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Coronavirus Australia: Victorian family's savage death notice
The inquiry into Victoria's hotel quarantine debacle has heard how two security guards who allegedly engaged in sexual activity got busted.
The inquiry into Victoria's hotel quarantine debacle has heard how two security guards who allegedly engaged in sexual activity during their shift got busted.
We have heard about the guards in question before. They were employed by a subcontractor hired by MSS Security to guard returned travellers.
Last week, Victoria's inquiry into the hotel quarantine debacle heard from MSS's business event services manager, Sam Krekelis.
"There was a suggestion made by other guards that possibly the two in question had been engaged in sexual activity," he said.
"There was no major incident, just two staff members that got a bit comfortable working together."
News Corp Australia's Ellen Whinnett and Matt Johnston report that, on Wednesday, the inquiry saw emails sent between senior managers, which revealed two other guards who relieved the allegedly amorous pair "tried to keep it in house".
After that, the pair complained on the radio after being rostered on a different floor.
They then took 28 minutes off together during a 15-minute break.
The full report from News Corp Australia has more detail from Wednesday's proceedings.
For full coverage of the latest coronavirus news, read on.
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How amorous guards got caught
News Corp Australia's Ellen Whinnett and Matt Johnston have a new report up revealing how two security guards who were allegedly caught engaging in sexual activity during their hotel quarantine shift got busted.
We have heard about the guards in question before. They were employed by a subcontractor hired by MSS Security to guard returned travellers.
Last week, Victoria's inquiry into the hotel quarantine debacle heard from MSS's business event services manager, Sam Krekelis.
"There was a suggestion made by other guards that possibly the two in question had been engaged in sexual activity," he said.
"There was no major incident, just two staff members that got a bit comfortable working together."
On Wednesday, the inquiry into the broader quarantine debacle saw emails that were sent between senior managers, which revealed two other guards who relieved the allegedly amorous pair "tried to keep it in house".
After that, the pair complained on the radio after being rostered on a different floor.
They then took 28 minutes off together during a 15-minute break.
The full report from News Corp Australia has more detail from Wednesday's proceedings.
'Shouldn't he lift the curfew now?'
Health Minister Greg Hunt was on Sky News this evening. Host Chris Kenny pressed him for an opinion on whether the Victorian government should lift its 8pm curfew on Melbourne.
"The most draconian measure Premier Daniel Andrews has put in place to try and contain the virus in Victoria is the curfew in Melbourne. People locked in their homes, effectively from 8pm until 5am," Kenny said.
"Are you surprised by the revelations yesterday that the chief medical officer in Victoria did not recommend this? That this was not a health recommendation; that the curfew is something that Daniel Andrews just decided to put in place for law and order reasons?"
"Look, I was somewhat surprised, because until now we'd understood that all of the actions taken had been taken on medical advice," Mr Hunt responded.
"I will respectfully leave that to the Victorians."
He started to go off on a tangent about the importance of contact tracing, so Kenny jumped back in.
"But Minister, in the state of Victoria now, people are living under this curfew. By the time it's lifted, on current projections, that curfew will have been in place for three months. There was no medical advice that advised the curfew," he said.
"Shouldn't Daniel Andrews lift it now, for the social sake, for the mental benefit of Victorians? Because it's just not a medical initiative."
"There has to be a medical basis for any restriction," Mr Hunt replied.
"We would like to see all and as many of the restrictions lifted as soon as the medical conditions allow.
"If there's no medical basis for something then obviously, that's then something entirely within the remit of the Victorian government to address. And we'd encourage them to consider that in the coming days."
Former Biggest Loser trainer infected
Fitness trainer Jillian Michaels, who you probably remember from the early seasons of The Biggest Loser, has revealed she has the coronavirus.
Michaels, 49, told Fox Business she caught the disease "several weeks ago", from a friend at the gym.
"If you are afraid of COVID, you should not go to the gym," she said.
"I haven't even spoken about this publicly, really, and a very close friend of mine gave me COVID several weeks ago.
"I'm fortunate to have gone into it being healthy, and I was able to get on the other side of it pretty quick, but not everyone is that lucky.
"All I can tell you is, if you are afraid of getting COVID, a public gym is probably a place where you will get it. I would love to tell you that's not the case, but the reality is I literally let my guard down for an hour with one of my best friends who does my hair and makeup, and go it. It's just that simple."
Michaels stressed that her friend did not know she was infected at the time.
"If you're not in a mask and that person is not in a mask, and they have COVID and have no idea – because, by the way, I had no idea that I had it for six days, my friend had no idea that she had it when she gave it to me – anticipate that you will likely get it in an environment like that," she said.
Vaccine trial pause 'very common'
This evening 7.30 spoke to Professor Katie Flanagan, an expert in infectious diseases, about the pause in AstraZeneca's vaccine trial.
In case you missed the news earlier, we are talking about one of the two potential vaccines the Australian government was hoping to get priority access to.
The trial was halted when researchers discovered a serious suspected adverse reaction in one of the participants.
"How common is a pause in a trial like this?" host Leigh Sales asked.
"It is very common, at some point, to have to do a pause," Prof Flanagan said.
"In a phase three trial of this particular vaccine, there are 60,000 people going to be recruited into the trial. As of yesterday, they'd recruited around 17,000 people.
"So it's not uncommon, when you're going to be looking very carefully for any safety signals, to see something happen to somebody. And that could be a hospital admission for any number of causes, or something serious happened to them – a new disease that they may get – that they think, well, it could potentially be related to the vaccine.
"So they pause the trial. Then they would do a thorough safety monitoring. There would be a safety investigation board that would investigate what is happening here, and if there is any possibility it is linked to the vaccine.
"When you get to such large-scale trials – things happen to people all the time, and serious things happen to people all the time. But they would have to stop and investigate it."
Prof Flanagan said Oxford University and AstraZeneca were probably correct not to release any details about the suspected adverse reaction yet.
"It may be the person that got a placebo is the person that had this serious adverse event. Until they actually un-blind and have a look, they won't know that," she said.
"It probably isn't appropriate (to reveal more) until they've got more information."
Another anti-lockdown protest looming
AAP reports more than a thousand people on Facebook have RSVP-ed to attend another anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne.
The "freedom walk", as they're calling it, is scheduled to happen at the Tan Track in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens on Saturday.
"Come together, get healthy and talk about getting our freedoms back," the description says.
Victoria Police say they're aware of the event and are "currently making a number of enquiries".
"It remains very clear that under stage four restrictions, protest activity cannot occur, with any individual deliberately and blatantly breaching the chief health officer's directives liable for a fine of $1652," they warned.
Canberra Marathon Festival cancelled
Entrants to this year's Canberra Marathon Festival have been informed that the race will no longer go ahead.
The event, which usually runs in April, will be pushed until April 2021, after originally being postponed until the first weekend of November.
"We have been working very closely with the ACT Health Department, NCA and Access Canberra and, as recently as last month, we felt optimistic that we'd be able to proceed with the November date," an email to entrants read.
"however, the restrictions have not eased sufficiently to allow for mass participation events to take place.
"While we are disappointed that we can't take on Canberra with you in 2020, we are committed to forging ahead to put on events that inspire you to come together, lace up and go beyond."
It's the latest marathon event to be canned because of the pandemic, following the cancellation of Sydney's City2Surf event and Queensland's Noosa Triathlon in recent weeks.
Virgin slashes Aussie domestic routes
Virgin Australia has slashed a string of regional routes from its network as part of its restructure after it was crippled by the coronavirus pandemic.
Under its new US owners Bain Capital, who took over the aviation company in late June after it went into voluntary administration, the airline has cut flights from Ayers Rock, Albury, Tamworth, Hervey Bay, Mildura, Cloncurry and Tonga “for the foreseeable future”.
Picture: David Clark
“With the changes to simplifying our fleet and ongoing subdued customer demand, we have been required to make some adjustments to our network,” a Virgin spokesperson said.
“We remain committed to regional Australia and we plan to continue to fly to 20 regional destinations in Australia. We will continue to review our network as travel restrictions ease and demand returns.
“We will contact affected guests who booked with us to advise them of their options. Guests who booked with a travel agent will need to contact them directly.”
NSW Health issue virus alert for Sydney club
NSW Health have issued a public health alert for the Eastern Suburbs Legion Club at Waverley, after two confirmed cases of COVID-19 visited the venue on multiple occasions.
Anyone who attended the club between 5pm and 6:30pm on Friday, August 28 is being directed to immediately get tested for COVID-19 and isolate until they receive a negative result.
The cases also attended the club while infectious on the following evenings:
- Tuesday, September 1
- Friday, September 4
- Saturday, September 5
- Sunday, September 6
Anyone who attended the club during these times must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop.
After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative result is received.
Tom Hanks in Queensland hotel quarantine
Erin Lyons, NCA NewsWire
Hollywood heavyweight Tom Hanks is in hotel quarantine in Queensland after touching down on Australian soil this week.
He returned to Coolangatta in a private jet on Tuesday to finish filming Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic.
When Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was asked in parliament on Wednesday whether the actor had been forced to complete his quarantine in a hotel, she did not deny he had been granted an exemption – sparking incorrect media reports and an attack from opposition leader Deb Frecklington.
Picture: Robyn Beck/AFP
The premier seemed to suggest Hanks had been allowed to quarantine in a private residence under the entertainment industry’s approved COVID-safe plan.
“The industry plan for COVID in relation to the screen industry is a plan that has been approved, just like there is for the resources industry, just like there is for the agriculture industry,” she said.
“Under that plan, they have to stay in the place for two weeks, just like everybody else.
“They will have random checks, as is my understanding, by police.”
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