What we learned: Wednesday, 17 July
That is where I will leave you tonight. Thanks for reading. We’ll be with you again first thing tomorrow.
First, though, here’s what we learned today:
- Victoria recored 238 new cases of Covid-19 to 8pm last night. There are currently 105 people in hospital, up 20 from yesterday, and 27 in intensive care, up one from yesterday. A woman in her 90s died last night.
- The state’s police have issued some 500 fines for breaches of public health orders since last Wednesday. The deputy police commissioner, Rick Nugent, told media today that police were “finding people in cupboards” and had fined people eating KFC and playing Pokémon.
- The AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan, announced Victorian AFL teams will be based in Queensland for up to 10 weeks as the league scrambles to continue running in the face of the outbreak.
- There were 13 new cases in New South Wales, including 10 cases connected to the Crossroads hotel, bringing the size of that cluster to 34. Genomic testing has linked that cluster to a man who travelled to the state from Victoria.
- The Northern Territory announced it will keep its borders closed to all of Sydney, as well as to Victoria, when it allows domestic travel to resume on Friday.
- The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said 32 aged-care facilities in Victoria were affected by Covid-19 outbreaks. Of those, eight have residents who have tested positive to Coivd-19, and in the remaining 24 only staff have tested positive to date.
Updated
Gladys Berejiklian announced NSW’s Covid-19 economic recovery plan in Sydney earlier today.
Among a range of initiatives, the NSW government aims to stimulate the state’s economy by speeding up planning assessment approvals for construction projects.
The NSW government will spend $83m on reforming its planning approvals, which it claims will speed up rezoning decisions by 191 days, or 33%, development applications for larger regionally significant projects by 91 days, or 25%, and decisions on major projects of state significance by 20 days, or 17%.
The efficiencies will be achieved by giving more funding to the land and environment court to appoint two additional commissioners to hear cases, establish a new class of appeals for rezonings and “unblock the planning system”.
An online tool will also be launched to lodge development applications, and all councils will be made to adopt the online system by 1 July 2021.
Berejiklian said the reforms would not jeopardise safety checks.
“We are not speeding up what has to be done so you can’t cut corners, it’s just making sure the assessment of each stage is done as efficiently as possible,” she said.
Other initiatives announced by the NSW government as part of its Covid-19 recovery will include a $100bn infrastructure pipeline, which it claims will help create 88,000 jobs over the next four years.
“Very small projects in very small regional communities will be up for grabs,” Berejiklian said.
The NSW government will also overhaul its school curriculum, in what it says will be the “biggest share-up in 30 years”.
A review will “declutter” the curriculum, “with a renewed focus on the core competencies of English, maths and science”.
“There will also be clearer pathways to both university study and vocational training, ensuring that subjects combine knowledge with hands-on application.
“Changes to the curriculum will start in 2021 and all years from kindergarten to year 12 will be learning from the new curriculum by 2024,” the announcement said.
Updated
The ABC is reporting that some homeless residents of Melbourne have tested positive for Covid-19. These people had been placed in temporary accommodation, but welfare organisations have been very worried about the prospect of the virus getting into the homeless population.
We've just received confirmation that a "small number" of homeless people who were being put up in temporary hotels in Melbourne have tested positive for covid19.
— Jo Lauder (@jolauder) July 15, 2020
DHHS have told @triplejHack these people are now being treated in a separate isolation/recovery facility.
Updated
Last week the National Cabinet updated its position on the use of face masks, saying it now recommends people wear them in situations where community transmission of Covid-19 is occurring and physical distancing is difficult. In that spirit my colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes has put together this helpful explainer on the when, where, why and how of masks. It’s good!
The Melbourne Age is reporting that five healthcare workers at the Royal Children’s hospital have tested positive to Covid-19 in an outbreak linked to a sushi outlet at the hospital’s food court.
EXCLUSIVE Five healthcare workers at Royal Children's Hospital test positive to COVID-19 in outbreak that may be linked to sushi outlet at the hospital's food court https://t.co/AjyPTIE9Ax
— The Age (@theage) July 15, 2020
Updated
Earlier today the Victoria police held a press conference in which the deputy commissioner, Rick Nugent, said officers conducting compliance checks were “finding people in cupboards, we are finding people in garages”.
My colleague Josh Taylor asked them what power officers had to enter those premises without a warrant, and whether it was granted to them under the terms of the Public Health Orders. This is what they’ve said:
In the majority of instances where police are called to alleged breaches of the chief health officer’s directions, people are compliant and voluntarily allow police into the property.
Where people refuse access, police seek approval and accompany a Department of Health and Human Services authorised officer into the property.
I have a little personal quibble with police conflating people not voluntarily allowing officers into their home with “compliance”, but basically the PHOs in Victoria do allow certain “authorised officers” to enter homes without a warrant.
Updated
The wife of New Zealand Warriors NRL player David Fusitu’a has thanked the club for their support after he and three other players were granted permission to return home at the end of this month.
The Warriors have been camped in Australia since before the resumption of the league due to the closed border between the two countries. They announced on Wednesday that Fusitu’a, Ken Maumalo, Agnatius Paasi and King Vuniyayawa will fly home on July 27 “to be reunited with their families as soon as possible”.
“The players had originally committed to stay in Australia only until Sunday’s match against Cronulla-Sutherland unless the NRL succeeded in its efforts to secure travel exemptions for their families to enter Australia,” The Warriors said.
As you can see below, it’s been welcomed by Eden Fusitu’a.
“For my health and the health of our baby, we need David home. We’ve needed him home for a while,” she said.
“Ngā mihi @NZWarriors, @RLPlayers, Todd, the welfare staff and the players for being so understanding and supportive.
“And David, for being the best husband and soon to be dad.”
For my health and the health of our baby, we need David home. We’ve needed him home for a while.
— Eden Fusitu’a (@edenfusitua) July 15, 2020
Ngā mihi @NZWarriors, @RLPlayers, Todd, the welfare staff and the players for being so understanding and supportive.
And David, for being the best husband and soon to be dad 🤎 https://t.co/tLVCq7s3O9
The University of New South Wales has offered almost 500 voluntary redundancies to staff, according to the Community and Public Sector Union.
The CPSU, which represents non-academic staff at the university, said on Wednesday that the university had offered 493 redundancies to staff, blaming the federal government for failing to offer increased funding to the tertiary education sector during the coronavirus crisis.
“It is clear that Australia’s higher education sector is in a perilous situation – we need jobkeeper in our universities now, and then we need a fundamental rethink of the higher education system,” Troy Wright, assistant secretary of the CPSU in NSW, said in a statement.
“We will hold a mass meeting with members tomorrow to make sure their voice is heard clearly during talks with the university. We will support our members every step of the way and work with the university to minimise the disruption to students and staff.”
The university sector has been savaged by the pandemic, in large part because one of its most important funding sources – international students – has been cut off.
“The university sector is in crisis, but it was under pressure long before Covid-19. A lack of proper investment made the sector fragmented and over-reliant on international students,” Wright said.
UNSW has been approached for comment.
Updated
New advice from Vic courts; anyone in Victoria’s court or tribunal buildings will be expected to wear face masks when they are moving around in a court building.https://t.co/lyqt6nP8sg
— Melissa Davey (@MelissaLDavey) July 15, 2020
Western Australia records eight new Covid-19 cases
Western Australia has recorded eight new cases of Covid-19 overnight.
All of the eight new cases relate to returned overseas travellers who are in hotel quarantine. There are currently 29 active cases in WA. It brings the state’s total to 644.
Updated
Grocery giant Woolworths will remove most limits on product purchases across Victoria from tomorrow – but restrictions on toilet paper will remain.
In a statement today Woolworths said it would lift restrictions on 23 products across Victoria “as demand moderates to more normal levels across the state”.
The products include:
- rice
- pasta
- flour
- mince
- sugar
- eggs
- dairy
- bread
- tissues
- paper towels
But a two-pack-per-person limit on toilet paper will remain in place nationwide.
“We wish to thank customers for returning to their normal shopping routines over the past week. We’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and reinstate product limits if we see further demand spikes,” Woolworths said in a statement.
Updated
Police in the ACT have politely been requesting that people in Canberra stop answering the door in the nude during Covid-19 compliance requests.
In a press conference this morning, Detective Superintendent Jason Kennedy said those in isolation had been offering police a “warm reception”.
But, as News.com.au reports, some of the welcomes were a little too friendly: “Some of them may need a reminder to put some clothes on before they open the door for a compliance check,” Kennedy said.
“We did get a few surprises on the weekend.”
The ACT has again recorded no new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday.
Updated
Here’s the full story on the AFL’s decision to relocate to Queensland in a bid to keep the already-disrupted season alive.
This is quite helpful from the ABC reporter Casey Briggs. You might have seen reports about the role of the Black Lives Matter protests in the spread of the virus in Victoria today. This seems to, erm, contradict some of that reporting.
In relation to some newspaper reports of a "link" between the BLM protest and public housing towers, Vic Health says:
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) July 15, 2020
* So far 6 ppl who protested have been infected
* There is no evidence any of them acquired it at the protest
* None live in a major public housing complex pic.twitter.com/Ka6FQC1xWE
Updated
Six staff affiliated with Melbourne’s Royal Women’s hospital are among those confirmed to have Covid-19 as part of Victoria’s recent outbreak, my colleague Melissa Davey reports.
Good afternoon and welcome to the ‘up late’ edition of the Guardian’s Covid-19 blog.
If you’ve been following Calla Wahlquist’s excellent coverage today you’ll know where we’re at, but for everyone else let’s do a quick recap:
- Victoria recored 238 new cases of Covid-19 to 8pm last night. There are currently 105 people in hospital, up 20 from yesterday, and 27 in intensive care, up one from yesterday. A woman in her 90s died last night.
- The state’s police have issued some 500 fines for breaches of public health orders since last Wednesday. The deputy police commissioner, Rick Nugent, told media today that police were “finding people in cupboards” and had fined people eating KFC and playing Pokémon.
- The AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan, announced Victorian AFL teams will be based in Queensland for up to 10 weeks as the league scrambles to continue running in the face of the outbreak.
- There were 13 new cases in New South Wales, including 10 cases connected to the Crossroads hotel, bringing the size of that cluster to 34. Genomic testing has linked that cluster to a man who travelled to the state from Victoria.
- The Northern Territory announced it will keep its borders closed to all of Sydney, as well as to Victoria, when it allows domestic travel to resume on Friday.
Updated
This is where I leave you for the day, in the trustworthy hands of Michael McGowan.
Stay safe, stay at home if you’re in Melbourne, and try not to hate Queensland too much for stealing the football and pretending they know what cold is. They’re only trying to help.
This is where Victoria’s AFL players, Wags and support staff will be spending the next 10 weeks:
It’s allegedly cold there today.
A reminder that, excepting AFL players and others deemed to be providing an essential service, the penalty for Victorians trying to smuggle into Queensland is $4,003.
Updated
There are currently 35 active cases of coronavirus in regional council areas outside of the areas covered under stage 3 restrictions. That is, not including the Mitchell shire.
Of those, seven are in the Greater Geelong local government area.
Updated
Some detail on the major outbreaks in Victoria.
First, some 247 people living in public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington have tested positive to the virus. An additional 36 people have tested positive in the Carlton towers.
The tower at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne remains under hard lockdown for another four days.
Here are the other major outbreaks:
- 150 cases have been linked to Al-Taqwa College
- 33 cases have been linked to Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham
- 29 cases have been linked to Menarock Life Aged Care Facility in Essendon
- 21 cases linked to JBS abattoir in Brooklyn
- 12 cases linked to LaManna Supermarket, Essendon
- 9 cases linked to Embracia Moonee Valley aged care
- 5 cases linked to Steel Mains in Somerton
- 4 cases linked to Waste Equipment and Hiab Services, Ardeer
- 4 cases linked to TD Cabinets in Dandenong South
- 3 cases linked to Bell Collision Repair Centre in Preston
- 2 cases linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner
Updated
We’ve now got the details on the new Victorian cases.
As reported earlier, Victoria recorded 238 new cases overnight. But due to 14 cases being removed due to duplication, there’s only a net increase of 224. (Still big.)
That brings the total number of cases in Victoria since 1 January to 4,448. Of those, 1,931 are currently active.
And 790 cases have been caused by community transmission – that’s up 38 from yesterday.
There are currently 105 people in hospital, up 20 from yesterday, and 27 in intensive care, up one from yesterday.
To date, 27 people have died from the virus in Victoria, including a woman in her 90s who died overnight. Some 2,488 people have recovered.
The number of coronavirus cases in regional areas has increased by seven overnight. There are now 305 cases recorded in regional areas – although that’s a pandemic-long figure, I’ll bring you the figure on the number of active cases in regional areas shortly.
Updated
Back to McLachlan. He says it’s likely some AFL games will be played in far north Queensland, including Cairns and Port Douglas.
He says basing the teams in Queensland also does not rule out games being played in the Northern Territory and Tasmania. Discussions with those governments are still ongoing.
Updated
The Australian Capital Territory has recorded no new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours. It still has five active cases.
McLachlan says if teams can return to Victoria before the end of 10 weeks, they will, but that will depend on the level of the virus in that state.
He says basing everyone in Queensland will give the AFL more flexibility around setting up fixtures.
He says there will be some criteria around who can go up with players as part of the families and partners. It sounds similar to the rules around bringing plus ones to a wedding.
McLachlan:
It’s not for someone who’s had a partner for a few weeks but anything that’s of substance ... people will work with that criteria.
He says he has not made a decision on where the AFL grand final will be held. This arrangement is just for the home and away season.
Updated
All Victorian AFL teams to be based in Queensland
The AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan, says Victorian AFL teams will be based in Queensland for up to 10 weeks.
This decision was foreshadowed by the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, earlier today.
McLachlan says the AFL will try to get the majority of the season finished in that 10 weeks, with the fixtures still being worked out.
He says teams based in Queensland will be able to travel interstate – obviously not to Victoria – to play and then travel back.
Melbourne (the team), which is currently based in Sydney, will also be moved up to Queensland.
McLachlan says they will set up a transition hub in Queensland for players who did not take the full playing list, and families who didn’t initially go up. All players, staff and family members will have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival.
If families and loved ones want to join their partners in Queensland, we will facilitate this.
He added:
We will persevere because that’s what footy does. We always find a way.
Updated
Australia cannot afford to abandon the trading relationship with China but exporters are trying to “manage the reverberations” of current tensions and are looking to other markets, the Export Council of Australia (ECA) has told a parliamentary inquiry.
Arnold Jorge, the executive director of an initiative known as ECA Edge, told the committee looking into diversifying Australia’s trade and investment profile he understood why observers had called for greater diversity, but noted that China’s economic size and growth meant it was “a market we cannot ignore”.
He said:
I think we definitely need to maintain the trading relationship where we can with China and with other existing major trading partners. I think abandoning those markets would be very costly...
We’re not suggesting to abandon our existing partnerships with current markets, but rather to look at other opportunities elsewhere as well. We think we can potentially do both...
Businesses need to take account of the trade wars that are taking place right now, we have to, I guess, walk the fine line. We believe that that is possible, because if we don’t do it we think it’s going to be very costly for our exporters and for the country as a whole.
Asked about the impacts of current international tensions on exporter members, Jorge said exporters trying to do business in Asia had reported that it was “very difficult to do business in this kind of environment”.
That said, they have conveyed to us that they are trying to manage the reverberations and looking at alternative options. The reality, however, is that there are many firms, due to long-term contracts, and there are not obvious alternative customers – in that context they are trying to ride this particular wave.
Jorge suggested that in order to diversify and grow Australian exports, the government should focus on helping small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which may be “more flexible” and “agile” in shifting to new export markets.
Updated
Before we hear from the CEO of one football league, let’s quickly look at another.
The Football Federation of Australia says it still plans to play out its 2019-20 season in NSW, despite the coronavirus outbreak in Sydney’s south-western suburbs.
It released a revised fixture today. All but one of the 27 matches and finals remaining in the season will be played in NSW.
More here:
Updated
Employer association Ai Group says the cost of pursuing an elimination strategy in the fight against the coronavirus would be “far greater than the extra benefits”.
The benefits of a successful elimination strategy – and that’s not a guaranteed outcome, though six Australian states and territories are effectively already there – would be an end to people getting sick and dying from Covid-19.
The Ai Group chief executive, Innes Willox, says businesses will welcome comments from the prime minister, Scott Morrison, today, in which he argued against switching from a suppression strategy to an elimination strategy.
Willox said in a statement:
Australia has done far better than was expected only a few months ago in suppressing the virus, allowing businesses to keep supplying households and providing jobs and in easing restrictions. The Victorian experience should not be seen as a reason to switch to an elimination strategy that would tank the economy. Rather, we should get the execution of the suppression strategy right, identify and correct mistakes and do our utmost to locate, isolate and treat new infections.
Pursuing an elimination strategy would require us to close ourselves off from the rest of the world indefinitely and it would require draconian restrictions on Australian citizens and businesses. The costs of going down this route would be far greater than the extra benefits of seeking complete elimination.
We also need to bear in mind the economic challenges to come with the scheduled end of existing jobkeeper and the additional jobseeker payments. Imposing the costs of an elimination strategy on top of a winding back of fiscal stimulus would sap businesses confidence and make many wary of investing in a second attempt at recovery.
Updated
The rate of imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people in the Northern Territory is 43 times the rate for non-Indigenous children.
Nationally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people are imprisoned at 17 times the rate of their non-Indigenous peers.
The worst ratios are in Western Australia (21 times), South Australia (20 times) and Queensland (23 times), according to new statistics released by the Sentencing Advisory Council of Victoria.
“We have heard reports of Aboriginal children in out of home care as young as 12 years old being issued with fines for breaching social distancing orders,” the Change the Record co-chair, Cheryl Axleby, said.
“This kind of aggressive, punitive ‘tough on crime’ approach to our extremely young children is both absurd and deeply harmful.”
Change the Record is the Aboriginal-led justice coalition including Amnesty International, the Law Council of Australia, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Services (Natsils) and National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (Naccho), representing hundreds of services across Australia.
“We are calling for every state and territory government to follow the unanimous medical recommendations of organisations like the Australian Medical Association, Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association and raise the age of criminal responsibility from just 10 years old to at least 14 years old,” Axleby said.
“Australian governments are listening to the medical experts when it comes to Covid-19, they should listen to the experts when it comes to the health and safety of our kids too.”
Updated
Still in Queensland, the health minister, Steven Miles, says that 14 of the 18 Queenslanders who were tested for coronavirus after visiting the apparently ever-popular Crossroads hotel in south-west Sydney have now tested negative to the virus.
The other four tests are pending.
Miles told AAP he expected that more people in Queensland would come forward as having been at the pub during the period of concern (3 July to 10 July) and he urged them to do so as soon as possible and get tested.
Updated
AFL CEO Gil McLachlan will hold a press conference at 2pm.
Palaszczuk said she does not make “any apologies for delays at the borders”.
She says people were told about the border restrictions and knew there may be delays. She also thanked police and other emergency services staff working on those border checkpoints.
It’s not easy. Look how cold it is – well, relatively speaking, compared to other states – but we’re experiencing cold at the moment and they are out there on the front line.
It’s currently 20C in Coolangatta.
Queenslanders, if you want to take the AFL from Victoria, you’ve got to take some of the weather. Better knock at least 5C off the top.
Updated
Queensland reports no new Covid-19 cases
There are no new cases of Covid-19 in Queensland in the past 24-hours. Four cases remain active.
Updated
The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, is talking in Brisbane now about that phone call she had with the chief executive of the AFL, Gillon McLachlan, about potentially moving some more Melbourne-based teams to Queensland.
The shape of that arrangement has not been announced, but she said it would mean “nearly all” of the Melbourne teams would be based in Queensland.
Palaszczuk said:
This morning I had a great conversation with Gil McLachlan and I can confirm that we are in talks to bring more teams, more officials, more players here to Queensland... Queensland will become the centre of AFL.
Sacrilege. She continues:
The best way we can show our support is for Queenslanders to adopt a Melbourne team. That doesn’t mean you can’t also support the Suns and the Lions but go and attend the games, show some support...
Queensland, the new home of AFL. Just temporary! But it’s a small step we can do in helping Victoria.
Updated
Just to stave off any cries of “backflip!”: Berejiklian said last night that she had ruled out returning NSW to lockdown at this stage. She did not say there would be no further restrictions.
Restriction =/= lockdown
NSW will 'have to consider further restrictions', says Berejiklian
Gladys Berejiklian has said NSW has to “consider further restrictions” by looking at how the Covid-19 has spread in Victoria.
Speaking at a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event in Sydney on Wednesday to outline NSW’s Covid-19 economic recovery, Berejiklian also reaffirmed NSW would not pursue elimination of Covid-19 because it was “unrealistic” and would “hurt” the state’s economic “aspiration”.
I think we have to consider further restrictions, any activity which is high risk.
The health advice tells us indoor events ... with a certain number of people under certain circumstances ... We know what is safe, we know what is high risk.
There is definitely room for us to consider what else might be considered a high risk activity and consider how we can curtail some of that risk. Because given what’s occurred with the Victorian situation and the level of community transition in NSW at this stage, that we should look at that.
On an elimination strategy, Berejiklian said:
Suppression is our only option because it’s been demonstrated ... especially when you’re welcoming Australians home, there’s always an element of risk.
She said the disease is “insidious” and sometimes it can be “bubbling away without detection”.
It’s unrealistic to assume we would get there (elimination). In fact, very unrealistic.
Berejiklian said NSW contributes 40% to 50% of the nation’s wealth, and says targeting elimination would “hurt our aspiration to at least have continuity” for businesses.
Updated
Other venues associated frequented by people in the Crossroads Hotel cluster are:
- Bankstown YMCA in Revesby,
- Woolworths in Bowral,
- Milky Lane in Parramatta,
- Bavarian Macarthur in Campbelltown,
- Macarthur Tavern in Campbelltown,
- West Leagues Club in Campbelltown,
- Kmart in Casula
More details on the times of most concern for those venues here.
And you can find the full list of all testing clinics in NSW here.
Updated
Let’s go back to the new NSW cases.
Ten of the 13 cases reported today (figures from 8pm Monday to 8pm Tuesday) were connected to the Crossroads hotel cluster, and the remaining three were in hotel quarantine.
The new Crossroads cases are:
- 31 year old male who attended Crossroads Hotel on 3 July
- 42 year old female who attended Crossroads Hotel on 3 July
- 27 year old female who attended Crossroads Hotel on 3 July
- 14 year old female close contact of Crossroads Hotel staff case
- 27 year old male who attended Planet Fitness gym, Casula
- 24 year old male who attended Planet Fitness gym, Casula
- 53 year old male who attended Crossroads Hotel on 3 July
- 22 year old male tertiary case from Crossroads Hotel
- 33 year old female who is a close contact of a previously reported case in the Blue Mountains, who attended Crossroads Hotel on 3 July
- 17 year old male tertiary case from Crossroads Hotel
There is also one other case, recorded after 8pm last night (so it will be added to tomorrow’s tally, we’ve figured out how it works now).
That case is a man in his 20s who is a close contact of a previously reported Crossroads Hotel case. That brings the number of cases in this cluster to 34.
So, you need to self isolate for 14 days even if you do not have symptoms, and get tested, if you attended the Crossroads Hotel from 3 to 10 July, and if you attended the Planet Fitness gym in Casula from 4 to 10 July.
Union criticises government decision to cut Dfat jobs in a pandemic
Guardian Australia understands that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has announced job cuts including 50 positions to go from Canberra, and 10 from eight international posts.
The cuts are at the senior executive service, executive levels one and two, and Dfat will aim to achieve them through natural attrition with no redundancies.
The Community Public Sector Union deputy national secretary, Beth Vincent-Pietsch, said:
Cutting jobs from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is just not in our economic or national interest. This pandemic has shone a light on how important the work of Dfat is. Our members have been working hard to bring Australians home from across the globe and ensure their safety, as well as continue our important trade and diplomatic work.
These job cuts will have a significant impact on the department’s role and ability to push our national interests. If the Morrison government think they can run an arm of Australia’s soft power like a business they are terribly mistaken. Dfat has not met its average staffing levels, we are calling on the government to reconsider this decision.
Updated
Danny Hill, the general secretary of the Victorian Ambulance Union, has told ABC that six paramedics have tested positive to coronavirus and about 16 others have been identified as close contacts and are self-isolating.
That’s why the Victorian government has arranged for ADF members to possibly pair up with paramedics, to ensure they can continue to staff ambulances.
Hill said that paramedics are exposed due to processes such as patient transfer, and said if the outbreak continues to grow as many as 40% of the paramedic taskforce in Victoria could be unable to work due to testing positive to Covid-19 or being quarantined as a close contact.
Updated
Finally, Hunt was asked about contact tracing downloads from the CovidSafe app.
He said 200 cases had been “identified” and that “in addition to that 300 downloads”.
Residents in eight aged care homes in Melbourne have tested positive to coronavirus
On aged care, Hunt said there were 32 aged care facilities in Victoria affected by coronavirus outbreaks.
Of those, eight facilities have residents who have tested positive to Coivd-19, and in the remaining 24 only staff have tested positive to date.
Hunt said Menarock Life aged care facility in Essendon was of “particular importance”.
The advice that I have is that all patients who have been diagnosed as positive are either in the process of being moved, or have already been moved, to hospital.
He said there would be “full cohorting” of residents in the affected aged care facilities in Melbourne — which basically means the isolation of all positive cases and moving to hospital if necessary. Seventy-five hospital beds have been set aside for aged care residents.
Military to provide logistics support to Victorian contact tracing efforts
Hunt said the federal government would provide additional military support to Victoria in the form of specialist logistics support.
I am not sure if this is part of the 1,000 ADF personnel already promised to Victoria, or an additional deployment.
Hunt said the team of logisticians would be headed by Commodore Mark Hill from the Australian Navy, which is a one-star equivalent rank, supported by a logistics specialist from the ADF. They will be helping with the contact tracing task.
Hunt said they will be in place in the next 24-hours.
They will be reporting to the Victorian chief health officer and deputy chief health officers. So we are very much stepping in underneath.
He also said 1m Australians have now completed infection control training.
Health minister Greg Hunt is speaking to the media in Mount Martha in Victoria. He has brought his backdrop with him, which is probably because the pretty Mornington Peninsula backdrop would send the wrong message. (Mount Martha is in Hunt’s electorate.)
Hunt says he spoke to the acting chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, a short time ago about the situation in NSW, and Kelly said it was a “stable situation, and heartening that NSW has been able to confine the spread of cases to only those from the Crossroads”.
Hunt said:
We are on absolutely vigilant watch but they are testing, they are tracing, they are isolating, so they are taking those steps.
He said the federal health department would provide 5,000 face masks to aged care homes in Western Sydney, identified as centres of most concern and most in need of the use of mandatory PPE.
Updated
Federal court judge John Middleton has warned administrators of Virgin Australia that they need to be “full and frank” with creditors to avoid putting the sale of the stricken airline at risk.
Middleton last week refused a request from some of the bondholders in Virgin, who in total are owed some $2bn, for access to a sale agreement the administrators, partners at accounting firm Deloitte, have struck with US private equity group Bain Capital.
The bondholders wanted to use the documents in a takeovers panel proceeding — which they have since dropped — and to help them prepare an alternative offer for Virgin Australia to be put before creditors at a meeting next month.
In written reasons handed down today, Middleton said creditors should be told about the Bain Capital proposal in a report that they are to be given before the meeting.
He said:
It is important that proper preparation be made for the meeting of creditors in August 2020.
This will obviously require the administrators to be full and frank with the creditors, and to provide sufficient information to enable the creditors to make an informed decision on the matters for resolution at the meeting of creditors.
If a creditor at the meeting needs more time or information to consider their position, this could be a reason to adjourn the meeting of creditors. If sufficient information is not provided which is material to creditors in reaching a decision on a proposed DOCA which is entered into, this could be a ground for the Court later terminating the DOCA. Neither of these scenarios is desirable.
Gunner also told reporters that the ban on people travelling to the NT from Sydney would be reviewed in four weeks, but he will not make any promises on lifting it at that stage. It will depend on the NSW numbers.
Back to the Northern Territory briefly, where the chief minister, Michael Gunner was asked if he’s stressed out by all this.
“I’ve been stressed all the way through this,” says Gunner. “There is no exit plan... there is no manual for this. We don’t know if or when there will be a vaccine so we’re having to adjust ourselves to that reality. For me the stress has been constant and it’s going to stay constant. The best way I can serve you as your chief minister is to be stressed every day and worry about these things every day.”
He laughs a little. “I will maintain a high level of anxiety all the way through this.”
He says the excision of some areas gives him “some degree of comfort” but what is causing the most anxiety is the possibility of people getting complacent.
Gunner said hard borders “only reduce the risk”.
“I have got a permanent concern that it’s not if but when coronavirus gets here.”
He says what stops it becoming a superspreader is how Territorians behave with hygiene, social distancing, and sticking “in your bubble”.
“We’ve got to maintain this level of excellence for a very long time”.
A few more details on those fines issued by Victoria Police to people allegedly breaching Melbourne’s stage three stay-at-home orders.
Police say that 63 fines were issued in the past 24 hours, 21 of which were issued at vehicle checkpoints.
Since the restrictions were introduced at midnight last Wednesday, police have issued 546 fines, of which 151 were issued at vehicle checkpoints. They’ve checked 85,886 vehicles at main arterial roads out of Melbourne, and 16,046 spot checks in peoples homes within greater Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire.
Fines issued last night include:
- Ten people who were drinking while sitting on stoles around a gas fire, set up in the driveway and across the footpath. They reportedly told police that they thought if they remained 1.5m apart it would be ok.
- Four people who lived in different suburbs — including Cranbourne, Collingwood, and Cranbourne North — who were found at a home in Alphington, and told police they were all their to charge their phone.
- Six people attending a party in Collingwood.
- Five people who gathered at a home in Box Hill to celebrate a friend’s graduation.
Northern Territory closes borders to Sydney
The Northern Territory has announced it will keep its borders closed to all of Sydney, as well as to Victoria, when it allows domestic travel to resume on Friday.
Borders are due to lift to other states on Friday.
But the NT’s chief minister, Michael Gunner, told reporters in Darwin a short time ago that anyone entering the Territory from Victoria or greater Sydney — all 30 local governments in the broad metro area — will still have to complete a full 14-days of quarantine.
Gunner said the hard borders would remain in place “indefinitely” and other hotspots would be declared when necessary.
Our hard borders are not going anywhere. Our police are not going anywhere. If you fly into the territory, if you cross our borders, they will be there to greet you.
Police will direct people to quarantine if they are from hotspot areas, Gunner said.
Here is some more detail on that potential shift of AFL clubs to Queensland:
Final few comments from Victoria.
Sutton said the most important thing people could do to minimise their risk was to minimise face-to-face interactions with other people.
That 1.5m distance is the most critical thing they can do.
He was asked about people needing to support a family member in palliative care, and said that palliative care had always been an exemption to the lockdown rule. It’s a risk, but the risks have to be weighed.
End of life care is a very important time for families to be able to see their loved ones.
Crossroads hotel outbreak linked back to Melbourne man who attended a workplace party
NSW Health contact tracer Jennie Musto has explained the genomic link between Victoria and the NSW outbreak as a man travelling from Melbourne to Sydney at the end of June.
A man from Melbourne came into a workplace in Sydney, and then there’s some transmission within that workplace and then they all went to a party that night of the third of July, at the Crossroads hotel. So this is where it all began.
She said he travelled on 30 June, and works in the freight industry.
Musto said this case was linked to six colleagues who have been diagnosed.
Kerry Chant adds more about the potential spread of NSW’s current outbreaks.
Whilst we’ve had a very strong focus on the Crossroads, a hotel cluster, it is very important that we don’t lose sight of the fact that Covid could have been introduced in any other parts of Sydney, and we may well have had transmission of the virus just continuing.
Chant also thanked a Covid-19 case in Blue Mountains who came forward for testing, and a clinician at Liverpool, who detected a link to the Crossroads cluster.
They’re actually the heroes ... those two actions by that individual and that registrar enabled us to put the puzzle together.
Musto said the Melbourne freight worker is not the Blue Mountains man, but that they both attended the Crossroads Hotel on 3 July.
Updated
Sutton says he “would not discourage” construction workers and other employees who cannot work from home to wear a mask.
Construction workers wear masks already for dust protection and for fume protection, they should be finding it pretty normal to consider a mask as well for covid protection.
On the ongoing debate between elimination and suppression, Sutton says:
I’d love elimination. We’re not at the point where it’s the right tie to make a detailed examination about its feasibility. But it’s worthy of consideration, it’s got its challenges but it’s got its benefits as well
But he says that as Australia has a national plan to deal with coronavirus, that conversation about shifting the strategy from suppression to elimination would need to happen through the AHPPC and national cabinet.
Crossroads hotel cluster now at 34
NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant announces the number of cases linked to the Crossroads Hotel cluster has reached 34, noting an updated on figures released since yesterday.
She is now urging staff and patrons who attended the Planet Fitness gym in Casula between 4 July and 10 July to self-isolate and seek testing as they are considered close contacts. Two further cases were linked to the gym last night, which had its first case from a patron from the Crossroads Hotel. Three cases are linked to the gym.
Self-isolation and testing is advised for anyone who visited the crossroads hotel between 3 July and 10 July.
She has also lists several new venues of concern where Crossroads Hotel cases have visited. They include the YMCA Revesby, the Western Sydney leagues club, Woolworths Bowral and Casula Kmart.
State health minister Brad Hazzard began the NSW update by urging more citizens to come forward for testing. He lists several new popup clinics operating in Sydney’s south west, and says 3,297 people have come forward for testing in that area over the last day.
He explains that updated daily figures will come later in the afternoon, as the state has moved away from the 24 hour reporting period.
Our health team wants to make sure that we do everything possible to track down … (those) who may have been in contact, reminding the community that this virus can linger on hard surfaces. It can linger in the air as an aerosol, (if) somebody walked through and you happen to walk through.
You can expect that we will have transmission from time to time and that’s just the way it is, we’ve got to accept that this is the new world order.
Updated
Sutton is asked, again, about the possibility of Victoria moving to stage-four restrictions, which as we reported has been subject to some pretty strong rumours in the past 24 hours.
He says:
Any consideration about what stage four might look like, if it were to be in place, is again to be based on the epidemiology.
That means, he says, that if they saw a surge in cases linked to a particular activity they may try to restrict that activity.
I think it would absolutely depend on the epidemiology, there is no guarantee whatsoever about what stays open or what stays closed.
What about making it mandatory to wear a face mask, rather than just recommending their use?
I think again mandatory mask wearing shouldn’t be off the table, but I am cognisant that not everybody can have a cloth mask or the three cloth masks that we should probably have to make sure we can clean them and get them ready for the next day. It is a risk not to have them.
Updated
Sutton was asked how many cases have been found in Victoria due to the CovidSafe app.
I am not aware of any. I will keep pushing the CovidSafe app.
He repeats, as he said yesterday, that due to the stay at home orders in Victoria
The app has not had a close contact that we have not found through our very extensive, long-form interview that goes for an hour or more.
He says 300 people who have tested positive for coronavirus in Victoria had also downloaded the CovidSafe app.
Sutton says the fact that the daily numbers have not consistently fallen yet, despite the hotspot postcodes being locked down for two weeks now, does not necessarily mean the lockdowns have not worked.
But he again called on people to limit their outings. So, if one person in a family can do the weekly supermarket shop then they should do it alone.
He said it is possible that restrictions could be “stepped up”.
I don’t know. I honestly don’t know how likely it is to step up or the opportunities to step down. We have set that six-week period because I am absolutely confident that that is length of time that is required to get those case numbers down.
He said that with the rates of community transmission this time around, it will be much harder to get the daily case numbers down.
This is a wave that is very different to the first wave ... This wave is trickier so it won’t be as easy to drive numbers down with the community transition that is out there.
Usually, he said, people’s clinical signs from coronavirus get worse in their second week of symptoms. Which is why we could see those hospitalisation rates grow.
Updated
Chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton has warned that there will be more deaths from the current wave of coronavirus cases in Victoria.
When we have 238 cases every day we are looking at two to three deaths in a week’s time, so we have to have these numbers decrease.
He said the numbers appear to be stabilising right now, but said there is “no guarantee of a drop off” in case numbers. Whether it happens will depend on how well people are obeying the stay at home orders, he says.
Updated
Victorian police 'finding people in cupboards' and fining people eating KFC and playing Pokémon
Deputy police commissioner Rick Nugent is talking now, about the checkpoints police have put in place at the edges of the Greater Melbourne lockdown area.
He says police have checked more than 85,000 vehicles at those checkpoints since midnight last Wednesday, and issued 151 fines for people not complying with stage 3 restrictions.
The most common reason is going to visit family and friends or associate for overnight stays.
He said they have issued 351 fines for people breaching other restrictions, including holding parties.
They include fines for people not leaving a restaurant when asked to.
Clearly KFC is popular during the lockdown. A person attended a restaurant and sat down with their food and refused to leave. Police were called and the person still refused to leave until they had finished their meal.
Who knew people were so committed to KFC. Nugent says there are four clear reasons for leaving your home.
The restrictions for leaving your home are well known. I can say it does not include playing Pokémon.
They have also issued 40 infringement notices to people visiting massage parlours or sex work premises, and fines to two businesses for breaching restrictions.
He says an ongoing concern for police is people holding parties, despite stage three lockdown rules not allowing anyone to have friends or family over.
We are finding people in cupboards, we are finding people in garages. Please stop.
Updated
Back in Victoria, Andrews said that most people are doing the right thing and obeying the stage three restrictions, but that if people do not follow the rules those restrictions could tighten.
If the rules are not followed, Andrews said, “we will have to move to additional restrictions being put in place and we will have to prolong the period that the restrictions were put in place”.
He says he is concerned about the situation Melbourne is in.
These hospitalisation numbers are of great concern to us.
NSW records 13 new cases of coronvirus overnight
That’s 13 new cases in the 24-hours to 8pm last night.
It includes 10 cases connected to the Crossroads Hotel cluster, bringing the size of that cluster to 30.
Updated
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says 27,040 coronavirus tests were conducted yesterday, and almost 1.2m tests have been conducted since 1 January.
He says the testing rate per 100,000 head of population remains “one of the highest in the world” but doesn’t say what it is.
Updated
Victoria records 238 new cases of coronavirus and one new death
Victoria has recorded 238 new cases of coronavirus overnight, and one more death.
A woman in her 90s died overnight. It brings the number of deaths in the state to 27.
There are 105 Victorians in hospital, up 20 from yesterday, and 27 people in intensive care.
Of the new cases recorded overnight, 209 are still under investigation. The total number of cases in Victoria is 4,448, 1,931 are active.
We’re expecting both Daniel Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian to step up any minute now.
But first, weather. Fairly rough waves at Clovelly Beach in Sydney this morning.
Former NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons is appearing before the royal commission into national natural disaster arrangements today.
Yes, the royal commission is still going.
Fitzsimmons will appear alongside the current RFS commissioner, Rob Rogers, and the deputy police commissioner, Gary Worboys, who is also the state emergency operations controller.
Updated
Federal health minister Greg Hunt will give a national coronavirus update about 12.15pm
While we’re waiting for those two press conferences, Luke Henriques-Gomes and Paul Karp have an update on the terrible situation that is Robodebt.
They write:
The federal government will not commit to repay more than 200 Centrelink debts raised using a method it says is unlawful and which it uncovered as part of a “historical review” of pre-robodebt cases.
Documents released to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws detail the outcome of a “random sample” of pre-2015 welfare debts the government services minister, Stuart Robert, ordered his agency to conduct last month.
The “historical review” found of the 1,000 random cases analysed in 2009 and 2011, 206 were issued entirely or partially using a method known as “income-averaging”, which the government has conceded in public and in court is unlawful.
You can read more here.
A woman has gone missing after completing her stay in hotel quarantine in Melbourne.
More from AAP:
Police are appealing for the public’s help to find Melton South woman Ei Khaing Phyu, also known as Christabel Phyu.
The 41-year-old was last seen at a hotel in Southbank where she was quarantining.
Police would not say if she tested positive to COVID-19 during her stay.
They have concerns for her welfare after she failed to return home at the end of her quarantine.
The Salamanca Market in Tasmania, which has not run for months due to the coronavirus, is expected to reopen, in a diminished form, on 8 August.
Except it will not be called the Salamanca Market. Instead, according to the Mercury, the Hobart city council will call the smaller, interim market “Tasmania’s Own Market”. This is, frankly, a terrible name and I’m glad it’s only temporary.
The smaller version of the market will be split into separate sections, each with manned entry and exit gates, with a capacity of 500 people each. There will only be 90 stalls available, so vendors will be put on a rotating fortnightly roster.
Updated
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews and police minister Lisa Neville will give a press conference at 11am. The same time as the NSW update.
The AFL has asked Queensland to host more AFL teams due to coronavirus restrictions in Victoria.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced, in a Facebook post that was then posted as a screenshot on Twitter, that she spoke this morning to AFL CEO Gil McLachlan, who is looking to “book accommodation for hundreds of players and officials at Queensland hotels for two months”.
BREAKING: The @AFL has approached Queensland to host more of its teams and players in our state. #AFL #COVID19Aus pic.twitter.com/VZ3qP7XPAB
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) July 14, 2020
Palaszczuk said:
I stress none of these measures can happen without strict quarantine protocols and the COVID management plan that has allowed the AFL season to proceed.
This is another way Queensland is helping Victoria.
As everyone knows, AFL is more than a sport to Victorians. We know how they feel.
Given the choice between not having a season and having it based in Queensland, I think I know what the fans would like to happen.
It means more Queenslanders can see more games.
It’s another tick for the legacy of the Commonwealth Games and the Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium.
It’s more fire in the belly for the Suns and the Lions.
And, as I told Gil, if the season is based here — then the Grand Final should be played here too!
Negotiations between the NRL and the Chief Health Officer are continuing.
The health and safety of Queenslanders must always come first.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews was not impressed by the offer of the NSW government to take some of its flagship sporting events off its hands, including the AFL grand final and Melbourne Cup. I’m sure he’ll be asked about Queensland’s offer today.
Surfers Paradise electorate worst-hit by unemployment
A new Parliamentary Library paper looks at the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on jobseeker claimants by electorate.
The research finds the worst-hit electorate is Moncrieff, a safe Liberal seat based around Surfers Paradise, where the number of jobseeker recipients increased by 9,000 between December and May. There were 15,000 jobseeker recipients in Moncrieff in May.
The Labor held seats of Blaxland, in Sydney’s west, and Calwell, in Melbourne’s north-west, were the next worst-affected electorates, both adding about 8,000 new jobseeker recipients during the pandemic.
New @ParlLibrary paper from me and numbers-man Chris Giuliano which estimates unemployment payment recipient numbers by electorate since COVID-19 https://t.co/7IgHu66spv pic.twitter.com/NtIN6ZRkTR
— Michael Klapdor (@whobekindto) July 14, 2020
By percentage increase, the worst-hit electorates were the wealthy Sydney seats of Wentworth and Warringah, which saw their numbers of jobseeker recipients increase by four times and three times respectively. However, as the paper noted, both began from a much lower base of unemployment.
Another pub in south-west Sydney has reported a positive case of coronavirus.
The Macarthur Tavern in Campbelltown says it was notified by NSW Health that a person who was at the pub on Saturday 11 July, between 9pm and midnight, has since tested positive for the virus.
The pub is closed this morning for deep cleaning.
In a Facebook post, the business said:
Our patrons’ safety is of utmost concern during these difficult times. We have had strict procedure in place to prevent and control the spread of this virus and these procedures will continue to be put into action. This morning, the whole venue is undergoing a deep clean by a company that specialises in deep clean sanitising as an extra precaution. We are confident that we will be successful in sanitising the venue and stop the spread of the virus. From 3pm today, the venue will be open and safer than ever.
They said the advice they received from NSW health was that there was “no requirement for the premises to shut down or for any member of staff or patron to self-isolate”. But they said both patrons and staff would need to remain vigilant for any respiratory symptoms and self-isolate and get tested immediately should symptoms develop.
Updated
The Queensland government’s new hotspot declaration has caused further delays at the border, because it requires more intense checking of cars with NSW numberplates.
It has also led to an update on the border declaration passes and meant that even valid passes will be invalid from tomorrow. Passes are issued for seven days.
Cathy Border, reporting from the NSW/QLD border, told the ABC earlier:
You need a new one. And this happened overnight. Of course, midmorning yesterday, the Chief Health Officer in Queensland, Jeannette Young, announced that those two Sydney hotspots had been added to the list. That meant the the declaration pass had to be changed yet again to include those areas. I wasn’t aware of it - I didn’t know until I got to the border this morning.
The police told me my pass would be out of date tomorrow and I’d need a new one. I think that’s the case for most people. When you look back at the history of how this all happened, Joe, it has been very snap decisions that have been made, and even some retrospective decisions as to how these passes are operating. So it’s no wonder there’s even more confusion today.
Have you been following the mystery of the car that has been abandoned in the staff carpark at Adelaide airport since at least February or March, bearing the numberplate COVID19?
The ABC reports that the car is registered until September 26, 2020. Car rego can be taken out for either three or 12 months.
So, working backwards, that means the car was either registered on 26 September, 2019, which is terrifying, or it was first registered in March for 3 months and renewed again — without being moved — in June.
Or, third alternative, it’s a perfectly innocent homage to Covi Dig, the owner’s childhood pet.
Why does this car left at Adelaide Airport have the number plate COVID19 and who owns it? https://t.co/zNdZOTtQxj
— Eugene Boisvert (@eugeneboisvert) July 13, 2020
New South Wales will give its coronavirus update at 11am.
Our new global coronavirus blog is live, you can follow that coverage here.
He was also asked about comments Alan Jones made on Sky News last night, which I won’t link to here but which repeat the song that Jones has been singing all pandemic long: the majority of people recover from the virus therefore we should not be locked down.
Morrison said:
Well you have got to get the balance right on this. It is true that the vast majority of people who do contract coronavirus recover, that is the case.
But he added that many do die, and that death rates are considerably higher for older and vulnerable people. He says it’s impossible to just lock down those most vulnerable and let everyone else carry on.
He referred to the high death rates seen in some other countries – more than half a million people have died worldwide from the virus, 138,000 in the United States alone – and said “to think that can’t happen here is just not the case”.
He added:
Your protection against the virus is not shutting things down all the time. You have to do that sometimes, as is the case in Victoria. The protection against the virus is on social distancing, it’s downloading the app, it’s washing your hands, I note the advice in Victoria around wearing face masks.
You don’t go to the extremes on any of this stuff you just keep going down the middle and thats where you make the most ground.
Asked whether Australia should have pursued an elimination strategy, Morrison said:
You don’t just shut the whole country down because that is not sustainable ... The right strategy is the one that we have all together been pursuing as a country.
Updated
Morrison was asked if the CovidSafe app was working as designed, given it has not actually been used to provide new information on any contact tracing endeavour.
Morrison suggested that the app would be used more by contact tracers if more people downloaded it (it has 6m downloads so far). He said it was never intended to work in isolation but to be a support to human contact tracers, and said:
Technically it works fine.
What a review.
Morrison criticised people for “undermining” the app.
People taking potshots at it I think are just undermining the confidence and I think that’s not a good thing, I think it’s a good thing to download the app.
Prime minister Scott Morrison has been talking to Triple M’s Hot Breakfast and dodged a question about a rumour circulating on social media that Victoria could go into stage-four lockdown.
Among those circulating the rumour – and we’re calling it a rumour because it has not been confirmed by a credible source – were state Liberal MPs.
Morrison said:
Well my understanding is Premier Andrews hasn’t ruled that out, I mean he hasn’t ruled anything out which is understandable in the circumstances, we are very much still in the throes of it in Victoria.
Andrews was asked at a press conference on Monday about whether he would rule out placing Melbourne into stage-four lockdown and he said he would not rule anything out, but would tell people if that’s what the government was considering.
Morrison began the interview by “thanking all Melburnians for the amazing job they have been doing, just responding to what’s been asked of them in the past week or so”.
Host Eddie McGuire, in turn, thanked Morrison for “not falling into political nitpicking” and for attending the football on the weekend.
Updated
The Northern Territory government is expected to make an announcement today on whether it will allow travel from NSW, when it lifts border restrictions on Friday.
The territory is due to drop its mandatory 14-day quarantine period for domestic travellers, excepting those from hotspot areas. To date, that just means people from Victoria. But it could follow Queensland in declaring parts of NSW to be virus hotspots.
The NT health minister, Natasha Fyles, told AAP that officials are watching case numbers in NSW closely, particularly those involving community transmission.
She says any decisions on border restrictions will be based on putting the lives of Territorians first.
Updated
If you have been wondering why televisions reporters have not been wearing masks on camera, Paul Kennedy on ABC News Breakfast offered this explanation:
We can say our reporters are doing crosses outside and, when there’s a lot of space around them, I think that’s the decision that those individuals have been making.
The advice around face masks in Victoria – which is the only state to recommend their use – is that you should wear a mask in circumstances where you cannot socially distance, such as on public transport or in the supermarket. It is not compulsory to wear a mask, it’s just encouraged in those circumstances.
You might note that the premier and chief health officer also aren’t wearing face masks when they give press conferences, even though those conferences are often indoors.
Updated
In case you missed this one last night.
BREAKING:
— Michael Rowland (@mjrowland68) July 14, 2020
Woolworths has confirmed a staff member from its Bowral supermarket in the NSW Southern Highlands has tested positive to COVID 19. Store now closed for deep cleaning. @abcnews
Genomic testing links the Crossroads Hotel outbreak in Sydney to Victoria
NSW deputy premier, John Barilaro, told Sunrise on Channel Seven that the Covid-19 cluster linked to the Crossroads Hotel in Sydney’s southwest has been linked, through genomic testing, to the outbreak in Victoria.
According to AAP, the number of cases linked to that outbreak now stands at 30.
Barilaro told Sunrise:
The first point is this. Our health officials have been able to, through a genetically linked (sic), that the virus has come out of Victoria. That’s actually good news that we know exactly where the virus has come from, that it’s not a virus that has been transmitted through this community because something has occurred here in this state.
It gives us the opportunity to then manage and deal with contact. That is really the secret behind you manage this. What we are saying, and what the premier saying, is that to lockdown the economy has to be the last resort. We will tighten some restrictions if we need to, we will limit the ability for the spread, we will put some onus back on individuals for personal responsibility.
He continued:
The goal right now, the end goal, is not to lock down the state or any part of the state because economically that would have an impact that would be detrimental and we believe we have got the health system and the measures in place to stop this spread.
Barilaro said NSW had boosted its intensive care capacity from 530 beds at the start of the pandemic to 2,000, adding:
We always said there may be a spike once we lift the restrictions... we are ready for a spike.
Australia is pursuing a suppression strategy, not an elimination strategy, against Covid-19. Except, in six states and territories, the result (and the apparent intent from policy decisions, like border controls) has been elimination.
The outliers are Victoria, where the chief health officer, Brett Sutton, has suggested he may be interested in an elimination strategy but the community transmission rates are currently too high to contemplate it, and NSW, where the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has said elimination was never an option.
Dr Stephen Duckett, a health economist with the Grattan Institute, sounded fairly unimpressed by Berejiklian’s views on the subject. He told Radio National:
If you set your targets low you won’t achieve it, she’s quite right.
Duckett said the suppression strategy was “a yo-yo”, sending the community in and out of lockdown as outbreaks pop up. But he said other states managed to achieve what is basically an elimination result under the same lockdown conditions that Victoria is currently under.
Victoria lifted restrictions [in May] while the virus was still circulating in the state. If you do that it is inevitable that there will be an outbreak. Absolutely inevitable. The only question is how much.
He added that while a lockdown has an economic cost, “the economic cost of that yo-yo strategy is something people forget about”.
We shouldn’t be talking about his is a fantasy land because we can see, just across the borders, that it is possible.
Queensland’s health minister, Steven Miles, was also asked for his opinion:
Whether your objective is suppressive or elimination, if you’re going for suppression and you achieve zero for a period of time that’s a pretty good result.
Updated
Miles was also asked about Dannii Minogue, who flew into Queensland from the United States and is undergoing her mandatory 14-day quarantine in her luxury Gold Coast home, rather than in a hotel with the rest of the plebs.
He says that option is open to anyone – if they are able to pay for a level of security, testing, and health monitoring that is equal or greater to that provided in hotel quarantine.
We’ve had a small number of people apply to pay for their own quarantine provided by a third party, a trusted third party, a contractor. I understand there’s been about 40 of these approvals, the applicant has to fund them for their own expense, it’s not cheap.
The application is assessed and approved by the chief health officer. Radio National breakfast host Fran Kelly suggested that would mean there was one rule for the rich and one for the poor. Miles said that as punishment is not the object of the overseas quarantine policy, that’s a moot point.
The intent of our quarantine isn’t to punish people for coming here it’s to keep the community safe and if people can put in place a plan that satisfies our chief health officer that it would keep the community safe then that meets the objective of the policy.
Updated
Queensland is also increasing the maximum penalty for breaching its public health rules to a possible six-month jail term, bringing it into line with New South Wales.
Miles said that penalty would only be considered by police, who enforce the public health rules, for “really outrageous breaches and flouting, really serious flouting”.
That penalty could be imposed on people crossing the state border without a border declaration pass, from a restricted area, or who provide false information on their border pass. Miles said police had in some cases checked people’s phones to ensure they had not been in hotspot areas.
Updated
The Queensland health minister, Steven Miles, says it is possible that additional areas of NSW could be declared a hotspot, and have travel restrictions imposed upon them, if levels of apparent community transmission increase.
Queensland yesterday declared the local government areas of Campbelltown and Liverpool in south-west Sydney to be hotspost areas, meaning non-Queenslanders who had been in those areas in the past 14-days would be turned around at the border and Queenslanders would have to quarantine, at their own expense, for 14 days. Those rules came into force at midday yesterday, and some people who arrived in Cairns on a flight from Sydney just after the rule came into force were told to turn around and get back on the plane.
On adding further hotspots, Miles told Radio National:
It’s possible, we will be constantly monitoring levels in other states and declaring hotspots. That’s the system that will allow us to keep our border open, otherwise we would have to shut out all of NSW.
The concern about Victoria is the number of cases that they have that they can’t trace back to a source case, that’s more than 600 at the moment. NSW only has that one outbreak and while we are very concerned about it it’s not yet sufficient.
On the Crossroads Hotel, which Miles had never heard of (you’re not alone there, mate), he said that 11 of the 18 Queenslanders who had been at the pub during the period of concern had now tested negative to Covid-19. The remaining seven are still awaiting their results.
Updated
We still haven’t solved the problem of how to feed international students who are not able to work during lockdown.
With Melbourne back in stage-three lockdown, many international students are back relying on emergency food packages delivered by charities, as Luke Henriques-Gomes reports. He spoke to Angelina Sukiri, the founder of Kasih, one of the organisations providing emergency food boxes.
Most of them [were] working at a cafe or as cleaners,” she said. “During lockdown it’s impossible for them to get a job. From the first lockdown until now, it’s very hard for them.
Some of the students now are really struggling with paying rent [for a house], or even a rental room.
Updated
Good morning.
The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has ruled out returning her state to lockdown at this stage, telling the ABC that is “is an option we don’t want to take in NSW”.
We want to be in a position ... where all of us are doing the right thing.
What we need to do is find a way in which we can coexist with the virus.
It comes as the number of cases connected to the Crossroads Hotel, surely the busiest pub in Sydney, rises to 30.
Meanwhile, a pizza place in Belfield, Mancini’s Original Woodfired Pizza, has been closed for deep cleaning after a customer who ate their on Friday, and spent an hour there with a group of people, tested positive for Covid-19.
In a Facebook post, the restaurant said:
We have given NSW Health our contacts for the night and they have all been notified and told to watch for symptoms including our staff.
Meanwhile, in Victoria, authorities are planning to train up bank call centre staff to undertake contact tracing phone calls, to prevent the current contact tracing taskforce from burning out. Premier Daniel Andrews said yesterday that they may not be needed, but if the number of infections continue to grow they will have to be stood up quickly.
Two people in their 80s died yesterday after testing positive to the virus, and chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton has warned that the death toll will grow, with “hundreds” expected to be hospitalised from the current wave of infections in the next few weeks. As of yesterday there were 85 people in hospital with Covid-19 – an increase of 13 from Monday – with 26 people in intensive care and 21 on ventilators. Sixteen of those in intensive care were over 60 years of age.
And if you’re one of those who thinks it does not affect you, the youngest person in ICU is a man in his 30s.
It brings the Victorian death toll to 26 and the national toll to 110. Australia also passed the grim landmark of 10,000 coronavirus cases yesterday. According to the health department’s tally, it’s now at 10,251.
You can follow me on Twitter at @callapilla or email me at calla.wahlquist@theguardian.com.
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