Coronavirus Australia live updates: Police investigating whether church burned for defying restrictions

Police are investigating potential arson after a church was burned to the ground, with a message left by the alleged arsonists.

Police in the United States are investigating after a church that defied orders for people to stay home amid the coronavirus pandemic burned to the ground in a case of potential arson.

While restrictions remain a hot topic in the US, the nation currently hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, in Australia some restrictions are being relaxed.

South Australia will allow venues with indoor dining facilities to start serving customers again. It means you can head to the pub for a pint and a parmy but there will be other restrictions such as patron limits and physical distancing in place.

It comes as one of the hardest hit states leads the charge to reopen for business, while places with fewer cases take a more cautious approach.

New South Wales is taking a massive step in easing coronavirus restrictions, allowing up to 50 patrons in pubs, restaurants and cafes on June 1. Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the change this afternoon but said dining in would not be the way we remember.

MORE: Follow the latest virus news here

Australia has recorded more than 7090 cases of COVID-19 so far with 101 deaths. Cases include 3084 in New South Wales, 1593 in Victoria, 1058 in Queensland, 439 in South Australia, 557 in Western Australia, 226 in Tasmania, 107 in the Australian Capital Territory and 30 in the Northern Territory.

Our live coverage has finished for the day, but here's how it unfolded. 

Updates

9:05 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

Church burned down for defying lockdown orders

In the hardest hit country with more than 1.5 million cases and almost 95,000 deaths, there's a battle waging between those who want things to go back to normal and those who want to keep trying to flatten the curve of infection by keeping restrictions in place.

US President Donald Trump has fueled some of the protesters calling for the country to be reopened,and some places have reopened their beaches and relaxed mass gathering limits.

But not everyone is happy about restrictions being lifted, and they're letting people know about it.

Police in the southern state of Mississippi are investigating what they think is a case of arson, after a church that had been defying restrictions was burned to the ground.

At the scene, someone had spray painted the message "bet you stay home now you hypocrites".

State governor Tate Reeves shared the news on social media early onFriday morning.

I am heartbroken and furious. In Mississippi, a church was just burned to the ground. They had been trying to open services. There was graffiti on the lot which read “Bet you stay home now you hypocrites.”

What is this pandemic doing to us? We need prayer for this country. pic.twitter.com/TdGHqs9evv

— Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) May 21, 2020

The First Pentecostal Church had recently sued the city of Holly Springs, arguing it had violated the church’s right to free speech and interfered with its members’ ability to worship by ordering people to stay home.

A judge hearing that lawsuit wrote that he feared the church was “proceeding in an excessively reckless and cavalier manner and with insufficient respect for the enormity of the health crisis which the COVID-19 pandemic presents.”

The graffiti reportedly featured a symbol used by atheist groups as well as the message.

8:10 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

Tasmania continues streak of no new cases

Tasmania has recorded another day of no new coronavirus cases.

The state has had a total of 226 confirmed cases.

Currently there are 12 active cases in the state.

7:59 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

JobKeeper reveal could prompt 'different conversation'

In a Friday afternoon news story that can stand on the shelf with the best of them it's been revealed far fewer jobs will be supported by JobKeeper than initially estimated.

That comes around a week after Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar told Melbourne radio listeners that a "different conversation" would be had about wholesale changes to the program if it wasn't supporting as many jobs as predicted.

"I'm more confident that the JobKeeper scheme, as it's broadly put together, is doing the job, because we hit the milestones that we thought we would with six million employees covered now," Mr Sukkar said on ABC Radio Melbourne last week.

He told host Rafael Epstein "we would be having a different conversation if today you said to me, 'Michael there's only 3 million employees who are covered, it was half what we expected', in that case I'd be saying to you, yeah, look, there's more of a likelihood of wholesale changes."

That revelation had to wait another week, but so far we're yet to see a change in the likelihood of "wholesale changes" to the JobKeeper program, which now looks set to support only around 3.6 million jobs rather than 6 million.

ATO second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said the discrepancy was "good news" this afternoon, saying it showed "the economy has been more resilient than anticipated in the original estimates".

Some have been calling for JobKeeper to be expanded to more casual workers and people like international students who don't qualify.

7:24 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

States 'on the same path, just at a slightly different pace' on border closures

Deputy Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly has once again defended the rights of individual states and territories to decide when to open their borders.

Earlier this week Professor Kelly said he could see no medical reason for the closures to continue, fueling the growing demands from the tourism industry and the likes of Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer that states reopen their borders.

This evening Professor Kelly once again told A Current Affair host Tracy Grimshaw that the individual states and territories are their own best authority on when they should open their borders.

"This is a balancing act… we have different situations between states and in cities versus remote areas. The state and territory governments know this well. They know their own economies and people, and they have to make those decisions. We are all on the same path, just at a slightly different pace," Professor Kelly said.

Queensland and WA have been the target of much of the criticism, though earlier on Friday NT Chief Minister Michael Gunner was also drawn into the debate.

He said he wasn't keeping the borders closed for fun, and it was "to keep people safe and to keep them alive, to make sure that extra body bags we have prepared to send out to remote communities do not have to be used."

Interstate Premiers have been quick to ignore calls from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to open their borders, pointing out that her state has the most cases.

6:36 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

Cases in children remain low, appear less serious

The first study into how COVID-19 has affected Australian children has been released.

The Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) has released a peer-reviewed study in the journal of Emergency Medicine Australasia, which found in the first 30 days since its first case, few children had tested positive, and none of them had required hospitalisation.

MCRI's Dr Laila Ibrahim said it was reassuring for parents who were worried their children could have COVID-19 when they were more likely to have "usual" childhood respiratory issues such as asthma, croup orbronchiolitis.

But she also warned against complacency and said parents should not delay bringing their child to hospital to be tested if there's a chance they could have the virus.

"The data shows that many worried parents are coming to the hospital when their child has a cough or fever, but of over 400 children tested, only four tested positive to COVID-19,” she said.

“This study shows that Australia has responded extremely well to the threat. Hospitals are a safe place with a very low risk of being exposed to COVID-19, and community transmission over the course of the study period was also low.”

The study included 434 patients aged under 18 who presented to Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital from during a 30 day period beginning on March 21.

Only four tested positive and none of them required hospitalisation.

The study adds credence to the ongoing theory that children infected with coronavirus develop a less severe case of COVID-19.

5:43 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

1,000 employers to blame for JobKeeper embarrassment

It only took around 1,000 businesses out of 900,000 applicants misunderstanding one question to blow out the quoted JobKeeper cost by around $60 billion, according to the Australian Taxation Office.

ATO second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn said around 150,000 employers still needed to finalise their applications, but that JobKeeper was currently supporting more than 3 million jobs.

He expected 500,000 to 600,000 more to be supported when those applications were finalised, but nowhere near the 6 million employees it was originally quoted to support.

"What this shows is that the economy has been more resilient than anticipated in the original estimates, which is good news," Mr Hirschhorn said.

The discrepancy is due to some employers making a mistake on their application forms.

Asked to list how many employees they needed help to support, some employers misunderstood the question and instead wrote the dollar figure they expected to receive, $1500 per employee.

This meant they were asking for support f 1,499 more employees than they meant to.

"The largest mistake… instead of putting down one employee, [they] put down 1,500 employees being the amount that they were entitled to in the first fortnight. Once again, this number had nothing to do with the amount that they were ultimately paid. They were paid based on the

one employee," Mr Hirschhorn said.

He said the process was implemented very quickly and conceded the question could have been clearer, but most people understood.

"With hindsight, perhaps the form could have been more straightforward, however, I do note that only 1,000 of the 900,000 employers misinterpreted that question," Mr Hirschhorn said.

He stressed there were no "phantom recipients" who received money they weren't entitled to.

"The only people receiving JobKeeper payments are actual employees, specified line-by-line in the JobKeeper applications."

JobKeeper was budgeted to cost $130 billion but that cost has now been slashed to $70 billion on the new numbers.

The government has so far ruled out using the discrepancy to expand JobKeeper to more people, such as international students or casuals who had started working for their employer after March 1, 2019.

5:23 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

South Australia backflip on booze

South Australia has moved forward a lift to restrictions, bringing it into line with NSW by allowing up to 10 patrons in a venue at a time.

It will now allow places with indoor dining venues, like pubs and restaurants to reopen.

The changes came after a confusing day for some venue owners, who were celebrating news they could start serving customers again, before being told they had the wrong liquor licence.

SA Premier Steven Marshall and Police Commissioner Grant Stevens clarified this afternoon that they won't be stopped from serving drinks with meals.

“We have created some confusion in South Australia in relation to indoor dining,” Mr Marshall said.

The conditions had been restricted to “restaurant and caterer’s licences” but since the public did not know what licences venues held there was too much confusion.

Mr Marshall said the new rules were effective immediately and meant anyone with a liquor licence could now serve alcohol with food.

5:05 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

Confusion over constitutional challenges

Clive Palmer has joined Pauline Hanson in calling for legal challenges to border closures based on Australia's constitution, raising some questions about the language in the document they're relying on.

Ms Hanson is challenging Qld's closure while Mr Palmer is challenging WA's, but both appear to be relying on Section 92 of the Australian constitution, which came into effect at Federation in 1901.

As such some of the language is a bit outdated.

Section 92 has recently become the subject of some childish guffawing online over its wording, which reads as follows:

"92. Trade within the Commonwealth to be free

On the imposition of uniform duties of customs, trade, commerce, and intercourse among the States, whether by means of internal carriage or ocean navigation, shall be absolutely free."

That's the important part of the section at least, and while it remains to be seen whether it stands up in court after probing by constitutional law experts, there is at least one part we can explain ahead of time.

In this context – and in 1901 – "intercourse" is more likely to refer to its other definition, referring to "communication or dealings between individuals or groups", in this instance the states.

Given the typically glacial pace of court cases the border restrictions could well have been lifted by the time any challenge is actually heard, but we shall wait with bated breath to see what happens.

4:45 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

Palmer joins Hanson in constitutional border challenges

Clive Palmer has been denied entry to Western Australia as the state government remains adamant interstate borders will remain closed for months.

Mr Palmer wanted to visit WA for meetings with businesspeople, Senator Mathias Cormann and potential 2021 state election candidates for his United Australia Party but was knocked back.

A spokesman told AAP he had commenced a High Court challenge to the border closure and would cite a section of the constitution that stipulates trade between states must be free.

Mr Palmer accused Premier Mark McGowan of “denying Western Australians jobs and prosperity” by refusing to open interstate borders.

“He risks economic shutdown with his gestapo tactics,” the Queensland-based mining mogul said in a statement.

Mr McGowan batted away “bullying” from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian over interstate borders earlier this week, saying he wouldn’t take advice from the state at the centre of the Ruby Princess debacle.

WA’s chief health officer Andrew Robertson says it will take at least one month to confirm community spread had been eliminated in affected jurisdictions and until then, opening interstate borders was not recommended.

Meanwhile, Mr McGowan remains under pressure to fully reopen intrastate travel after WA’s 13 regions were slashed to four vast areas on Monday. State Liberal leader Liza Harvey labelled his stance on intrastate borders “nonsensical”, given Perth residents could cram on to public transport but not visit northern regions or the Goldfields.

“Every day the Premier dithers, another Western Australian small business closes its doors,” Ms Harvey said.

“Our tourism industry is on its knees.” Health Minister Roger Cook said on Thursday federal biosecurity zones had complicated reopening regional borders, but the police commissioner was working with the state solicitor’s office on dismantling them.

Only three active cases of coronavirus remained in WA as of Thursday.

AAP

3:51 pm May 22, 2020 Highlight

Masks not required as restrictions eased

Australia's Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer Alison McMillan has delivered an update from Canberra this afternoon, and said there will be no need to wear masks as restrictions are eased back around the country.

Ms McMillan reported 6,479 people have recovered from the virus.

The number of active COVID-19 cases is down to 506, "and that is a number that we are going to start reporting to produce a very positive message to all Australians about the great achievements we have seen", Ms McMillan said.

39 people are in hospital with seven in intensive care units.

"What is really important for us now is not to drop the ball," Ms McMillan added.

"We have seen evidence and pictures in the news and on the television of those who have clearly, quite quickly, moved back to the old way of doing things and we must all follow this important physical distancing rules.

"As we see the relaxing of these restrictions, it is up to all of us to play our part in making sure that we don't see outbreaks and we don't see resurgences of this disease across Australia," Ms McMillan said.

She again encouraged people to download the COVIDSafe app, but reiterated it won't be a condition of the new restrictions.

You won't be asked to show the app as a condition of dining at a recently opened pub or restaurant for instance, as it's illegal to require anyone else to download it.

Ms McMillan stressed people with symptoms or who feel sick should not be going out, but said the advice is that "there is no evidence for the need of general use of masks in the community".

"[Masks] are designed and intended for healthcare professionals and that is where we should be using them, so there is no recommendation to use either the surgical masks or cloth masks in the community.

"We have seen evidence of that in other countries but they have got a very different situation about the prevalence of COVID-19 in their community. That is not so here in Australia," Ms McMillan said.