Health chief says no evidence kids are super spreaders of virus amid confusion over school closures
Australian children who unknowingly attended school with coronavirus have not caused the same widespread outbreaks as adults, health chiefs say, as the controversy over closures grows.
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Australian children who unknowingly attended school with coronavirus have not caused the same widespread outbreaks as groups of adults at weddings and in aged care homes.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said investigations of child-to-child or teacher-to-child transmission of COVID19 in schools in NSW and South Australia showed young students had not spread the virus in the way older people had.
“This virus is a very challenging one conceptually for any parent or teacher that goes through any winter period where their children bring home respiratory viruses and they circulate within the schools,” he said.
“There is something different about COVID19.
“It quite clearly affects a lower proportion of children.”
Dr Coatsworth said there were about 136 children aged between 5 and 18 who had tested positive for coronavirus, which was about two per cent of the total number of cases in Australia.
“Those raw numbers alone demonstrate the lower propensity or likelihood of children to get infected,” he said.
“In terms of the potential outbreaks that have been associated within schools, it’s also clear - through investigations in some jurisdictions - NSW, South Australia - that single, or one or two cases, of child-to-child transmission, or teacher-to-child transmission, have not resulted in the sort of widespread outbreaks that we’ve seen amongst adults, either at weddings ... or indeed in our elderly population in residential aged care facilities.”
Australia’s peak health advice body is currently considering recommendations to give to National Cabinet about how to make schools “even safer” for teachers.
“It’s the view of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee that schools are safe places because of the low rates of transmission,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“However, I can confirm today for you that the AHPPC has indeed been considering how to make schools ... even safer for staff, for teachers, in their essential role in this COVID19 epidemic, and that advice is being considered by National Cabinet this week.”
Dr Coatsworth defended the development of a tracking app for COVID-19 cases.
He acknowledged the concerns over privacy but said the app, which uses Bluetooth technology to determine if the phone’s owner has been in contact with somebody for a period of more than 15 minutes, would be a “fundamental weapon” until a vaccine is developed.
It came as Prime Minister Scott Morrison pushed for school attendances to increase, despite some states maintaining strict advice about keeping children at home.
Schools are open for children of essential workers and vulnerable students, while others have moved to online learning amid the coronavirus pandemic. But Mr Morrison is worried outcomes could be at risk if too many students are forced into distance learning.
“I’m very concerned about the quality of education that’s going to be delivered to our kids this year,” he told 6PR radio today.
Mr Morrison said he couldn’t see parents being compelled to send their children back to school.
He said schools were unlikely to return to full attendance, but he favoured a more functional number of students to allow for normal lessons to return. The Prime Minister pulled his two daughters out of school in the final week of term one.
“They were sitting in a room looking at a screen. That’s not teaching, that’s childminding. And schools aren’t for childminding,” he said.
Labor’s education spokesperson Tanya Plibersek accused the Prime Minister of contradicting state and territory leaders.
“Parents just want clear information about what the right thing is to do,” she said.
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan is unsure whether his children will attend school in Victoria when private schools resume from holidays on Thursday. “My children at this stage, their school doesn’t start till tomorrow,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“I’ll be continuing to have discussions with them about that. We’ll wait and see what happens.”
The Victorian MP denied the indecision over whether to send his children to school highlighted parents’ confusion.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was emphatic about the arrangements throughout the state.
“If you can have your kids educated at home, that’s exactly what you must do,” he said.
But Mr Tehan told Sky News if his children said they wanted to attend school he would contact the principal to see if it was appropriate.
“I think it’s safe for children to be at school,” he said.
“But obviously, in Victoria, they’re saying if you can learn at home that’s their preference. I’ll have a discussion and see if they want to go to school.” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is keen to see an increase in face-to-face teaching during the term.
“I’ll make sure there’s plenty of time to update parents and students, but our desire is to see a change in term two,” she told reporters.
“We want to see students have access to face-to-face teaching.”
Queensland will review its advice on schools by May 15 in an effort to provide clarity for parents halfway through the term.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said schools were open for children of essential workers and vulnerable students.
Health authorities have consistently said schools are safe for children, but teachers’ unions are concerned staff may be at risk.
Australian politicians and top-ranking public servants will not be getting a pay cut amid the coronavirus pandemic.
PM SHUNS PAY CUT FOR POLLIES
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed Australia will not follow New Zealand’s move to reduce the pay for all ministers and public service chiefs by 20 per cent for six months.
Mr Morrison said it was “not something that’s being considered” as the government preferred the current pay freeze rather than a cut.
He told 6PR radio public servants were working hard to deliver important coronavirus response measures, including wage subsidies.
“They do a great job and they’re as much on the frontline saving people’s livelihoods frankly as nurses working in hospitals,” Mr Morrison said.
“Everyone is working hard here. Everyone who is in a job is in an essential job. I just want to support them in those jobs so I’m not keen to get into a competition.”
Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the pay cut was about showing leadership rather than making a meaningful change to the budget.
Mr Morrison’s comments come as Canberra records another death – a woman aged in her 60s, who travelled on the Ruby Princess.
She is the third Canberra resident to die from the virus and the nation’s 63rd.
No new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the ACT in the past 24 hours, with the total remaining at 103.
JAPAN’S HOSPITALS ON BRINK OF COLLAPSE
Japan’s confirmed COVID-19 cases spiked 457 overnight, bringing the nation’s total to 8812.
The Ministry of Health, Laboiyr and Welfare confirmed there have been 231 deaths in the country on Wednesday.
Medical experts have warned Tokyo’s healthcare system is on the brink of collapse amid the surge of patients and a shortage of protective gear for medical workers.
Officials are under pressure to expand space for more patients, while transferring those with no or slight symptoms to hotels to make room for others in serious conditions.
TRUMP CUTS OFF US PAYMENTS TO WHO
President Donald Trump says he is cutting off US payments to the World Health Organisation (WHO) during the coronavirus pandemic, accusing the organisation of failing to do enough to stop the virus from spreading when it first surfaced in China.
Mr Trump, who had telegraphed his intentions last week, claimed the outbreak could have been contained at its source and that lives could have been saved had the UN health agency done a better job investigating the early reports coming out of China.
“The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable,” Mr Trump said at a briefing. He said the US would be reviewing the WHO’s actions to stop the virus before making any decision on resuming aid.
There was no immediate comment from the Geneva-based organisation on Trump’s announcement. But when asked about possible US funding cuts during a regular UN briefing earlier Tuesday, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris responded, “Regardless of any issues, our work will go on.”
Mr Trump said the US will continue to engage with the WHO in pursuit of “meaningful reforms.”
The United States contributed nearly $US900 million to the WHO’s budget for 2018-19, according to information on the agency’s website. That represents one-fifth of its total $US4.4 billion budget for those years.
The US gave nearly three-fourths of the funds in “specified voluntary contributions” and the rest in “assessed” funding as part of Washington’s commitment to UN institutions. A more detailed WHO budget document provided by the US mission in Geneva showed that in 2019, the United States provided $US452 million, including nearly $US119 million in assessed funding. In its most recent budget proposal from February, the Trump administration called for slashing the US assessed funding contribution to the WHO to $US57.9 million.
More than 125,000 deaths worldwide, including more than 25,000 in the US, have been blamed on the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Last week, Mr Trump blasted the WHO for being “China-centric” and alleging that it had “criticised” his ban on travel from China as the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading from the city of Wuhan.
The WHO generally takes care not to criticise countries on their national policies, and it was not immediately clear what specific criticism Mr Trump was alluding to.
Mr Trump himself showed deference to China at the beginning stages of the outbreak. “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus,” he tweeted January 24.
“The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
AUSTRALIA WILL NOT CUT WHO FUNDING: TREASURER
Australia will not follow US President Donald Trump in withdrawing funding from the World Health Organisation for its handling of the coronavirus crisis, even though the government does not always agree with its decisions.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said Australia saw the WHO has playing an “important role” in improving health outcomes in other countries, particular in the Pacific region and would not withdraw financial support.
“But that doesn’t mean that we’ve agreed with them on everything,” he said.
“We see the World Health Organisation contributing to health … outcomes in our region.
“Some of the work they do in developing countries is important, and we play our role in supporting global organisations through the UN.”
Mr Frydenberg said the government had been “very clear” about its opposition to allowing wet markets in China to reopen given it is believed a market in Wuhan was the source of COVID19.
“It’s unbelievable – it’s extraordinary that the World Health Organisation sees it fit for
these wet markets to continue in China,” he said.
“They shouldn’t. I mean, they’ve been the source of outbreaks that have killed people around the world.
“I would have thought … from the World Health Organisation’s perspective, protecting the health of the world is its first priority.”
Mr Frydenberg said he respected the US’ decision to cut funding, but Australia would not be doing the same.
“We will make those views known about areas where we think the World Health Organisation … can do a better job, but we’ll obviously continue to support global bodies.”
PM’S SCHOOLS PLEA AS WORLD ECONOMY FACES HUGE FALL
The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is predicted to result in the “worst recession since the Great Depression”, but Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is confident Australia will rebound faster than most other countries.
The International Monetary Fund, in its 2020 World Economic Outlook released overnight, forecasts the global economy to fall three per cent in 2020 because of the coronavirus crisis – compared with a fall of 0.1 per cent in 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis.
It is predicting a partial rebound in 2021, with the world economy growing at a 5.8 per cent rate, but said its forecasts were marked by “extreme uncertainty”.
“It is very likely that this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing that seen during the global financial crisis a decade ago,” the IMF said in its report.
“The Great Lockdown, as one might call it, is projected to shrink global growth dramatically.” The IMF expects the Australian economy to contract by 6.7 per cent this year, more than double the fall for the global economy, before rebounding in 2021. The IMF’s forecast of 6.1 per cent growth in the Australian economy in 2021 would still leave it in negative growth for the first time since 2019. Mr Frydenberg said the rebound in growth is faster than the IMF is forecasting for the economies of the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
“The Morrison government has taken decisive action to protect Australians and the economy from the effects of the coronavirus, with government support for the economy totalling $320 billion or 16.4 per cent of GDP,” Mr Frydenberg said in a statement on Wednesday.
The dire economic outlook comes as several countries, including Spain, start easing restrictions to try to revive the economy.
The spread of the virus in Australia has slowed and health authorities say the pandemic is moving into a containment phase.
Some 6400 Australians have so far caught COVID-19 and more than half of them have recovered, while 62 people have died. Worldwide, there have been more than 125,000 deaths.
The national cabinet of state and federal leaders will meet on Thursday to discuss when restrictions on travel and gatherings of people can be relaxed. But Prime Minister Scott Morrison has cautioned that Australia is “not in that phase yet”.
“We’re many weeks away from being in a place like that,” Mr Morrison told Seven’s Sunrise on Tuesday.
But Mr Morrison today sent a message to Australia’s teachers, urging them to get back into the classroom – especially for the students who cannot be homeschooled.
“They need you as our great teachers more than ever. We cannot allow a situation where parents are forced to choose between putting food on the table through their employment, to support their kids and their kids’ education,” he said in a social media message.
“And I know teachers don’t want to force those choices on the parents either, because if we do, of course, thousands of jobs would be lost, livelihoods forsaken.”
Term Two starts in Victoria today with most children learning remotely. Meanwhile, thousands more Australians will be checked for the coronavirus as various states and territories expand their testing regimes to ensure more people showing symptoms can be screened for the disease.
Authorities want to keep a close eye on possible community transmissions, where new diagnoses aren’t linked to known cases or people who have brought the virus back from overseas.
‘DON’T FEEL GUILTY ABOUT SENDING KIDS TO SCHOOL’
Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan told parents this morning they should not “feel guilty about sending your children to school”.
He said that while different states had different arrangements for Term 2, the consistent national position was that schools would remain open for kids who could not learn from home.
“It’s not going to be the same, but we want our children to get the best opportunity they possibly can to learn during this pandemic,” Mr Tehan said.
“We don’t want them missing out on an education as we deal with this pandemic.”
The federal government has pushed for schools to remain open for parents who need to go to work, as well as for vulnerable children who are safer at school.
Mr Tehan said that if students began to disengage with their education that “it can be hard to get them back”.
He praised the hard work of teachers and principals to deliver the best education possible to all students to ensure the “continuity of learning” they needed.
Mr Tehan said the nation’s medical expert panel agreed it was safe for schools to remain open.
It had recommended a string of measures to ensure the safety of teachers at school, including staggering lunch breaks at different times, providing more hand sanitiser, and reassigning teachers over the age of 65 into non-classroom roles.
Mr Tehan said the medical expert panel was monitoring the situation in schools daily.
EUROPE LOCKDOWNS EASED DESPITE WHO WARNING
Spain and Austria have allowed partial returns to work while Britain, France and India extended lockdowns to rein in the coronavirus and the United States – where the death toll exceeded 25,000 – debated how to reopen its economy.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned that infections had “certainly” not yet peaked.
Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 124,000 have died in the most serious pandemic in a century, according to a Reuters tally. The epicentre has shifted from China, where the virus emerged in December, to the United States, which has now recorded the most deaths.
World leaders, in considering easing curbs, have to balance risks to health and to the economy as the lockdowns have strangled supply lines, especially in China, and brought economic activity to a virtual halt.
The shutdown is costing the US economy perhaps $US25 billion ($A39 billion) a day in lost output, St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said, calling for widespread testing and risk management strategies so the economy can restart.
US President Donald Trump, who has declared he will decide when to lift lockdowns, suggested some Democratic state governors were “mutineers” after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would refuse any order that risked reigniting the outbreak.
The White House said Trump would hold a video teleconference with leaders from the Group of Seven countries on Thursday to co-ordinate responses. The global economy is expected to shrink by 3.0 per cent this year, the International Monetary Fund said, marking the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.
The WHO said the number of new cases was tailing off in some parts of Europe, including Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in Britain and Turkey.
“The overall world outbreak – 90 per cent of cases are coming from Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva.
But world stocks gained after Chinese trade data came in better than expected and as some countries partly lifted restrictions.
Some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to resume. Shops, bars and public spaces are to stay closed until at least April 26.
Spain was flattening the curve on the graph representing the rate of growth of the outbreak, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday. The overnight death toll from the coronavirus rose to 567 on Tuesday from 517 a day earlier, but the country reported its lowest increase in new cases since March 18. Total deaths climbed to 18,056.
Italy, which has the world’s second highest death toll at 21,067, maintained some tight restrictions on movement, while Denmark, one of the first European countries to shut down, will reopen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade on April 15.
The Czech government will gradually reopen stores and restaurants from April 20, although people will continue to be required to wear masks.
Thousands of shops across Austria reopened on Tuesday, but the government cautioned that the country was “not out of the woods”.
Austria acted early to shut schools, bars, theatres, restaurants, non-essential shops and other gathering places about four weeks ago. It has told the public to stay home.
The Alpine republic has reported 384 deaths in total, fewer than some larger European countries have been suffering each day. Hospitalisations have stabilised.
Britain, where the government has come under criticism for its slow approach to testing and for not getting protective equipment to the frontlines of health care, has the fifth-highest death toll globally.
The toll in British hospitals rose to 12,107 as of Monday but is expected to be much higher when deaths in the community are included.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said there would be no easing of lockdown measures when they come up for review this week.
The Times newspaper said on Tuesday that Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is recuperating from a COVID-19 infection, would extend the curbs until at least May 7.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday extended a virtual lockdown to May 11.
India, the world’s second-most populous country after China, extended its lockdown until May 3 as the number of coronavirus cases crossed 10,000. Neighbours Pakistan and Nepal also extended their curbs.
UK FACES WORST RECESSION IN 300 YEARS
Britain was facing its worst recession in 300 years, with two million people likely to be out of work.
A UK Office of Budget Responsibility report found that the COVID-19 crisis would cause an economic meltdown worse than either of the world wars or the Global Financial Crisis in 2008.
It comes amid debate about when the lockdown in the UK, amid questions how much it will hurt the economy, with a 35 per cent drop predicted.
Borrowing in the UK will hit $A534 billion as the government picks up the tab for up to 9 million furloughed workers.
But the crisis has already taken more than 12,000 lives in the UK, with nursing homes expected to have recorded up to another 4000 deaths that were not counted in official figures.
British Chancellor Rishi Sunak, the equivalent to Australia’s treasurer, warned the situation was difficult.
“These are tough times and there will be more to come. As I have said before, we cannot protect every business and every household,” he said.
“But we came into this crisis with a fundamentally sound economy, powered by the hard work and ingenuity of the British people and British businesses.
“So while those economic impacts are significant, the OBR also expects them to be temporary, with a bounceback in growth.”
The drop in economic growth was likely to be its worst since the early 1700s when the South Sea Bubble, the collapse of a trading company, smashed the UK economy.
Mr Sunak defended his big spending plans.
“This is an unprecedented time and unprecedented crisis and that called for an unprecedented economic response,” he said.
He added that even though the government was bleeding cash it was still planning to spend big on infrastructure projects when it was over to level up the country as the government promised after its thumping December election win.
Nursing home staff have been on the front line of the crisis, with outbreaks in more than 2000 homes and some were too scared to go to work for fear of catching the virus.
There are claims that the UK has significantly underestimated its death toll because it was only releasing hospital deaths, not those in nursing homes or the community.
There has been criticism of how the UK handled the crisis, with chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance admitting on ITV that testing had “not scaled as fast as it needs to scale”.
Helen Ward, professor of public health at Imperial College London, said on Twitter that it was “very sad that so many people have died, and so many more are desperately ill because politicians refused to listen to advice”.
AGED CARE WANTS $1BN BOOST AS PM PLANS TO GET ECONOMY GOING
Seven of Australia’s biggest aged-care providers have teamed up to ask the federal government for more than $1 billion to get them through the pandemic crisis.
The rescue package would keep the 1.3 million people in aged and home care safe and feeling less isolated, according to the group which includes Anglicare Australia and Catholic Health Australia.
The cash boost would also bolster the 360,000-strong workforce, enabling centres to add extra staff as people get sick and cannot work.
Aged and Community Services Australia chief executive Patricia Sparrow said: “The risks that we’re facing are as real the ones being faced by the aviation sector.
“We need this emergency intervention to keep us safe and open. We don’t want to see closures, and we want to make sure people at home continue to get the care they need.”
The call comes as the number of people infected with the virus around the world approaches 2 million, with 125,000 dead. The US now has 600,000 cases with more than 25,000 dead.
President Donald Trump went on a Twitter war with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo about who had the ultimate authority to end America’s COVID-19 lockdown.
President Trump likened governors including Mr Cuomo to “mutineers” for pushing back at his claim that he has “total authority” over whether states will ease coronavirus restrictions to reopen the economy.
“Tell the Democrat Governors that Mutiny On The Bounty was one of my all time favourite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!,” the president wrote on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the UK has more than 12,100 deaths. France joined the US, Spain and Italy as recording more than 15,000 deaths.
More than 9000 health care workers across the US have contracted COVID-19 and at least 27 died, according to a report released by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
CORONAVIRUS SPREADS THROUGH AGED-CARE SECTOR
Uncontrolled spread of the coronavirus through the aged-care sector has been one of the main concerns for health officials so far.
A cluster of cases and deaths has been linked to one Sydney nursing home, after a staff member continued to go to work without realising they had coronavirus.
In a bid to stop repeats of that, the government has asked for workers to be especially careful in making sure they do not work when they could be sick, meaning some centres have had to hire more staff.
The federal government has already stumped up $2.4 billion to support the struggling sector.
“We are ready to as we navigate through this difficult time together,” Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck said.
“It’s absolutely critical we continue to have a strong workforce so there are no gaps in care, particularly in regional and remote areas.
“We have plans in place for worst-case scenarios where an outbreak in aged-care facilities means local staff are unable to continue to provide care due to an infection in the service.”
But the group of seven providers says it needs more. They are asking for $250 million to fund home care, $546 million for residential care and a $500 million pool for IT and training, to reduce loneliness.
Carers were increasingly concerned about older people not being able to see family and friends because of the strict visiting restrictions in place due to the coronavirus emergency, the group said.
They wanted to be able to buy items such as iPads to keep the elderly connected.
PM’S ‘ROAD OUT PLAN’ TO REBOOT AUSSIE ECONOMY
Workplaces could gradually reopen within weeks as the federal government looks to breathe life into the economy while it continues to fight the coronavirus.
News Corp Australia understands the Morrison Government’s “road out plan” will focus on opening businesses in office buildings and sectors such as manufacturing.
But the plan depends on states recording low daily infection rates and increased and broad testing.
An opt-in tracing app that would allow officials to pinpoint contacts of coronavirus cases is one of the key measures being developed in the fight against the virus.
The app is due to be completed within the coming fortnight and officials hope at least 40 per cent of the population will download the app, enabling rapid tracing, which is key in plans to reopen workplaces.
The strategy to reinvigorate the country’s struggling economy would focus on industries where social distancing was possible.
Hospitality and other high-contact industries would remain closed under the measures being considered.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said social distancing was to remain in place but a route out of some restrictions was being worked on.
“It’s good to have plans to get the way back to where we want to be,” Mr Morrison said on Tuesday.
“That’s what we’re working on as a National Cabinet.
“(Tomorrow) we will be considering further plans about how we can chart that way back to get the economy operating at a much higher level than it is now so it can support people’s incomes.”
It is understood industry representatives are in consultation with the Federal Government so workplaces can be given clear guidelines on minimising the spread of the virus and what to do if someone contracts the illness.
The gradual strategy includes the hope people returning to workplaces would continue to spend money in their daily lives, such as buying a takeaway lunch or coffee to bolster small business.
The AHPPC has been working closely with senior government officials to work out how the measures could be introduced, including locking in the low transmission rates recorded across the country over the past week.
It would need to happen in step with significantly increased rapid testing, contact tracing and surveillance capacity.
News Corp Australia understands Attorney-General Christian Porter has been working through the privacy issues with a tracing app, which is being based on an app already in use in Singapore.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said an app was one of a range of technological interventions being looked at by the AHPPC.
“We’re very much interested in relation to what we can do to find close contacts of cases as quickly as possible.
The government is not considering mandating Australians download and use the app, but is instead hoping the chance to save lives by quickly tracking down cases and the flow-on effect of measures being eased would be enough of a sweetener.
Mr Morrison said while Australia was doing a good job containing cases so far, that could change at any point.
“As we’ve seen overseas, we’ve seen this move right through the community, and so it’s very important that we remain very aware of the potential of where this pandemic can go in Australia and not become complacent because of our relative success,” Mr Morrison said.
“We don’t want to end up like New York or like London or like in Spain or in Italy or any of these places.”
The Prime Minister mapped out a path forward for Australia if its success in containing COVID-19 holds for “many weeks”, but warned restrictions on non-essential movement and social gatherings would remain.
“Broader travel I think is … very dangerous, but we need to get our construction industry going, our infrastructure programs, our manufacturing industries,” Mr Morrison said. “We have got to look to those areas of the economy that can start picking up again, without creating great health risks.”
The PM said “not one country in the world” had been able to plan a path out of coronavirus restrictions but Australia was “better positioned than many”, adding: “We have bought valuable time to plot our way out.”
But any changes to restrictions would only happen in tandem with an increase in Australia’s coronavirus testing, contact tracing and surveillance capability.
Health officials’ ability to quickly detect, trace and isolate localised outbreaks, such as the cluster of cases currently gripping Tasmania, will be critical to the long-term success of relaxed restrictions.
WUHAN LAB ‘WARNINGS’ IGNORED
A Chinese laboratory at the centre of new theories about how the coronavirus pandemic started was the subject of multiple urgent warnings inside the US State Department two years ago, according to a new report.
US Embassy officials warned in January 2018 about inadequate safety at the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab and passed on information about scientists conducting risky research on coronavirus from bats, The Washington Post reported.
Those cables have renewed speculation inside the U.S. government about whether Wuhan-based labs were the source of the novel coronavirus, although no firm connection has been established. The theory, however, has gained traction in recent days.
The UK has said that the idea that the virus, which has turned into a full-blown global pandemic, was leaked from a Wuhan lab is “no longer being discounted.”
A member of the UK government’s emergency committee of senior officials claimed: “There is a credible alternative view (to the zoonotic theory) based on the nature of the virus. Perhaps it is no coincidence that there is a laboratory in Wuhan.”
Foreign affairs expert Gordon Chang said in a recent opinion piece on Fox News that “many Chinese believe the virus either was deliberately released or accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a P4-level biosafety facility.”
He added: “This lab, known for studying coronaviruses, is not far from the market that had been initially identified as the source of the outbreak.”
In a series of diplomatic cables labelled “Sensitive But Unclassified,” U.S. Embassy officials warned that the lab had massive management weaknesses, posed severe health risks and warned Washington to get involved.
DEATH TOLL IN BRITAIN ‘IS HIGHER’ THAN REPORTED
Coronavirus deaths in the UK pushed past the 12,000 barrier on Tuesday (local time) after 778 more people lost their lives to the killer disease.
It comes as the grim coronavirus death toll could be 15 per cent higher than reported as almost 800 hidden deaths outside of hospital in England were revealed.
Positive COVID-19 cases also rose to 93,873 from 88,621 on Monday as Britain continues its fourth week of lockdown.
The British Department of Health on Tuesday confirmed a total of 12,107 people have died from the bug in hospital.
Among the latest deaths is a 65-year-old nurse who contracted the disease while treating patients with just a paper mask, plastic gloves and a pinny.
Gareth Roberts, 65, had come out of retirement and was working extra shifts before he died at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales last weekend.
At least 40 frontline NHS staff have died so far from COVID-19 in the UK.
Meanwhile, coronavirus death toll could be 15 per cent higher than reported.
New official figures show 21 per cent of all deaths in England and Wales up to April 3 were caused by the killer bug.
Nick Stripe, head of health analysis and life events at the ONS, who collated the figures, said: “When looking at data for England, this is 15 per cent higher than the NHS numbers as they include all mentions of COVID-19 on the death certificate, including suspected COVID-19, as well as deaths in the community.
“The 16,387 deaths that were registered in England and Wales during the week ending 3 April is the highest weekly total since we started compiling weekly deaths data in 2005.”
The ONS collects figures where COVID-19 or suspected COVID-19 is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, including in combination with other health conditions.
COVID-19 was listed as a factor in 21 per cent per cent of all deaths in England and Wales in the week leading up to April 3 but registered to April 11 – a total of 6235.
A total of 16,387 deaths were registered in both countries in that time-frame – a rise of 5,246 deaths registered the previous week and 6082 more than the five-year average.
They found 406 deaths occurred outside hospital up to April 3 – ten per cent of the total number of deaths.
FRANCE’S DEATH TOLL PASSES 15,000, CANNES CANNED
France has officially registered more than 15,000 deaths from coronavirus infections, becoming the fourth country to go beyond that threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States.
The rate of increase of fatalities is slightly up again on Tuesday (local time) after steadying in previous days.
But the number of people in intensive care units fell to 6730 from 6821 over 24 hours, with this total declining for a sixth consecutive day, suggesting the lockdown, extended to May 11 on Monday, is having positive effects in containing the disease.
During a press conference Jerome Salomon, head of the public health authority, said the number of people who died from the disease in French hospitals and nursing homes had risen by 5.0 per cent in a day to a cumulative total of 15,729, versus 4.0 per cent on Monday and Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Cannes Film Festival will not be held this year in “its original form” due to the coronavirus, organisers say.
The festival will nevertheless be made “real” in 2020, “in a way or another”, they added in a statement.
The film festival, one of the largest in the world, was initially due to take place from May 12-23.
TRUMP MEETS WITH FORMER VIRUS VICTIMS
US President Donald Trump has met with patients who have recovered from the coronavirus.
Among the former COVID-19 patients who met with Mr Trump at the White House is Michigan state politician Karen Whitsett. Ms Whitsett has publicly credited Mr Trump for publicising the use of an anti-malaria drug — which she says she used during her illness — as a treatment for the disease.
Ms Whitsett thanked Mr Trump again during Tuesday’s meeting and said hydroxychloroquine must to readily available for the people of Detroit, which is in her district.
Mr Trump has promoted the drug as a treatment for COVID-19 although it hasn’t been approved by the federal government for that specific use.
Mr Trump also heard from a passenger who was on a cruise ship that experienced an outbreak of coronavirus.
NEW YORK GOV SLAMS ‘KING’ TRUMP
Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has pushed back against Mr Trump’s claim of “total” authority to reopen the nation’s virus-stalled economy, noting that a president is not an absolute monarch.
“We don’t have a king,” Gov. Cuomo said on the Today show in the US on Tuesday (local time).
“We have a president. That was a big decision. We ran away from having a king, and George Washington was president, not King Washington. So the president doesn’t have total authority.”
The Democratic governor, whose state has become the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, was reacting to Mr Trump’s assertion on Monday that “when somebody is president of the United States, the authority is total.”
“Nope,” Gov. Cuomo said.
When asked what he would do if the Republican president ordered him to reopen New York’s economy, Gov. Cuomo said, “If he ordered me to reopen in a way that would endanger the public health of the people of my state, I wouldn’t do it. And we would have a constitutional challenge between the state and the federal government and that would go into the courts and that would be the worst possible thing he could do at this moment.”
Mr Trump made his comments in reaction to moves by governors on both coasts on Monday to form multistate compacts to co-ordinate reopening society amid the global pandemic.
More than 10,000 people in New York State have died from the coronavirus, Gov. Cuomo reported on Monday.
It comes as New York City’s once-overwhelmed 911 system is now seeing a more normal volume of medical calls, a sign the crisis could be ebbing and people are heeding messages to call only in a life-threatening emergency.