluster and other untraced community transmission.

Another 30 Victorian police officers in isolation

Thirty more Victorian police officers are in isolation after an officer based out of the Spencer Street crime command centre tested positive to Covid-19. We reported yesterday that 140 police officers, and 30 PSOs, were already isolating.

More from AAP:

The officer received the positive test result on Thursday, the force confirmed on Friday. The office area was deep-cleaned on Thursday afternoon.

A dozen police members who work in this area were told to immediately self-isolate and be tested, Victoria Police said.

The officer had been in Shepparton last week, prompting 16 police from that station to also be put into isolation and undergo testing.

“Victoria Police’s priority first and foremost is to ensure the safety of its people and the community,” a police statement said. “A thorough assessment of the impact on other police personnel and the community is being undertaken to identify any further close contacts.”

Updated

It’s the 6th anniversary of the downing of MH17.

Our thoughts remain with the loved ones of those who died.

Some ACT residents may have to self-isolate

If you’re currently in the ACT, but have recently been in south-west Sydney, you may be required to self-isolate.

Updated

The Maldives has reopened for tourists for the first time since March. You may remember its shutdown from this amazing story about a couple who just ... didn’t leave.

Some 107 tourists arrived this week. It’s the first time they have welcomed foreign visitors since the borders closed on 27 March, and the country has set a target of 850,000 visitors by the end of the year.

A Qatar Airways flight carrying 107 foreigners and 27 Maldivians arrives at Velana airport in the Maldives
A Qatar Airways flight carrying 107 foreigners and 27 Maldivians arrived at Velana airport in the Maldives on Wednesday morning, marking the first arrival of tourists since the country closed its in March. Photograph: Xinhua/REX/Shutterstock

Foreign minister Abdulla Shahid said:

Responding to Covid-19 has been tough, but we have come back stronger as a destination, with the Maldives being a safe destination for all tourists and hotel employees.

I’m putting this here just to torture all of us, because Australians can’t travel.

Updated

The Victorian inquiry into failures in hotel quarantine begins at 10am on Monday.

Former judge Jennifer Coate, who is chairing the inquiry, and the senior counsel assisting, Tony Neal QC, will both make opening statements, but there won’t be any witnesses on that day.

The hearings won’t be open to the public, for safety reasons (coronavirus spread) but they will be streamed online via the inquiry’s website.

Morrison had a 'very productive' phone call with Trump

While NSW and Victoria were providing their Covid updates, Scott Morrison was having a conversation with Donald Trump. Morrison’s office says the chat was “very productive”.

Here’s the official readout.

Both leaders compared notes on managing Covid-19 and the need to reopen their economies safely. The prime minister updated the president on the government’s 2020 Defence Strategic Update and commitment to building Australia’s defence capability, including in partnership with the US. Leaders discussed coordinating approaches to multilateral organisations, and their commitment to open markets and low-tax regimes. They discussed a range of Indo-Pacific issues including working more closely with our Southeast Asian partners and other key players like Japan and India, including through the Quad.

A bit of context around the chat. Australia’s foreign and defence ministers are supposed to head to Washington for annual defence talks within the fortnight. The Americans have been banging the drum on the South China Sea more aggressively over the past week or so.

Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo has blasted Beijing for a campaign of “bullying”. Asked late this week whether Australia’s stance on freedom of navigation exercises was about to become more assertive as a consequence of the American positioning, Morrison dead batted. He told reporters Australia would advocate for freedom of navigation, and would back South East Asian neighbours defending their interests, but we’d do this on our own terms. There’s an interesting reference to working closely with regional partners in today’s readout.

Clive Palmer charged with fraud, Asic confirms

The corporate regulator has confirmed mining magnate and Palmer United Party founder Clive Palmer has been charged with fraud offences, and provided details of the alleged crimes.

Asic says Palmer has been charged with four fraud offences that carry jail terms of five years. Two of the offences carry jail terms of up to 12 terms if the offence is aggravated.

In a statement Asic said:

ASIC alleges that between 5 August 2013 and 5 September 2013, Mr Palmer dishonestly obtained a benefit or advantage for Cosmo Developments Pty Ltd and/or the Palmer United Party (PUP) and others by authorising the transfer of $10,000,000 contrary to the purpose for which the funds were being held. It is alleged that he dishonestly used his position as a director of Mineralogy Pty Ltd (Mineralogy), a mining company owned by him, in obtaining that advantage.

ASIC also alleges that, between 31 August 2013 and 3 September 2013, Mr Palmer dishonestly obtained a benefit or advantage for Media Circus Network Pty Ltd and/or PUP by authorising the transfer of $2,167,065.60 contrary to the purpose for which the funds were being held. It is alleged that Mr Palmer dishonestly used his position as a director of Mineralogy in obtaining that advantage.

Asic commissioner John Price mentioned the charges at a parliamentary hearing in February but at the time did not provide any detail.

Guardian Australia has attempted to contact Palmer for comment.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison will give a press conference with Michaelia Cash at 1.20pm, about that $400m for the film and TV industry.

The Australian Capital Territory has recorded no new cases of coronavirus.

Greens call on Scott Morrison to adopt an elimination strategy for Covid-19

The Australian Greens have called for the Coalition to adopt an elimination strategy, replacing the current suppression strategy for Covid-19.

The Greens’ health spokesman, Dr Richard Di Natale, said that restrictions should be kept in place until the rate of community transmission reaches zero.

Di Natale is based in Melbourne and currently living under those stage three restrictions, if that makes anyone in Melbourne a bit less cranky about him calling for the extension of restrictions.

He said:

It’s now time to commit to eliminating Covid-19 from the community, and give Australians some level of certainty in the face of this pandemic.

We have already eliminated the virus in some states, which has allowed people to resume doing many of the things they love and provided some certainty for the business community.

The current suppression approach means allowing restrictions to loosen while there’s still virus circulating in the community. This is likely to mean a continuing cycle of see-sawing lockdowns as outbreaks pop up across the country, which means ongoing economic disruption and uncertainty.

Here in Victoria we have seen how quickly a handful of cases can turn into a second wave with devastating consequences for our community. Making our goal in Victoria elimination of the virus while we are already in a second lockdown will likely mean extending restrictions beyond six weeks but it’s a small price to pay if it means avoiding more lockdowns in the future and giving the business community some certainty.

Updated

When coronavirus hit Australia, NBN Co in March offered retail internet providers up to 40% more bandwidth capacity for free in order to cope with many more people being stuck working from home and generally using their home internet much more.

That free capacity is due to expire in around a month, and retailers are worried that even if people begin to return to work and the demand goes down, it won’t return to pre-Covid levels.

Aussie Broadband managing director Phillip Britt said his customers were still using around 10% more bandwidth than pre-Covid and it reflected a permanent change in behaviour.

NBN’s extra 40% [capacity] bandwidth to cope with peak demand during COVID certainly cushioned the impact, but once it’s gone, we don’t believe traffic levels will return to original forecasts even without areas of the country going in and out of lockdown.

If telcos had to start paying for this extra use, the costs would likely be passed onto customers through higher prices, he said, or peak use times would see a slowdown in people’s download speeds.

When the offer finishes in mid-late August, they will need to adjust back. I believe this will have an impact on peak time speeds because there isn’t any more to give without raising retail prices.

An NBN spokesman said retailers could expect an update in the coming days on what the company had planned for bandwidth.

The network has handled the increased demand very well and we are very proud of the role we have played to help Australians connect with their work, education, friends and families during this difficult time,” he said.

Around 600,000 households have connected to the NBN since the pandemic started.
Britt said another extension of the offer would just be a Band-Aid solution, and the best way to resolve the problem would be for NBN to charge a single fee covering both the monthly connection cost and the bandwidth charge.

Updated

Let’s go back to the specific outbreaks in Victoria.

They are:

  • 160 cases linked to Al-Tarqwa College
  • 51 cases linked to Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham
  • 38 cases linked to Menarock Life aged care home in Essendon
  • 32 cases linked to JBS abattoir in Brooklyn
  • 19 cases linked to the Northern Hospital — no change from yesterday
  • 16 cases linked to the Brunswick Private Hospital — no change from yesterday
  • 23 cases linked to Glendale Aged Care facility in Werribee — no change from yesterday
  • New single-case outbreaks linked to Aurrum Aged Care in Plenty, Regis Aged Care in Brighton, Grace Villa Aged Care in Greensborough, Baptcare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee, and another aged care home in Sunshine.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said the 428 new cases announced today represented some people who would become very unwell, and may have chronic symptoms for a long time.

This is not even an illness where you get over it after a couple of weeks and you get back to a normal state of health. For many, many people, this represents a disability that they carry with their breathing or with their general health for some time to come, and we are not far enough into this pandemic to know what the long-term consequences might be. There may well be people who really carry this disability, or this chronic condition, for years to come.

Updated

Finally, on hotel quarantine. The last international travellers who were placed in quarantine in Melbourne before there was a ban on international passenger flights should complete their 14-day quarantine by today.

But Andrews said there would still be a few crew members who needed to undergo a 24-hour quarantine in the state before turning around and going back on their plane or ship.

A reporter asks about reports that some of those crew members have been allowed to leave the hotel.

Andrews says he is not aware of that and will have to check.

He adds:

...but they are obviously in a different category when it comes to other returned travellers too, but their risk to public health is not taken any less seriously.

He also suggested that the hotel quarantine space, now cleared of travellers, could be used to quarantine other people. He doesn’t specify who that might be.

Corrections Victoria are running the entire show and that does give us some additional capacity in relation to those who are not returned travellers might need to isolate where there needs to be some sense of, it is not a custodial environment but some sense of order to that environment as you have less and less fewer travellers that gives you extra supervised structured hotel space that can be used for whatever purpose you need to.

Andrews says ombudsman's investigation into tower lockdown 'a matter for her'

Andrews was asked about the Victorian ombudsman’s decision to launch an investigation into the public housing tower lockdown at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne.

He said that’s “a matter for her”.

I am not focused on the work that the ombudsman is doing, I am focused on protecting the people in those towers and that is what we have done. We followed the advice of the chief health officer and a very large number of people are working day and night to provide support and care to those tower residents and other public housing residents, whether they be in those nine original towers or others. That is our focus. The ombudsman has a job to do and I will let her do that to further on Alfred Street.

The 14-day hard lockdown order on Alfred Street expires on Sunday, and Andrews said the health advice he received was that the hard lockdown will not be extended.

But he said if anyone has tested positive or has symptoms, they will have to remain isolated in their unit, according to the same isolation rules that apply across the community.

He added: “and there will be a proper enforcement process, just as there is with every other residence right across the state”.

He said:

The balance we have tried to strike here is to treat people no different regardless of their landlord, regardless of the postcode or whether they are in a tower or a house. At the same time recognise that there are unique needs in those settings and try to meet those needs as best we can.

He acknowledged the hard lockdown could have been managed better.

Look, when you do something for the first time, we have never done this before, there were always challenges in the first 24-hour period but everybody, at all times, has done their absolute best. That is all I can ask of emergency services. It is all I can ask of public servants and it is allI can ask of anyone of the thousand sand thousands of people who are part of the team.

He said military support for policing that hard lockdown and backing up health services across the public housing towers would arrive today.

Updated

Back on the exercise rules, Andrews says that if you are a member of a sporting club — like a golf club, or a tennis club, or a shooting club — then you can travel to do that activity at that club, provided it’s not outside of the lockdown area. So, provided it’s not outside Melbourne.

There’s been some commentary that this means if you do an expensive sport, like golf, you have a bit more freedom to move than if you’re just a person who likes walking. That is definitely the rule, Andrews says. He is not asked if it’s fair.

Andrews:

There is not a golf course in every suburb so you cannot play golf in every suburb, and to the question that if you are a member of the club, it is not unreasonable to travel to the club.

But the notion that the only place you can walk is 100km away from your home, does not stand any test of logic. If you can go for a walk in your local community. Daily exercise and a day trip are two different things and Victorians know that. That is why the vast majority of Victorians are not going on 200kilometre roundtrips to walk at the beach to they are doing different things and I am grateful to them.

We will always try and provide clarity and advice but whenever you draw the line or make a ruling, there will always be some grey area …

If individual issues need to be adjudicated we will try to do that and try to be fair [but] it is difficult to write a comprehensive rulebook for human behaviour. The best thing to do is err on the side of caution. If you can do it locally, please do it locally and if you don’t have to do it, then don’t.

I don’t think anyone would argue that driving from Melbourne’s northern suburbs to Rye on the Mornington peninsula, which just happens to also be in the lockdown area, is a reasonable exercise.

But I know many of you will have questions about exercise that, until today, you thought was common sense, like going on a 25km bike ride as part of your regular exercise regime.

Updated

Andrews came in with a clarification on that point. He says the mobility data does not necessarily show that some postcodes are not following the lockdown as well as other places.

The data won’t necessarily tell your story about whether people are being compliant. It may relate to that but it can relate to other fact is as well. For instance, data in a given postcode may, just a raw look of the numbers, look worse than a neighbouring postcode and it may simply be that there are half a dozen families, all of whom have it, which could then skew your data to the point where it looks manifestly worse.

He added:

I want to see these metro-wide and Mitchell Shire restrictions work. If we get a sense and the data continues to tell us, for whatever reason, this is not a commentary on compliance or otherwise, I will make a point about that in a moment. If the data shows the strategy is not being as effective as quickly as we would like, then we may need to go to new rules.

The best and most important contribution that every Melburnian and Victorian can make towards that not happening, making that less likely, is to follow the rules and to come forward and get tested if you are ill.

Updated

Sutton said that mobility data from those benevolent tech giants that track your phone, Google and Facebook, suggested that people had stopped moving around across most of metropolitan Melbourne. But he said there are some areas within the lockdown area where there was still more movement.

I’ve seen very significant shifts in the data for mobility in terms of the amount of time people are spending at home, how much traffic there is on the roads, and the general movement of people from Facebook and Google data that is publicly available.

That said, not all postcodes have stabilised. We have seen some postcodes within the initial areas that have plateaued to some degree, but there are other postcodes within that same local government area that continue to take off and so it is not a uniform picture. And it might be that some of those other postcodes are yet to plateau, but it might be that they are not moving in that direction, and so again, we have to bear in mind that there is a precautionary principle to take.

We wouldn’t wait and wait and wait to see if the change occurs, we need to see what it’s looking like on a daily basis.

What would tighter restrictions look like, and what’s the threshold?

Sutton:

Everything is on the table. There are lots and lots of measures that we need to bear in mind and we shouldn’t discount anything, we do need to follow the epidemiology and understand where transmission is occurring.

We know that essential work is driving some of it with our outbreaks and aged care and in healthcare, so there is absolutely a focus on PPE and awareness of symptoms in aged care and healthcare workers and universal mask wearing is something we are absolutely advocating for in this space. But also the screening, the symptom awareness for everyone so that they are getting tested and isolating very early on.

There might be other workplaces that we need to look at, there might be increased compliance measures that we need to look at, but we are not there yet in terms of understanding exactly what might be required or if it is required yet.

Sutton is asked if Melbourne will have to be locked down for longer than six weeks, which is the length of the current order.

Sutton:

It is hard to say how long a lockdown might be required. If people are really following the restrictions and doing the key things that we are asking of them... we saw these numbers drive down very quickly throughout the first wave, the effective reproduction number got to 0.5, so cases were halving every cycle, every generation. We can do that if people are really universally following the directions.

Is that happening this time?

It is early days and we can still see, as numbers decrease, our ability to find individuals and to follow their close contacts gets greater and greater and we can reduce those numbers on the downside much faster because it becomes more in our control when the numbers are less, but it has been a slower process.

He says that time required to see if the lockdown as it currently stands is working is two weeks. But he says that if they identify any issues, or ways the virus is spreading, before then then they will act more quickly.

Sutton said the current effective reproduction number of the virus in Victoria, which is how many people each person with the virus infects, is “very close to one if not below one”.

We get a range. There is a probability that it’s below one, there is a probability that it’s above one, it seems to be sitting at one from the modelling that’s been done.

That is reassuring, but we also have to go on the numbers we see every day. We also have to take that precautionary principle and work on the basis that we can’t just sit back and expect numbers to go down because modelling tells us so. We have to expect that all models are imperfect, they’ve been very good at predicting numbers ... but we have to accept that if we see [an ongoing increase in] numbers, even if the modelling is telling us that should go down, we have to respond to the reality on the ground.

Updated

Sutton said one of the three people who died overnight was a resident from Menarock Life aged care facility in Essendon, which is now linked to 38 cases.

He said that most of the aged care outbreaks are the result of staff becoming unwell and “inadvertently bringing virus into those aged care facilities”.

On the risk of visitors coming into aged care, he said:

Visitors are checked very closely, there has been a significant limitation on visitors, but we are not seeing that visitors have introduced it into those facilities. There is an important element to the health of residents in seeing their loved ones and their carers.

Some individuals will die when they don’t see their loved ones and carers, so there is a balance to be struck there, but I know a lot of aged care facilities have really significantly reduced visitation. I don’t think it should be a ban [on visitors] I think needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said the increase in cases today – from a record high of 317 yesterday to a new record high of 428 today – was “disappointing and concerning”.

We have not turned the corner here. Worse than that, 428 cases does not just represent that we have increasing numbers day-on-day. There will be dozens of individuals who will require hospitalisation from these 428 people.

Tragically there will be several who require intensive care support and a number of people will die and whenever we have a day of these numbers, that is the case. So it has to turn around.

Sutton said there was “no guarantee” the numbers would stabilise.

It does reflect behaviours and mobility from 10 or more days ago and so, of course, there is a hope that the numbers stabilise over the coming days, towards the end of this week. That is my hope, that no one is being complacent here, and we are all thinking about the additional measures that may be required if it does not turn around, so we are not just banking on the idea that if we wait long enough those numbers will stabilise and drop.

So we must bear in mind any additional measures that are important to help control the numbers.

Updated

Face masks now recommended for regional Victoria

Premier Daniel Andrews said people living in regional Victoria were now requested to wear facemasks if they are out in public, in circumstances where they cannot guarantee physical distancing.

That’s been identified as being on public transport, or in a crowded supermarket.

It remains a request — it’s not compulsory. It’s the same advice that’s been in place in Victoria for the past week.

Andrews said that wearing a mask is “a small thing but it can make a really big difference”.

That mask can be homemade. That mask can be one you purchased, it can take the form of simply wearing a scarf. All these things, they never eliminate risk but they reduce risk and that is something that all of us should be completely focused on.

A bit more on the cases in regional Victoria, from health minister Jenny Mikakos.

Mikakos said there were 42 cases recorded in regional Victoria in the past 17 days, since July 1.

She said:

We have had some cases of people who may be commuting to Melbourne, returning to regional communities and therefore infecting their family members. It is important that people are aware that there are risks at the moment in regional communities and that they need to take every step possible to keep themselves and their families and loved ones and their entire community safe as well.

Mikakos said Victoria would also establish local contact tracing teams in regional Victoria, who had specialist localised knowledge to ensure any regional outbreak is shut down quickly.

On the updated rules, which now explicitly rule out travelling within Melbourne to do your daily exercise, Andrews said the rules were intended to be “common sense”.

He suggested they were spelled out because people were tying to get around them. Or, possibly, because not everyone interprets “commonsense” rules in the same way.

Andrews:

If you must ask yourself and give a lot of thought to whether what you are planning to do is within the rules or against the rules, chances are it is against the rules.

He said there was “further advice provided overnight to assist police in doing important work”. (That’s the update.)

One example. We saw last night some coverage of a couple of people who had travelled from Coburg to Rye on the Mornington peninsula. It is a 200km round trip. That is not daily exercise. That is a day trip and day trips are not on. There is nothing about that that is compatible with staying at home.

If you want to go for a walk then you can go for a walk close to home. That makes sense. Otherwise, if you are literally travelling 200km roundtrips, that will do nothing but spread the virus. I am sure people would love to go to a more scenic location, a location that they spend time at normally, but this is not a normal winter. As we approach this weekend, it is not a normal weekend.

These numbers are very challenging and we always said it would worse before it got better. Let’s not any of us contribute to the fact that we have got significant virus and it is spreading across the Victorian community … Ultimately [use] good judgement and common sense. If I want to go for a walk then I will go for a walk in Mulgrave, where I live. I will not go to the Botanic Gardens or drive 50km or 100km away from my home to do something that I would like to do. That is not compatible with stopping the spread of this virus.

There are clear rules, but even then I will say to those people trying to find ways around the rules: that is not helpful, that is not going to do anything to pull this virus up.

Updated

Andrews said there were five new cases in regional Victoria. He said the government was increasing the number of testing sites in regional areas to ensure the virus did not begin to grow outside Melbourne.

They are relatively low numbers in the scheme of things and we are comforted by that. These things can change rapidly, though, and that is why additional test sites and expanded test sites are critically important.

He added:

That ring around Melbourne and Mitchell Shire is working, in terms of reducing the spread of this virus into regional Victoria but it can change. It can change if people do not follow the rules. It can certainly change if people pretend this is over because they really wanted to be. That is not the situation we face, that is not the reality that we have to confront.

Updated

Andrews said there were 24,409 tests conducted yesterday, bringing the total number of tests conducted since January to 1.25m.

As I have said so many times but I will keep on saying it because it is so important, that gives us the data, the certainty about where this virus is presenting, how it’s moving through the community. And with those results we can trace people, make sure that people are isolating at home, make sure that people are limiting their contact with others, and also through those positive results, and networks of close contacts we can potentially provide care and medical intervention earlier than would otherwise be the case and that can be the difference in terms of just how serious the disease presents and just how serious the health consequences are for those involved.

The people who died are a man in his 80s, a man in his 70s, and a woman in her 80s.

Said Andrews:

I can offer no further information about those three tragedies, but we send our best wishes and our thoughts and prayers to their families, this will be a particularly challenging and very, very sad time for them.

Victoria records 428 new cases of coronavirus and three new deaths

Victoria records 428 new cases of coronavirus overnight and three new deaths, premier Daniel Andrews says.

That brings the total number of deaths in the state from coronavirus to 32 and the total number of cases to 5,165 .

Some 122 people are in hospital, and 31 are in intensive care.

Chant was asked if the pop-up testing clinics in southwestern Sydney, set up to support testing around the Crossroads hotel, will be closed this weekend.

She said the testing clinics in southwest Sydney would be open, but the pop-up at the Crossroads hotel itself would not be open because the pub was reopening on Saturday.

Updated

Chant is asked about the tracing of the virus, through genomic sequencing.

She said the virus has many different strains and has “changed slightly,” so you can figure out sometimes where it has come from.

So what we look for is the genetic code of the virus and we can then see where, I suppose, the lineage, the family tree — and if anyone has seen it, it truly looks like a family tree, it’s pretty scary looking at it. But what that helps us do is identify [the source].

The question we got for the Crossroads, is are we missing something else going on and southwestern Sydney, or are these cases all the same strain and therefore representing the same sort of introduction? And then we can be confident that we are not missing anything. So we look at the genetic sequencing and at the moment we are progressively sequencing those strains... we’re interested in where those cases where we haven’t established a link because for us that the question of is that another introduction, or is that some locally acquired remnant virus that has been circulating in the community?

So for us, our priority is going to be the few cases we haven’t been able to link, and if they are linked to the Crossroads strain of the virus, that will give us confidence that we have just missed an intermediary. Obviously that means that there is a risk that there will be other spread, but that’s why personal actions can help us, because not all cases transmit.

So if you have gone home, if you haven’t then been out and about when you are infectious, then you may infect no one.

Updated

Chant has provided a list of businesses linked to cases of community transmission. She urges people not to penalise those businesses identified, saying they did the right thing and have now been deep cleaned.

I want to assure that people, once we have given businesses the all clear, people should feel safe to return to those businesses because we do not wish to discourage people coming forward for testing and if the community is punitive against those businesses that is a barrier for any staff or owners to come forward for testing. If we can please understand that once those businesses reopen after a deep clean and the infectious people are no longer attending, they are probably one of the safest venues to go to.

Asked why funerals were limited to 100 people, while weddings and corporate events were limited to 150 people, Berejiklian said it was because they carried a greater risk of mingling.

We have been told that funerals are emotional times and while people are complying while seated, we identify mingling between services because everyone is known to each other.

Weddings are seated for the duration of the event whereas at funerals, depending on religion and ceremonies, there are different aspects to the service. Parties are seated, part may be at a burial place of funerals are much more complex in how people interact with each other, whereas weddings, we have an expectation that everyone comes, sits down and stays seated. That is why there is no dancing and unfortunately people have to make decisions about whether or not they wait or proceed with existing restrictions.

Updated

Deputy premier John Barilaro said the restrictions were about “short-term pain for long-term gain”.

We do not want to lock down sectors, industries or business nor the economy but we do want to put in place these measures that allow us to operate safely. There is a burden on business in this state to do the right thing, to be compliant safe, to be Covid-safe and to follow the protocol.

The NSW chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said the number of cases connected to the Crossroads hotel cluster was now 42.

The five new cases reported after 8pm yesterday include three linked to the hotel cluster. The other two are cases of community transmission that are still under investigation.

I would just like to point out that there has often been four chains of transmission picked up in this period and I think that highlights the rapidity and the speed with which this virus can move through the community, but what is pleasing is that some of these cases have been diagnosed while they have been isolating, and this really highlights the importance of the isolation message.

So when our public health officials ask you to isolate, there is a reason. It means that many of these cases have not been out and about while infectious, and therefore the chain of transmission has effectively been broken. New South Wales Health is tracing a large number of people currently associated with these cases.

Chant urged anyone who had been to the Stockland Wetherill Park Shopping Centre in the last two weeks to be “particularly vigilant for symptoms,” saying there were a number of cases linked to that mall.

It is imperative that people, while we got a strong focus on the Crossroads cluster and the activities and southwestern Sydney, it is important that we are not complacent about the risk existing in other parts of the state. It is imperative that anyone across the state comes forward for testing if they have the symptoms, however mild.

Updated

Berejiklian said the measures were introduced because:

We have to assume, based on what has happened in Victoria, based on the numbers that we are seeing in New South Wales and based on the great detective work our health officials are doing, we have to assume there is a level of community transmission and these measures will reduce the risk of that community transmission getting out of control.

She said the general message to NSW was that “we are doing OK but we are on high alert, we are very concerned”.

We are worried about any seeding that might have happened in Victoria, even a month or so ago that has been bubbling along beneath the surface, and we also have a couple of cases that still have unknown sources that Kerry Chant will talk about and that worries us, that could be linked to the current cluster or venue clusters, and that is why we have to be on high alert.

Updated

NSW announces tighter restrictions

NSW has announced tighter restrictions on gatherings, to come into place from Friday next week.

She said the new restrictions “give us every opportunity to keep New SouthWales as open as possible”.

They are:

  • Expanding the restrictions that were imposed on pubs – maximum group bookings of 10 people, down from 20 people, maximum venue capacity of 300 – to clubs, restaurants, cafes and “all indoor hospitality venues”.
  • The maximum number for weddings and corporate events will be 150, and there can be “completely seated, no dancing, no singing, no mingling”.
  • Strict adherence to the four-square metre rule.
  • Funerals and places of worship capped at 100 people.

Berejiklian said funerals would have a lower limit because “they are emotional occasions where people know each other and that increases the risk of transmission”.

She said they would not currently change the number of guests you can have in your home, which is capped at 20, but are recommending that 10 is a safe number.

We’re not going to change the number at this age but in the next little while, we ask people to be thoughtful about who they welcome, how many they welcome and especially protect those most vulnerable.

Updated

Berejklian said two of the eight cases reported yesterday were in hotel quarantine and six were in community transmission.

She said NSW was on a state of “high alert” to ensure it had contained the outbreak.

We need to make sure we get on top of any potential hot spots or any potential community transmission that might be bubbling away under the surface. All of us need to limit our activity, all of us need to think about what we’re doing, all of us need to think about how are keeping ourselves safe, our family safe and our loved ones safe.

So while we are encouraged by the numbers of people coming forward and getting tested, while we are encouraged by the great detective work our health officials are doing, we remain in a state of high alert, we remain concerned, about the underlying community transmission that could be bubbling away and in response we ask all of our citizens to think carefully about their activity. We are not suggesting that people completely isolate themselves unless they have symptoms or have been tested... but we certainly are saying to people in the next little while, think about what you are doing.

On the Crossroads Hotel, she said:

I do also want to especially thank Dr Chant and her team, the health Minister and everybody in health, the detective work that has gone on this week has been nothing short ofHerculean, with the one Crossroads outbreak we have seen anywhere between 5,000 and 6,000 people and their contacts contacted, it’s been a major job in I have been incredibly proud of all the team.

Updated

NSW records eight new coronavirus cases yesterday

Gladys Berejiklian says NSW has recorded eight new cases of coronavirus in the 24-hours to 8pm yesterday, and five more cases after 8pm.

She thanked the than 3,000 people came forward for testing in southwest Sydney yesterday. Some 24,000 tests were performed statewide.

A small update regarding our story yesterday on Malcolm Turnbull’s wide-ranging remarks on the relationship with China: it turns out the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is unimpressed with his observations on the UK’s shift in policy on 5G networks.

Addressing a webinar hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies on the topic of China’s influence and activities in Australia, Turnbull said Australia needed to have confidence in the products and services that it sold “and not be bullied” by threats of trade disruptions.

Turnbull pointed to “the mess the UK’s got themselves in” over the potential role of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in the 5G network. Boris Johnson’s government announced this week that Huawei would be stripped from Britain’s 5G phone networks by 2027 – reversing a previous decision to allow Huawei to supply 35% of the equipment – prompting Beijing to warn that the decision could come with costs attached.

Turnbull said:

We [Australia] did a very thorough technical assessment of the risks related to 5G and made a very informed decision which we announced [in 2018] and then that was it — no further correspondence entered into. The UK has been going round and round on this issue and of course it’s become a political issue as opposed to a technical security issue and they’ve been subject to enormous pressure.

Jeremy Mitchell, the chief corporate affairs officer of Huawei Australia, issued a statement to say Turnbull’s comments were “simply absurd”. Mitchell said the Turnbull government’s process had been “rushed and highly secret” whereas the UK government had engaged in more than a decade of close liaison between its security agencies and Huawei to better understand how any security risks could be mitigated.

Mr Turnbull claims that following his government’s decision on Huawei that the ‘controversy evaporated pretty quickly’ – conveniently omitting to mention that this was because the country was going through the turmoil of him being removed from office by his own colleagues when he imposed the ban.

Updated

The Victorian Greens have called for the scope of the ombudsman’s inquiry into the public housing lockdown in Melbourne to be expanded to cover all nine towers that were subject to the initial lockdown order.

The inquiry announced this morning will be focused on the tower at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, the only one of the nine still locked down for the full 14 days.

The acting leader of the Victorian Greens, Ellen Sandell, said the treatment of people in the other eight towers should also be investigated.

We need to ask why 3,000 people were left without essential food and medicine for days, and were given no information about when these supplies would arrive.

This also needs to be a wake-up call to the government on the importance of investing in public housing and supporting public housing residents. Decades of neglect by successive governments directly led to this situation.

Updated

I fear I upset some of you by sharing that Q&A from the Victorian government about the need to stay in your local area.

I’m so sorry.

Nice to know our friends across the ditch are thinking of us.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Congress has called for people from Victoria and Sydney to be turned away at the NT border, rather than put in quarantine, because of concerns the virus will escape quarantine as it did in Victoria.

Gunner says they haven’t had a breach of quarantine in the NT, so the 14-day quarantine was “the absolute best thing that you can do”. He also suggested they were not legally able to turn people away.

We know that it works. We have not had a situation in the territory like we saw in Victoria around that breakdown around the quarantine facility... We have gone back and refreshed and retested everything that we have done. We got it working last time. We were one of the first to do it when we stood up this facility [Howard Springs] for hundreds of people out of Wuhan, did it again for the Diamond Princess.

We have a history of getting this right in theNorthern Territory, making it safe and making sure we keep Territorians safe. That is my absolute priority. Territory lives come first and we have done that and done it well....

As far as I have been informed today we are pushing the legal limet everything we can do at our hard borders. I will always look at what we can do in the state and take directions and advice in that. Right now, everything we are doing is the toughest we can do.

There is a key difference in that people are held at the Howard Springs military base to quarantine in the NT, whereas in Melbourne they were at various CBD hotels.

NT police commissioner, Jamie Chalker, said police have already issued one fine at the border.

A person was fined $5,056 yesterday for not complying with quarantine rules.

The NT chief minister, Michael Gunner, has been speaking in Darwin about the reopening of the NT border (to anyone but Victorians and people from Sydney).

He said:

One hundred and 16 days ago we closed down our borders. I know that had a lot of consequences for a lot of people and it hurt a lot of people. Again we did it on the medical advice and we did it safely and did it so that Territorians remain safe.

Today our hard border controls remain in place and nearly half of Australia is not welcome in the Northern Territory. We have stood up the Howard Springs Quarantine Facility again so make sure we can keep Territorians safe again. We can keep Territorians safe because we have got those hard border controls. Police on our borders, forced quarantine for hot spots and tough consequences for anyone who does the wrong thing and ignores a direction from the chief health officer.

From today, those consequences will be even tougher. If you fail to comply with the direction from the chief health officer as an individual, that is $5,000. You should not need that financial penalty as incentive to do the right thing but it is there to make sure that everyone thinks about what they’re doing and we follow those directions from our chief health officer.

We have been the safest place in the country because Territorians have been the best. There’s been extraordinary work done by hundreds and thousands of public servants at our borders, at our hospitals here at this quarantine facility, across the board ... I need you to keep digging in. I need you to keep being the best. I need you to keep following that medical advice, like I am, to make sure that we all stay safe. I have a job to do. The police commissioner has a job to do. The chief health officers that a job to do but you have a job to do as well. I need you to stay safe, stay smart and keep being the best.

Updated

Queensland has recorded no new cases of coronavirus

Queensland has again recorded no new cases of coronavirus. It has four active cases.

The NSW government will provide a coronavirus update at 11am, according to the ABC, and Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and health minister Jenny Mikakos will hold their press conference at 11.30am.

They’ve staggered it, I’m so proud of them.

Updated

The premier’s office also provided Matilda with a number of additional FAQs on the exercise change. We’re not the only media outlet asking these questions this morning.

Here are the examples they set out. They are extremely Melbourne.

Q: I live in Spotswood and I go walking around the Tan because I feel safe there, can I continue to do this?

A: No. You should go walking at your nearest safe place.

Q: I live in Fitzroy North — can I go to the bottle shop in South Melbourne because it has better gin?

A: You should go to the bottle shop closest to your home.

Q: I live in Coburg, but I love exercising around the Botanical Gardens, is this OK?

A: No. You should exercise in the park closest to your home.

Q: I live in Essendon but I want to run around Rye Beach?

A: No. You should run near home.

Q: I have a nice local dog walking park but the park 5km away in Brighton is much nicer, am I allowed to walk there?

A: No, you should go to the closest place to your home.

Q: I want to take the kids to the next suburb for a bike ride. Can I drive there and take the kids riding if we socially distance?

A: No. You should bike ride at the closest available location to your home.

Q: There’s three coffee shops in my suburb, but my favourite is three suburbs away. Can I go there?

A: No, you should go to the closest coffee shop to your home.

Q: I’ve been looking forward to doing the Bay Trail bike ride. I live in Mulgrave and was planning to drive the care down with the bikes to hit the trial. Is this allowed?

A: No, you should go to the closest bike trail to your home.

Q: How far away from my house can I ride my bike? How far away from my house can I power walk, jog, run?

A: You should show common sense in satisfying your exercise requirements, and go the minimum time and minimum distance that achieve this in your circumstances.

Q: I love fishing and my favourite fishing spot is 15km away. I could fish nearer home but its not great. Can i go to my favourite fishing spot?

A: No, you should go to the closest place to your home.

People walking at the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
People walking at the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Updated

My Melbourne colleague Matilda Boseley asked the Victorian department of health and human services about the changes to the rules around exercise in lockdown, and just received a response back from the premier’s office.

It pointed to Daniel Andrews comments of last Tuesday, which said you cannot leave metropolitan Melbourne to exercise. That’s slightly beside the point, because the changes to the FAQs today, set out here, restrict people from travelling within Melbourne.

The premier’s office also provided this statement, from a government spokesperson:

The whole way through this, we’ve been very clear that Victorians must use their common sense and stay close to home.

Following the rules protects regional Victoria, our health system, and most of all the ones we love.

It doesn’t matter if it’s work or study, care, shopping or exercise – under stage three restrictions in the past and now, you cannot travel further than you need to.

Updated

Menarock Life aged care has not been audited for three years

Menarock Life aged care facility in Essendon, the aged care facility hardest hit by the latest Victorian outbreak, with 31 confirmed cases across residents and staff, has not been audited for three years, Labor aged care spokeswoman Julie Collins has said.

Collins said:

It is deeply concerning a facility in Essendon with the largest outbreak of Covid-19 in aged care has not been audited by the Morrison government’s aged care regulator in more than three years.

Collins said that a facility run by the same provider was examined by the aged care royal commission last year. She questioned why the aged care regulator did not also look at the provider’s other facilities.

Residents who tested positive to coronavirus have been moved out of the facility and placed in hospital.

Cleaners are seen inside the main reception of The Menarock Life Essendon aged care facility.
Cleaners are seen inside the main reception of The Menarock Life Essendon aged care facility. Photograph: Speed Media/REX/Shutterstock

Updated

Bunnings workers will receive a one-off payment of up to $1,000 for continuing to work during the coronavirus pandemic.

Full-time workers will get $1,000 in as a “thank you payment in recognition of their customer-facing work over the past few months”. Part-time and casual staff will get a pro-rata payment based on the hours they’ve worked between January and June.

The payment is the result of lobbying from the SDA union, says the SDA union. NSW/ACT secretary, Bernie Smith, said:

Recognition of the hard work of members who have worked through extremely difficult circumstances in the pandemic was welcomed.

The payment acknowledges the service Bunnings employees are providing the community – and the tensions and risks they have dealt with professionally over the pandemic.

This thank you payment couldn’t have come at a better time as retail workers return to the frontline of the pandemic in Victoria and parts of south-west Sydney.

He adds:

We all have a long way to go so a bit of recognition is appreciated by retail workers. If local conditions allow you to visit your local Bunnings over coming days, take the time to thank a staff member for their service and show them kindness and patience.

Costco, Woolworths Supermarkets, Coles, Big W, Dan Murphy’s, BWS, JB Hi Fi and Ritchies IGA have also all provided coronavirus thank you payments to staff.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison told Sunrise this morning that the effective unemployment rates in Australia had fallen to 11%, from about 13% before the June unemployment figures were released yesterday.

He also vaguely foreshadowed the nature of the income support that will be extended past the planned end of the jobkeeper program in September. The federal government will release the details of that support next week.

Morrison said:

I have been saying now for some time that here will be further income support...

We will be making those announcements next week. We have made it very clear, and I have made this very clear to Dan Andrews, the premier, when we have been speaking about the crisis there, that there will be continued support, it will be targeted at those who need it most, it will be there for everyone who needs it based on the impact on their businesses and the impact on their employees.

Motorists have been warned they face months of traffic jams on the Queensland-New South Wales border, with the Queensland police commissioner, Katarina Carroll, saying that police are working to improve the flow of traffic but delays are inevitable.

According to AAP, Carroll said:

It is taking considerable time to get through the borders. So please, please plan for that and be patient.

It’s not normal times. It is Covid. And this will continue to be the case for many, many, many more months to come.

As always, you can follow our global coronavirus coverage here.

Victorian Ombudsman to investigate public housing lockdown

The Victorian Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the treatment of public housing residents living at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne, the only one of the nine public housing towers still in hard lockdown.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass said the investigation is in response to concerns raised by residents and advocates, who raised concerns about the “overwhelming” police presence; a lack of communication and consultation; and suggested the lockdown was discriminatory.

The investigation will consider the conditions under which people are detained at 33 Alfred Street; the nature and accessibility of official communications with residents; the appropriateness of the restrictions placed on people’s access to fresh air, exercise, medical care and medical supplies; and whether Victorian authorities acted in compliance with the Victorian charter of human rights.

She said:

I recognise this is an unprecedented global health emergency and governments must act swiftly to protect human lives. People on the front line are doing an extraordinary job to respond to this crisis and help keep us safe.

However, there are lessons to be learnt in how governments can do that in a way that protects people’s human rights, including access to fresh air, exercise and medical supplies.

Glass said her investigation would be collaborative with other government agencies “to the extent possible” and she was also seeking input from residents, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, community legal centres, community groups, and the Victorian multicultural commission.

She said:

My aim is that together we can learn from what has occurred over the last fortnight, and help put in place improvements for the North Melbourne residents.

If similar emergency situations occur in other public housing estates, we can use the learnings gained through this investigation to get better outcomes for anyone else who may be affected.

Glass said any resident with concerns about their situation in lockdown could contact her office on 9613 6222 or via an interpreter on 131 450 between 10am and 4pm weekdays.

Balloons are seen on the fence at the locked down public housing tower at 33 Alfred Street in North Melbourne, Australia.
Balloons are seen on the fence at the locked down public housing tower at 33 Alfred Street in North Melbourne, Australia. Photograph: Daniel Pockett/EPA

Updated

Victoria tightens exercise rules for people in lockdown

The Victorian government has tightened the exercise rules for people in the lockdown areas of greater Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire.

You may recall, if you read the rules posted on the Department of Health and Human Services website last week, that there was no restriction on where you exercised so long as you didn’t leave the lockdown area.

But the FAQ for ‘Can I leave the house to do exercise outdoors?’ included this line:

You should also stay close to home and use common sense and consideration when it comes to these activities.

Seems sensible.

Overnight, a two new sections were added. They include:

My favourite walking track is on the other side of the city. Can I still go there?

No. You should not travel further than you need to. Victorians must use common sense and consideration when it comes to their activities and stay close to home when they can. Lives are counting on it.

The other new section is:

I am a member of a golf course 30km away and there is a public course around the corner from my house, am I allowed to play golf at the course 30km away?

If you are a member of a sporting club within the Restricted Area, then you can attend, provided the club is permitted to open under the restrictions.

Exercise is not a permitted reason to leave the Restricted Area, whether you have a membership at a regional sporting club or not.

You may argue that these were just common sense, but they weren’t spelled out before. And given the penalty for breaching lockdown restrictions is a $1,652 fine, and police have said they will no longer show discretion and let people off with a warning, we wanted to let people know.

You can read the rules here.

People exercise at the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
People exercise at the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Photograph: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Updated

Streaking – never a good idea – has become quite an expensive activity during the pandemic. The rules in place to allow footballers to travel mean that the pitch is now an official quarantine zone, with fines of $50,000 and a potential 14-day quarantine for anyone who breaches it.

So if you are, say, one of the 22,077 people who attended the Collingwood v Geelong game at Perth’s Optus Stadium last night, running on to the pitch would be a very stupid, very expensive idea.

Oh well.

A pitch invader is escorted from the field of play by security during the round 7 AFL match between the Geelong Cats and the Collingwood Magpies at Optus Stadium.
A pitch invader is escorted from the field of play by security during the round 7 AFL match between the Geelong Cats and the Collingwood Magpies at Optus Stadium. Photograph: Paul Kane/Getty Images

According to Nine Newspapers’ David Prestipino:

The pitch invader ran barely 10 metres on to the ground before security staff in masks and gloves swiftly brought him down.

They dragged the man from the field while he tried in vain to remove his pants.

Don’t you miss football?

Updated

Morrison said it was “premature” to be talking about tightening the restrictions in Victoria, just one week into the resumption of stage three stay-at-home rules.

Andrews has not said he is thinking of tightening restrictions to the much talked about, detail bereft stage four.

Morrison said it would be a bit premature, because we would not expect to see a reduction in case numbers yet. He said he expected the numbers Victoria has recorded this week – “not the above 300 figure, that was concerning, but I wasn’t expecting to see those numbers falling yet”.

Updated

Prime minister Scott Morrison has also been on AM, speaking to Sabra Lane. She asked if it was acceptable for Victoria to wait until the completion of its hotel quarantine inquiry, due in September, to release its full genomic sequencing data showing how the virus spread from infection control failures in hotel quarantine to more than 2,000 active cases.

Given the risk of this happening in other states, shouldn’t that information be shared so other states can avoid making the same mistakes?

Morrison suggested that sharing has occurred in national cabinet meetings, which he says allows premiers and chief ministers to be “very candid” with each other. He said:

I thank premier Andrews for the way he has been candid with his colleagues about this.

He said the federal government is working closely with Victoria on reviewing hotel quarantine, as well as commissioning a separate national review.

If you have those problems in quarantine in Queensland or WA you can’t hide behind borders on that. We can’t think that borders or restrictions are the defence against the virus. The defence against the virus is strong contact tracing ... that’s what’s being borne out in NSW right now.

Morrison is continuing to talk up the suppression strategy over a formal strategy of elimination, and says the breaches in hotel quarantine show the weakness of an elimination-only strategy like that which has been successfully pursued in New Zealand.

An outbreak from quarantine could easily occur in NZ as it has in Australia.

Updated

Australia invests $10m in zoonotic disease prevention

The Australian government has announced a new $10.2m international research program into the growing rates of zoonotic diseases across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

Zoonotic diseases are diseases that pass from animals or insects to humans, like a coronavirus. Covid-19 is a zoonotic disease.

The funding will be invested over three years into the Research for One Health Systems Strengthening Program, which the federal government says will bring together leading Australian and international researchers “to address issues at the critical interface between people, animals and the environment”.

In a statement, foreign minister Marise Payne and agriculture minister David Littleproud said three quarters of emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, and Covid-19 is a stark reminder of the devastating impact those diseases can have.

Payne said:

Other viruses like Sars and Mers crossed from animal to human in the same way Covid-19 did, with deadly consequences. It’s important we do what we can to reduce the risk of the emergence and transmission of new zoonotic diseases, to protect lives and livelihoods into the future.

Littleproud said better health and agriculture systems would reduce the risk.

The government is committed to improving health and food security in our region, and taking concrete action to reduce the zoonotic disease risks posed by human use of animals.

The research will focus on zoonotic malaria in Indonesia, antimicrobial resistance in Fiji, extra-pulmonary tuberculosis and zoonotic arboviruses in Papua New Guinea, and highly pathogenic avian influenza policies and implementation in Cambodia, Laos PDR and Vietnam.

Researchers from the CSIRO, Menzies School of Health Research, University of Melbourne’s Nossal Institute for Global Health, Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness and the Burnet Institute are involved.

Updated

Finally, Morrison was asked about the $400m boost to the screen initiative intended to attract more big studio productions to Australia. The funding was announced today.

Morrison said the money could create 8,000 jobs in movie production, from catering to cleaning to electricians.

They’re the jobs that comes from production. It runs over seven years. This isn’t about one-offs. This is about getting repeat productions and getting jobs and a base of jobs across production facilities all around the country.

Morrison said 210,000 jobs “came back into the economy in June”, according to yesterday’s unemployment figures that also saw a rise in unemployment. That’s the biggest increase in jobs “we’ve ever seen in a month”. It’s caused, primarily, by hospitality businesses reopening after being shutdown from March to May.

It shows there’s hope that we can get on top of the virus, and when we can get on top of the virus, when we do open our economy, the jobs came back.

Movie World sits beside the Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Australia.
Movie World sits beside the Village Roadshow Studios in Gold Coast, Australia. Photograph: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

Updated

Morrison is shown a video of an 83-year-old man named Graeme Smith, who lives in Glendale aged care facility in Werribee, western Melbourne, which is linked to 23 coronavirus cases.

Can the prime minister explain to Graeme why he shouldn’t feel fear?

Morrison says there is “reason to be anxious”.

The coronavirus spreads very, very rapidly. For all those who want to seek to dismiss it and treat it like lightly you have to remember that on the broad figures, the fatality rate on the coronavirus is more than five times what it is for the flu each year. It is serious, particularly for the most vulnerable and people like Graeme fall into that category.

There are 45 cases we had in facilities yesterday. There are masks being worn across all aged care facilities across Victoria. Five million masks have been put in to support that out of the national stockpile. I’d say to Graeme, I understand you’re worried. I know his family would be worried too. We learn a lot of lessons from up in Newmarch that’s been put in place in the Victoria situation in the facilities there. Communication with families is much improved. People have been moved out of those most affected facilities.... Everything has been done to keep Graeme and everyone else in those facilities as safe as is possible.

But what it is a reminder to everyone else, who thinks that this thing doesn’t affect people, think of Graham, think of the most vulnerable in the community. Other people, younger people, are far more resistant to this. They’re super spreaders of it. How they conduct themselves can affect people like Graham very significantly. As well as people who are on cancer treatments and things like that. So we’ve got to be mindful of everyone in how we conduct ourselves.

Great leaders, Stefanovic says, own their mistakes. We’re getting philosophical.

Morrison:

Of course we’re all accountable for our own decisions. Nothing changes that. But it’s not about who we like or who we don’t like. It’s about what is needed now on the ground and the task that need to be done.

He repeats that he has sent the army in – at Victoria’s request – including a one-star equivalent commodore who will be leading a team of logisticians. About 1,000 ADF members are expected to be stationed in Victoria over the coming days.

Stefanovic would like to talk about leadership again. “You help lead this country into a great position to tackle this virus,” he says. “The stakes were high and still are. Victorians, can’t help but feel this were letdown no matter what way you look at it. Badly let down. Now people are dying. It wasn’t their fault. Cant hey with any certainty feel like their leader isn’t going to let them down again?”

Morrison:

Well, we’re putting the support into ensure that they do get the things they need to get on top of this. There is a very big collaborative effort. That support has been received and Victoria have been very grateful for that.

It’s not just the commonwealth government. New South Wales, they’re doing tracing for the Victorian government. There’s the cooperation that’s occurring along the Victorian NSW border. There’s testing being done in South Australia, Tasmania and support coming out of Queensland and WA. This is a national effort. That’s what I think Victorians can have confidence in: the whole country is working together to help them and to help their government in this time of their crisis.

Prime minister Scott Morrison.
Prime minister Scott Morrison. Photograph: Lukas Coch/EPA

Updated

Scott Morrison says Victoria outbreak is 'very serious'

Prime minister Scott Morrison has done the rounds of the morning television shows. On the Today program on Channel Nine, he was asked by host Karl Stefanovic if he trusts Victoria to manage this latest outbreak, given it bungled hotel quarantine.

Does Karl not know about the alleged bromance?

Morrison says the Victorian situation is “very serious” but says, “it’s my job to support them, Karl. That’s my job”.

He says he is supporting all premiers and chief ministers, and talking to Andrews “quite regularly”.

Stefanovic: But you must know what went wrong?

Morrison:

Well, the quarantine breach obviously is very been very significant. It’s a reminder that with where this has occurred it’s got out through that method. If those who are proposing an eradication strategy – if you get a breach in quarantine that doesn’t matter. It will seep out into the community. It’s a reminder of the need to keep on with the social distancing. To keep on with those other protections. Keep the tracing capacity up to scratch. All of these things. That’s your effective defence against a breakout like what we’ve seen in Victoria.

We’ve seen similar things in NSW, the situation there is going much better. Right now, all my focus is on supporting people in Victoria. Supporting Melburnians in particular and ensuring they are getting the support they need to getting the support they need to get on top of this. Daniel Andrews has my full support to do that.

Stefanovic asks if Morrison was annoyed at the quarantine breach. Morrison says it’s not about how he feels, it’s about what he does.

[The] only thing that matters is getting on top of this. I will give Daniel Andrews every support he needs to be able to achieve that. It’s what Melburnians and Victoria needs. If Victoria isn’t successful Australia isn’t successful. We need Melburnians and Victorians to win here.

Stefanovic is incredulous. “It doesn’t matter how you feel?”

Morrison:

No, not for me. It doesn’t mate I’m sorry. Prime ministers don’t get that indulgence. We have a job to do and get on with it.

Updated

Good morning,

Restrictions on New South Wales pubs, capping the total number of patrons at 300, group bookings at 10, and making sure they have a coronavirus hygiene officer during peak periods, came into force at midnight last night. All pubs also have to have registered a Covidsafe plan with the state to continue operating.

NSW recorded 10 cases yesterday, and the state’s health minister, Brad Hazzard, has said he does not want to impose tighter restrictions or a lockdown because the impact on mental health and the economy would be too high.

But the physical health effects of the virus are worse than most probably realise. Many people who were admitted to the acute care wards of Sydney’s St Vincent’s hospital in the first wave of the virus in March are still experiencing symptoms, as Melissa Davey reports.

Victoria, which recorded its biggest ever daily case increase, with 317 cases reported yesterday, is now dealing with a twin crisis: more than 30 outbreaks connected to aged care, and more than 150 hospital staff in isolation after being exposed, or testing positive, to Covid-19.

So it’s easy to see why the Northern Territory will not let Victorians in. The border is now open, except to people who have been in Sydney or Victoria in the past 14 days. Police are still at all border entry points, including the airport, and will direct those from Victorian and Sydney to spend 14-days in mandatory quarantine, and pay $2,500 for the privilege.

Let’s crack on. You can get me on twitter @callapilla or at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com

NSW Health workers administering Covid-19 tests to people in their cars at the Crossroads Hotel testing centre in Sydney.
NSW Health workers administering Covid-19 tests to people in their cars at the Crossroads Hotel testing centre in Sydney. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

Updated

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