Australia’s COVID-19 death toll rises amid new economic recovery fears
The coronavirus has claimed the life of an Australian man on a record-breaking day of new cases in Victoria amid fears the nation’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic could be stalled.
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There are fears Victoria’s failure to contain the spread of COVID-19 may hurt the nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic.
A Deloitte Access Economics Business Outlook report released on Monday predicts economic growth will contract by 3 per cent in 2020, but says Victoria will be one of the hardest hit as it plunges into lockdowns sparked by the new COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne, The Australian reports.
While other states have moved to unlock the bulk of COVID-19 restrictions, Victorian businesses continue to face tougher rules.
It’s expected the economic shock in Victoria will hit the state government when it hands down its budget later this year and trigger ripple effects across Australia.
Victoria accounts for one-quarter of the nation’s GDP.
Deloitte Access Economics partner Chris Richardson said Australia’s economy had been hit by a COVID-19 “sledgehammer” and was being “held together by lots of sticky-tape”, according to The Australian.
“Victoria is likely to take the unwanted title of worst performing state through the COVID crisis. Population, once a key growth engine, has well and truly stalled,” Mr Richardson said.
“And Victoria’s case numbers were spiking as we went to press. The need for tighter restrictions has sent job losses soaring and consumers hanging on to their cash rather than spending it. Infrastructure is the bright spot in this dark near-term outlook until the economy can open back up.”
VICTORIA’S HIGHEST VIRUS TOTAL YET
Victoria has recorded 127 new cases of coronavirus overnight, the state’s highest daily spike so far.
It comes as NSW closes the border to Victorians from midnight tomorrow.
A man in his 90s died from the deadly virus in the past 24 hours, while 34 cases were linked to known outbreaks, 40 to routine testing and 53 remain under investigation.
Cases of infections in Melbourne’s locked down public housing towers have doubled with the tally at 53, a total of 26 more than yesterday.
The Victorian-NSW border will close from midnight tomorrow, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced this morning.
He said a “permit-based” system would determine who is allowed to cross the border, with the NSW premier to announce later today the logistics about the operation.
“This is the right approach to take at this time.”
Tenants living inside Melbourne’s nine quarantined public housing towers have spoken of “prison-like” conditions, with about 3000 people not allowed to leave their apartments for at least three more days.
It comes after the Government distributed an information booklet to residents citing the lockdown operation as “detention”.
Victorian Greens MP Ellen Sandell slammed the move.
“For the first 18+ hours of lockdown, public housing residents received virtually no information. Then they were handed this 5 page document in English,” she said.
“Think about how a ‘Detention direction’ looks for people who have fled war zones and dictators. This has been led by force, not care.”
Victoria’s Housing Minister Richard Wynne said the Government had “reached out” to more than 900 of the 3000 residents.
“We are doing absolutely everything we can to both reach out and support people in this really difficult time,” he said.
‘DRUG ADDICTS, ALCOHOLICS’: HANSON TAKES AIM AT VICTIMS
Pauline Hanson has taken aim at high-rise public housing tenants who are under a hard lockdown in Melbourne in a rant on live TV where she labelled some of them “drug addicts” and “alcoholics”
The One Nation leader also said many of the tenants were from non-English speaking backgrounds and accused them of not adhering to social distancing rules, and said some of them would be used to the “tough conditions” because they were from war-torn countries.
Nine public housing towers in postcodes 3031 (Kensington, Flemington) and 3051 (North Melbourne) — which house 3000 residents — were placed under a hard lockdown on Saturday for at least five days, with the suburbs subject to a stay at home order after exceptionally high numbers of coronavirus cases.
No one is allowed out of the fenced-off towers in Flemington and North Melbourne while residents are tested and the source of the outbreaks tracked.
Today host Allison Langdon commented on the anguish many of the residents must be feeling with reports some had not eaten since Saturday, to which Ms Hanson responded: “We’ve seen food being delivered there. The fact is a lot of them are drug addicts... they’re getting the medication, they’re alcoholics so they’re being looked after that way.”
She continued: “A lot of these people are from non-English speaking backgrounds, probably English is their second language, who haven’t adhered to the rules of social distancing.
“So the fact is you’ve got to look at why they are in that situation... Why has the government gone to this high-rise building and shut it down, possibly because a lot of these people weren’t doing the right thing.”
She added: “If they are from war-torn countries, which some of these people are, they know what it is like to be in tough conditions.”
Ms Hanson said “interest groups” and the government would ensure the tenants were looked after.
Ms Hanson said Queensland did not want Victorians visiting until COVID-19 cases in the state were under control and added much of Victoria was being “being isolated because these people, who cannot speak English, don’t know what the hell to do”.
Questioned over why she believed not being able to speak English was relevant to her argument, Ms Hanson claimed it had “a lot to do” with it.
“Why should we put everything out in someone else’s language when you come to Australia as lots of Australians say, you learn to speak English,” she said, referring to the fact COVID-19 messaging had not been communicated clearly in other languages.
CHINA ‘KNEW ABOUT CORONAVIRUS SEVEN YEARS AGO’
Chinese scientists secretly found a virus strain similar to COVID-19 in an abandoned mine in 2013 but kept the discovery secret, according to a shocking new report.
An investigation by The Sunday Times claims the closest linked “strain” to coronavirus was discovered in a bat and rat-infested mine in 2013 and was stored for years at a virology lab in Wuhan.
According to The Sun, the discovery of a strain, made seven years ago at the copper mine in southwest China, is said to be the strongest lead yet in the hunt for where the pandemic began.
It was found after six men were struck down in 2012 with fever, coughs and pneumonia, half of them fatally, after working in the mineshaft.
The report says four of the men tested positive for coronavirus antibodies – but two died before they could be checked.
Dr Shi Zhengli – nicknamed “Bat Woman” by her colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology – in February co-authored the most extensive academic paper on the novel coronavirus up to that point.
In addition to giving a full genetic description of the virus, Dr Shi’s paper – published in the journal Nature – revealed the WIV housed a bat sample named RaTG13, saying it was a 96.2 per cent match with COVID-19.
One of Dr Shi’s longstanding colleagues alleged the RaTG13 sample was found in the mine in 2013 but the information on the sister-virus was not shared.
The news comes after US president Donald Trump in April said he had a “high level of confidence” that COVID-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after allegedly viewing evidence.
He added that US authorities were “looking at it very, very strongly”, saying: “We’re going to see where it is – we’re going to see where it comes from. There’s a lot of theories. China might even tell us.”
AMERICA PARTIES HARD AS CASES SOAR
Tightly-packed crowds were seen in Michigan’s Diamond Lake rocking out to music to celebrate July 4th — despite fears of coronavirus spreading over the holiday weekend.
“Looks like a recipe for disaster …” wrote news station WSBT reporter Max Lewis on Twitter along with footage of the crowds tossing a giant beach ball.
Video posted to social media showed dozens of swimsuit-clad partiers without masks Saturday in the shores of the boating and recreational site in Cassopolis.
Here’s the scene at Diamond Lake in Cass County, Michigan today. Looks like a recipe for disaster...🤦ðŸ½â€â™‚ï¸ #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/0OfgCXThQw
— Max Lewis (@MaxLewisTV) July 4, 2020
More footage posted to Instagram showed a DJ playing to the crowds of singing young adults defying social distancing guidelines.
Michigan has recorded 65,533 cases of coronavirus as of Saturday afternoon local time, including 5972 deaths, news station WDIV reported.
California and Florida have suffered alarming surges in COVID-19 infections.
California reported 5410 new cases with the state total rising to 260,155.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti warned citizens to “assume everyone around you is infectious.”
Florida on Saturday local time marked a new daily high in confirmed virus cases at 11,458 — far more than any other state.
Miami Beach imposed a curfew and made mask-wearing mandatory in public, yet some Florida beaches remained open.
The beach at New York’s Coney Island was also open and crowded, with few wearing masks.
At the University of Washington in Seattle, 121 students have tested positive for coronavirus, 112 of them residents of fraternity houses, according to CNN.
Health officials have been bracing for a new spike in virus cases after this weekend, which they see as a potential tipping point for more infections.
The US virus death toll is fast approaching 130,000, roughly one-quarter the world’s total.
CORONAVIRUS STRIKES TRUMP’S INNER CIRCLE
Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News television personality who is dating Donald Trump Jr, had travelled to South Dakota to see the US president’s Fourth of July speech and celebration fireworks at Mount Rushmore when she tested positive for coronavirus.
Ms Guilfoyle, 51, was immediately isolated after discovering she had the virus in a routine test conducted on anyone expected to come in close contact with the US President, the New York Times reported.
It comes as 200,000 new cases per day becomes a grim ‘new normal’ for the pandemic.
According to World Health Organisation data, there were 212,326 new confirmed cases on July 4, after 209,028 cases were recorded on July 3.
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In a statement to the newspaper, Sergio Gor, chief of staff to the Trump campaign’s finance committee, said: “She’s doing well, and will be retested to ensure the diagnosis is correct since she’s asymptomatic.” He added: “As a precaution (she) will cancel all upcoming events. Donald Trump Jr was tested negative, but as a precaution is also self-isolating and is cancelling all public events.”
Guilfoyle is the third person close to the US president to return a positive COVID-19 test, US media reported.
Thank you for all the well wishes and prayers! 🙠I feel good thanks be to God and look forward to a speedy recovery so I can resume working to re-elect @realDonaldTrump â¤ï¸ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¸
— Kimberly Guilfoyle (@kimguilfoyle) July 4, 2020
Others include Mr Trump’s personal valet and the US vice president’s press secretary.
The pandemic has claimed more than 130,000 American lives and a recent resurgence “puts the entire country at risk,” top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has said.
The New York Post reported that Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. were spotted at a party last weekend where revellers weren’t wearing masks.
The US has about a quarter of the total number of worldwide cases of COVID-19, and about the same proportion of worldwide deaths. So far, 2.9 million people have been infected in the US, and 132,280 have lost their lives.
The epidemic’s surge across the US has seen the most “libertarian” states of Texas, Arizona, Florida and California the hardest hit.
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