As the day unfolded: Victoria records 282 new COVID-19 cases as state of emergency extended; Gladys Berejiklian apologises for Ruby Princess errors as Australian death toll jumps to 421

At 11am, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews each gave their daily updates. Here is a brief summary.

• Victoria has recorded 282 new coronavirus cases overnight and 25 deaths, 22 of which were linked to aged care. Expressing condolences for the dead, Premier Daniel Andrews said the state was facing "an ultra-marathon and we just need to keep putting one foot forward each and every day".
• The Victorian government used today's briefing to highlight family violence, committing $20 million to place family violence perpetrators in alternate accommodation during the state's stay home orders.
• Regional Victorian cases are declining, Mr Andrews said, although there are still 436 active cases in areas under stage three restrictions.
• Ambulance Victoria has six paramedics who are currently recovering from the virus and a total of 61 paramedics in isolation. There has also been an outbreak at Hambleton House a privately run supported residential service facility in Albert Park, in inner Melbourne.
• NSW has recorded seven new cases overnight, six of which were locally acquired. New health alerts have been issued for locations in Sydney.
• Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she apologised "unreservedly" for errors made by state health authorities in relation to the Ruby Princess bungle, however she was heartened that no systemic issues were identified. The criminal investigation into the matter is still ongoing.
• NSW has also introduced new guidelines for schools, restricting the movements of students, as Sydney Girls High School closed today due to a person attending school grounds while infectious.

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This is what you need to know from today:

• Australia had 291 new cases today, 282 of which were in Victoria.

• It was the deadliest day since the pandemic began, with 25 people losing their lives.

• The report into the Ruby Princess has revealed 62 people contracted COVID-19 from the cruise ship despite never being on board.

• The global death toll passed 775,000, and cases have passed the 21.6 million mark.

• Expert says almost all cases in Victoria's deadly second wave stem from at least three returned travellers, an inquiry heard today.

• A popular Sydney market has been linked to a COVID-19 outbreak after NSW Health confirmed that a positive case worked there while infectious.

• New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has delayed the general election by four weeks until October 17 as the community outbreak of COVID-19 in Auckland grew by another nine cases on Monday.

• The Australian death toll rose to 421.

The son of a 92-year-old woman who died of a coronavirus infection acquired at Epping Gardens Aged Care has filed the first Supreme Court writ against the home in Melbourne's north.

Sebastian Agnello will be the lead plaintiff in a class action being brought by Carbone Lawyers, which is representing about 30 families with relatives who have either died at the home or who were living there until recently.

A body is removed last month from Epping Gardens, where the worst coronavirus outbreak in aged care has occurred.Credit: Eddie Jim

Mr Agnello’s legal claim, for stress and anxiety caused by his mother’s death at Epping Gardens, is against Heritage Care, which operates four Melbourne homes.

There have been 205 coronavirus cases in residents and staff working at Epping Gardens, making it Melbourne’s worst outbreak in aged care.

It is understood at least 20 residents there have died after contracting a coronavirus infection, although the death toll could not be confirmed.

Heritage Care could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Read the full story here

A Sunshine Coast aged care centre has partially closed as it awaits COVID-19 test results for three residents displaying "respiratory symptoms".

Immanuel Gardens Retirement Living and Aged Care Centre in Buderim has closed The Terrace section of its accommodation to all visitors and the three residents in question have been isolated.

Immanuel Gardens Retirement Living and Aged Care Centre in Buderim.Credit: Lutheran Services

"This morning three residents who live in The Terrace at our Immanuel Gardens service in Buderim were experiencing respiratory symptoms," a spokeswoman for centre manager Lutheran Services said.

"The residents have been tested for COVID-19 and we anticipate we will receive the results in the next 48 hours.

"We will remain in close contact with family members of the residents throughout this time."

The spokeswoman said the residents had been isolated and would "remain under close monitoring and full care" until their test results came back.

"At this stage, we have closed The Terrace to visitors," she said.

Read the full story here

Daniela is an emergency doctor working in several public hospitals in Sao Paulo, on the frontline of Brazil's coronavirus outbreak.

"Today I sent four health professionals home," she says. "Some had already had symptoms, others were starting to lose their sense of smell. A colleague sent another three or four home. That’s just today."

Despite the lack of evidence, some hospitals in China, the US and elsewhere are already giving COVID-19 patients chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus.Credit: iStockphoto

Using a finger-prick test and her professional judgment, Daniela did what she felt was needed to protect patients and the rest of her staff when those doctors tested positive.

She’s just finished a 24-hour shift when I catch her. She is tired, worried and declines to use her real name because, as a public servant, she is not authorised to talk to the media.

"Some people are just so casual. They don’t wear their masks properly. They think that, because they’ve been in hospitals all their lives, they are not going to catch it," she says.

Daniela is not casual. She bought herself a beekeeper’s suit at the beginning of the crisis as the ultimate personal protection equipment. But it proved too cumbersome. Now she makes do with two overalls, a surgical mask, gloves and frequent sanitising. To place a patient on ventilators, she wears a waterproof overall on top.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro's solution to the coronavirus is the anti-malarial drug chloroquine and its cousin hydroxychloroquine, promoted by US President Donald Trump. His supporters agree.

But the President's drug recipe has doctors worried.

Read the full story here

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has apologised for NSW Health's serious mistakes after it was revealed 62 people contracted COVID-19 from the Ruby Princess cruise ship despite not having been on board.

Ms Berejiklian apologised "unreservedly" on Monday to the dozens of people who became sick - including some who became critically ill - even though they were not passengers or close contacts of travellers.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, pictured with Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant, apologised to the 62 people who contracted COVID-19 from the Ruby Princess - despite not setting foot on board.Credit: James Brickwood

"We have learnt so much since those horrible mistakes and, as the Premier, I want to apologise to anybody, especially those 62 individuals, who got the virus as a secondary or tertiary contact because of the way in which those passengers disembarked the ship," Ms Berejiklian said.

She said her apology also extended to anyone who "continues to suffer loss and trauma and angst and health concerns as a result of those mistakes".

Read the full story here

The head of genomic sequencing provided to the Victorian government said it is “very unlikely” that strains of coronavirus currently exist in Victoria that cannot be linked to hotel quarantine.

Professor Ben Howden from the Doherty Institute said all three strains of coronavirus in Victoria’s second wave showed a similar genomic pattern.

“A number of apparent travel-associated cases at the start of the cluster and then a dominance of apparently locally acquired cases after that,” he told the inquiry into Victoria's hotel quarantine program.

That suggests the initial cases were either returned travellers or security guards and workers in quarantine hotels who then spread COVID-19 into Melbourne, sparking a series of local transmissions.

Professor Howden said the Doherty Institute’s genomic sequencing looked at 46 per cent of all the state’s cases up to July 23, meaning more than half have not been analysed.

However, he said that portion of 46 per cent provided enough of a cross-section for him to be confident that all of Victoria’s current second wave is linked to hotel quarantine.

“I believe the majority of cases that are yet to be sequenced fit within those [hotel quarantine] clusters, but we can’t be definitive on that until the sequencing is complete,” Professor Howden said.

“What we have done today, more than 99 per cent fit within those clusters we discussed … I doubt that proportion will change much but as we go along in time, there is a possibility that a new cluster could be introduced through another mechanism and we may detect that.

“But for the current situation, it is very unlikely that we will be detecting many samples that fall outside these clusters.”

Indonesia reported 1821 new coronavirus cases on Monday, bringing its infection total to 141,370, data from the government's COVID-19 task force showed.

The south-east Asian country also added 57 new deaths, taking its fatalities to 6207, the highest coronavirus death toll in south-east Asia.

The Philippines has recorded 3314 new coronavirus cases and 18 more deaths from the disease, the health ministry said on Monday.

The country has so far registered a total of 164,474 infections and the death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 2681, according to ministry data.

In Lebanon, the caretaker health minister said the country should be locked down for two weeks after a spike in infections.

"We declare today a state of general alert and we need a brave decision to close [the country] for two weeks," Hamad Hassan told Voice of Lebanon radio.

Lebanon registered a record 439 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours.

All remaining residents at a supported living facility in Melbourne’s inner south-east are being taken to hospital for medical care following an outbreak of COVID-19.

About a dozen men and women from Hambleton House were at the Albert Park home on Monday following a partial evacuation on Sunday.

Residents of Hambleton House, Albert Park are picked up by Ambulance staff and moved to another facility. Hambleton House is currently under lockdown after a COVID-19 outbreak. Credit: Chris Hopkins

A Department of Health and Human Services spokesman confirmed 15 of the 28 residents and one of eight staff members had tested positive to the virus.

People lined the street to watch as police and paramedics wearing protective equipment helped residents down the stairs into waiting St John’s patient transport vans.

While some locals called for an inquiry into the outbreak after learning of the spread on Thursday, others raised concerns about the care and compassion being shown to some of the state’s most vulnerable.

The third resident to leave on Monday, an elderly woman dressed in a red and white top and golden slippers, held her green thatched handbag in one hand and a paramedic’s hand in the other as she prepared to leave for hospital.

Frail in her old age, she’d spent the entire day peering through the front window of Hambleton House at the security guards and police surrounding her home.

Other residents left with only a plastic bag of belongings.

Read the full story here

People who attended Sydney Market at Flemington on Sunday, August 9, are being warned to monitor for symptoms.

NSW Health confirmed on Monday afternoon that a person worked at the market while infectious, and is now in isolation.

The worker was at Sydney Markets at Flemington on Sunday, August.

Close contacts have been identified and advised to isolate for 14 days, to get tested for COVID-19 and monitor their health, but anyone who was at the market from 8am to 4pm on August 9 is being advised to stay alert.

"The case who was reported positive on Sunday, 16 August and the source of their infection is under investigation," a statement from NSW Health read.

"The areas of the market where the case worked have been thoroughly cleaned. There is no ongoing risk to the public."

NSW Health has also advised people at three other locations to watch for symptoms and to get tested if they appear.

That direction was for anyone who attended Parramatta Local Court on Tuesday, August 11, and Wednesday, August 12, between 8.30am and 12.30pm; anyone who visited Woolworths Metro at North Strathfield on Saturday, August 8, between 12.50pm and 1.15pm; and anyone who visited DFO Homebush on Saturday, August 8, between 10.45am and midday.

Read the full story.

Two people have been charged and 19 individuals and businesses fined over the weekend for violating public health orders in relation to COVID-19.

A 24-year-old man from West Wodonga, in Victoria, was found on Saturday afternoon on the Albury-Wodonga railway bridge, where NSW Police allege he had crossed the border into NSW illegally.

He was charged with four outstanding warrants, and police said they seized a set of knuckledusters from him upon a search. He was refused bail and was due to appear at Albury Local Court, in NSW, today.

A 37-year-old man allegedly coughed at two police officers in Sydney on Friday afternoon, and will appear in Burwood Local Court next week after being granted bail.

Among the latest people handed $1000 fines for COVIDSafe breaches were a woman who booked an apartment on Hay Street in Sydney's Haymarket, which police later visited, finding about 30 people inside.

Two Victorians, one with a working permit and the other with a permit stating that she was entering NSW to provide care, were found drinking alcohol and playing poker machines at venues in Mulwala and Barooga, in the NSW Riverina, respectively. Each was fined $1000.

A 61-year-old man landed a light aircraft at Deniliquin Airport, also in the NSW Riverina, after flying from Victoria. He was fined and ordered to return after being found not to have a valid permit.