Coronavirus Australia live news: Police’s grim warning as Melbourne lockdown looms
As the hours tick towards midnight and six weeks of hard lockdown, Melburnians are warned the window of police discretion is closing fast.
- Police’s grim warning as lockdown looms
- Major virus breach at Sydney Airport
- Berejiklian weighs border community lockdowns
- Victoria records 134 new cases
- Victorian teen on holiday in NSW positive
- WHO team heads to China to begin probe
Hello and welcome to The Australian’s rolling coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. As the hours tick towards another six weeks of hard lockdown, Victoria police warn Melburnians the “window of police discretion” is only open a crack. Jetstar passengers from Melbourne were allowed to enter Sydney without being screened on Tuesday, prompting fears of another ‘Ruby Princess’ type outbreak. Scott Morrison pledges to continue to support Victoria through its hard, six-week-long lockdown as he vows to slow numbers returning from overseas. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian weighs lockdowns in border communities as Victoria records. 134 new cases of coronavirus – the second-highest daily tally after Tuesday’s 191.
AFP 8.45pm: Brain problems linked to mild infections
Potentially fatal COVID-19 complications in the brain including delirium, nerve damage and stroke may be more common than initially thought, a team of British-based doctors warned on Wednesday.
Severe COVID-19 infections are known to put patients at risk of neurological complications, but research led by University College London suggests serious problems can occur even in individuals with mild cases of the virus.
The research, published in the journal Brain, looked at the neurological symptoms of 43 patients hospitalised with either confirmed or suspected COVID-19. They found 10 cases of temporary brain dysfunction, 12 cases of brain inflammation, eight strokes and eight cases of nerve damage.
Most of those patients with inflammation were diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, a rare condition typically seen in children after viral infections.
“We identified a higher than expected number of people with neurological conditions such as brain inflammation, which did not always correlate with the severity of respiratory symptoms,” said Michael Zandi, of UCL’s Queen Square Institute of Neurology and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
READ MORE: Superjumbo sayonara for Qantas as the 747 flies off
Angelica Snowden 8.20pm: ‘Unacceptable’ behaviour caused bungle: Andrews
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the hotel quarantine bungle, which led to 60 COVID-19 cases among security contractors and their contacts, was the result of people who behaved in a “completely unacceptable way”.
Mr Andrews said he would not “sit in judgment of himself” over the decision to allow private security firms to police isolation rules.
“Clearly, there have been some individuals — maybe a larger group than just some individuals — who have behaved in a completely unacceptable way,” Mr Andrews said.
“That answer is not to avoid accountability for this.
“Ultimately I’m accountable for what goes on in this pandemic response and in all things.”
He said individuals who were involved in anything that was “not appropriate” were no longer a part of the pandemic response.
After 3000 residents in nine of Melbourne’s 47 public housing towers were subjected to strict lockdowns, Mr Andrews said the remaining units would be “deep cleaned” and will have hand sanitisers installed in them.
“This was always going to be a very challenging environment,” he said.
“Any community where people live close together, particularly where you’ve got shared facilities, laundries, foyers, limited number of lifts...it’s always going to be a challenging environment.”
Mr Andrews said he was “confident” the second lockdown would work.
READ MORE: What Melbourne’s lockdown return means
Eric Sylvers 7.55pm: Europe’s tourist hotspots devastated
Something is conspicuously absent from Europe’s tourist destinations: Americans. Hotels, eateries, beaches and museums are reeling from the loss of their biggest spenders.
Read the full story here
AFP 6.30pm: Curfew protests erupt in Serbia
Serbian police fired teargas as thousands of protesters flooded into Belgrade on Tuesday night, angry at the return of a weekend coronavirus curfew.
Read the full story here
AFP 7.15pm: France rules out ‘total lockdown’
The French government says it is preparing for a second wave of COVID-19 cases that could emerge in the coming months, but will not respond with another nationwide lockdown to contain the outbreak.
“My aim is to prepare France for an eventual second wave, while preserving our daily life, our economic and social life,” new Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Wednesday in an interview on RTL television.
“But we’re not going to impose a lockdown like the one we did last March, because we’ve learned... that the economic and human consequences from a total lockdown are disastrous,” he said.
Instead any business closures or stay-at-home orders would be “targeted” to specific areas, he said.
Richard Ferguson 5.45pm: PM boosts defence ties with Japan
Australia will bolster its defence and space ties with Japan on Thursday in a virtual meeting between prime ministers Scott Morrison and Shinzo Abe.
Government sources tell The Australian the two leaders are expected to sign a memorandum of understanding on space co-operation and will look at deepening defence ties.
Mr Morrison’s push to deepen Australia’s engagement with Japan comes after his $270bn defence pivot to build Australia’s defence in the face of a more aggressive China and volatility in the Asia-Pacific region.
“The meeting will build on and reaffirm the importance of our Special Strategic Partnership in a time of global economic and strategic uncertainty,” Mr Morrison said in a statement.
“Prime Minister Abe and I will discuss our shared experiences in responding to the COVID-19 crisis and ways we can work together, with other regional partners, to help ensure an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific. We will discuss ways to co-ordinate our assistance in the Pacific and Southeast Asia to strengthen health systems, and promote economic resilience and recovery.
“I also look forward to discussing with Prime Minister Abe opportunities to further deepen our defence and security ties.”
READ MORE: How Japan beat coronavirus without lockdowns
Rachel Baxendale 5.10pm: Police’s grim warning as lockdown looms
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton has warned Melburnians that the “window of police discretion” is only open a crack, and they can expect to receive hefty fines if they don’t follow the rules as the city heads into a six week lockdown from 11.59pm on Wednesday.
Mr Patton said the 500-strong Operation Sentinel taskforce which oversaw the previous lockdown had been expanded with several hundred more police and 264 ADF personnel who would be out across the state enforcing the Chief Health Officer’s directives.
He said there would be a “huge presence” on the border between the metropolitan and Mitchell Shire area in lockdown, and the rest of regional Victoria.
“It won’t be an absolute ring of steel but there’s going to be a significant police presence on a whole amount of those main arterial roads you’d expect to see, on the Hume freeway, heading out to the Calder, going down to Geelong, heading to Gippsland,” Mr Patton said.
“We’re going to be there from midnight tonight, we’re going to be checking people, we’re going to be making sure they’re adhering to those guidelines.
“If you don’t have a reason to leave you will be turned back around.
“If someone breaches those guidelines and leaves when they shouldn’t, you’ll receive an infringement, $1652.
“We’ll have massive booze bus type operations, we’ll have automatic number plate recognition, we’ll have our teams out there.”
Mr Patton said public order response teams, the mounted branch, highway patrol and police divisions from all 31 local government areas and the Mitchell Shire would be involved, with the police superintendent in each of those areas acting as a commander.
He said ADF personnel had already been assisting in “back of house” roles, but would become more visible, providing logistical support at checkpoints and police command posts.
“They’re going to be invaluable assistance for us, but they cannot replace police in terms of the actual policing responsibilities we have, and where we need those powers to do that,” he said.
“I’ve said in the past, the window of police discretion is closing ... there’s only a little crack in that window still open, because we’re way past a discretionary aspect.
“We’ve done this before ... people know what to do, they know what to expect, and the vast majority are doing the right thing, but moving forward through these types of restrictions, if you don’t, we will issue infringements, and it will be a very rare occasion, an exception where discretion is used.”
The Chief Commissioner sought to make an example of 15 people he said had each been issued with a $1652 fine for attending an AirBnB party in Melbourne’s Southbank on Sunday night.
Awkwardly, Victoria Police on Wednesday night confirmed they had withdrawn all 15 fines, because until the lockdown comes into force on Wednesday night, the Chief Health Officer’s rules allow up to 20 people to gather in tourist accommodation.
READ MORE: What Melbourne's lockdown return means
Rachel Baxendale 5.05pm: Melbourne border patrols ‘randomised but constant’
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says the patrolling of the perimeter of Melbourne when lockdown begins will be “randomised but constant”.
“Not every vehicle being tested, not every passenger being quizzed, but there will be a rigorous process,” he said.
“It’ll be there throughout every day and every night, to make sure that only those who have a lawful reason and absolutely need to be using that lawful reason to travel to regional Victoria are doing that.”
Police and Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said Operation Sentinel police had conducted 92,215 checks on people who were supposed to be at home since the pandemic began.
“To give you a sense that obviously Victorians have now re-engaged, are starting to really re-engage again around some of the risk of COVID, our police assistance line has gone from during some of that May period from about 60 to 70 calls a day to yesterday where we had 810 calls,” Ms Neville said on Wednesday.
“Some of that is people reporting that bad behavior and some of that is people seeking information, so that line is available, and please use that if you’re aware of people obviously breaching these restrictions.”
Ms Neville praised the 500 police who have been guarding the nine public housing towers in Melbourne’s inner northwest, where 3000 residents are being prevented from leaving the buildings.
“They’ve really shown what community policing can be, and it’s a very difficult task.”
She warned Victorians that they would be punished just as harshly for breaking the rules this lockdown as they were during the last.
Victoria had imposed 5957 fines as of May 28, compared with 1290 in NSW and 2069 in Queensland.
“There is no question in my mind, and for those who want to blatantly and obviously and deliberately breach these directives of the Chief Health Officer, police will be there, whether you’re breaking your quarantine at home, whether you’re having parties, whether you having people over to your place, or whether it’s about you trying for no good reason to go to regional Victoria, police will be there,” she said.
READ MORE: Lockdown slashes shares by 1.5pc
Paige Taylor 4.45pm: Infected, recovered — all without realising
A West Australian who went to the doctor for a blood test learned they had been infected — and recovered from — coronavirus without realising.
WA health authorities have provided details about the historical case while confirming that everyone in the state who is known to be currently infected with COVID-19 is a recently returned traveller confined to hotel quarantine.
“This historical case was determined through serology. The person would have had a blood test for another reason and when analysed, antibodies for COVID-19 were detected,” a spokeswoman for the WA Health Department told The Australian.
The person had symptoms consistent with coronavirus in February while overseas. The person returned to Australia in April and underwent 14 days of mandatory quarantine. Therefore, no community risk has been detected.
“This is a historic case, the person has long since recovered and is not infectious. Contact tracing is not necessary as they pose no threat to the community,” the spokeswoman said.
READ MORE: Border shambles halts truckies
Angelica Snowden 4.05pm: Airport test failure an ‘issue for NSW Health’
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth says the failure of authorities to screen passengers onboard a flight from Victoria to NSW is “an issue for NSW Health”.
Giving and afternoon update, Dr Coatsworth said the Victorian lockdown will be “harder” the second time round but that “we can bring coronavirus disease under control again”.
“Only a short time ago we were lifting restrictions, when other parts of Australia are still lifting restrictions,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“What I would say to people though in Victoria, is you did it the first time,” he said.
Dr Coatsworth said the resurgence of COVID-19 in Victoria was a “national” and “a shared problem”.
He said authorities were on “high alert” after cases of COVID-19 from Victoria spread to other states today in the ACT and New South Wales.
“It is clearly a concern when we see people who have recently travelled up from Melbourne and who have developed COVID-19 in other jurisdictions,” he said.
Despite the outbreak of more than 100 cases at the Al-Taqwa College in Melbourne’s west, Dr Coatsworth said the advice that school-age children are “are less affected”.
He also said of major clusters like the Ruby Princess in Sydney debacle and Cedar Meats in Melbourne that “every outbreak is different”, the virus spread differently every time and that it was difficult to learn common lessons.
“Whether it’s on a cruise ship, whether it is in a residential aged care facility, whether it is in a hospital … there are individual learnings that can be had,” he said.
Today 147 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded across the country. Of those cases, 134 new came from Victoria and three were diagnosed in the ACT.
46 people are currently in hospital with the virus, and eight are in intensive care units. Five need the assistance of ventilators to breathe.
READ MORE: New cases shut Woolies warehouse
Rachel Baxendale 3.50pm: Where the cases are in Melbourne
Hume in Melbourne’s outer north and Wyndham in the outer southwest continue to be Victoria’s top two local government areas for COVID-19 infections, with 270 active cases between them.
Wyndham recorded the greatest net increase in cases of any LGA on Wednesday, with 15.
The area is home to the Al-Taqwa College cluster of 102 cases – Victoria’s second-biggest cluster after 111 cases at abattoir Cedar Meats.
Moonee Valley and the City of Melbourne, which between them are home to the nine locked down housing commission towers, also recorded significant net increases of 13 and 11 respectively.
There are just eight cases (of a state total of 860) in regional areas outside the six-week metropolitan Melbourne lockdown which begins at 11:59pm on Wednesday night.
The Mitchell Shire, which is the only regional LGA being locked down, has eight active cases.
Mornington Peninsula, which is semirural but classified as part of Melbourne for the purposes of the lockdown, now has no cases, as does the outer southeastern suburban LGA of Cardinia.
READ MORE: Three Victorian ministers must go
Paige Taylor 3.30pm: WA cases confined to hotel quarantine
Western Australia’s coronavirus cases remain confined to recently-returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The WA Health Department reported two new active cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday. Both new cases were returned overseas travellers who went directly to hotel quarantine and are still there.
Authorities have also identified a West Australian who had coronavirus at some point but apparently did not know it. That person has since recovered. This is called an historical case and it was identified through serology testing. The person returned to Western Australia from overseas in April, when the state’s mandatory quarantine regime was already in place.
Western Australia’s hard border with South Australia and the NT prevents anyone from entering except for essential workers or in special circumstances including for compassionate reasons. Returning West Australians must undergo 14 days of quarantine in a hotel or at home, where police make random checks.
There are now 13 active COVID-19 cases in Western Australia, all in hotel quarantine.
The state’s coronavirus clinics continue to test people in the community but it has been almost 100 days since a case of coronavirus was detected outside hotel quarantine.
On Tuesday, 630 people presented to WA COVID-19 clinics – 608 were assessed and 604 were swabbed.
By Wednesday morning there had been 200,887 COVID-19 tests performed in WA. Of those tested, 34,929 were from regional WA.
READ MORE: School’s alarming virus spike
Kieran Gair 3.20pm: Man arrested after attempted border crossing
A Victorian father-of-three has been arrested after allegedly attempting to cross the state’s border into NSW.
A car bearing Victorian number plates attempted to drive into NSW on Carlyle Road, Corowa, at about 11am on Wednesday.
Police allege the driver declared his intention to cross into NSW despite not having a valid exemption.
The 34-year-old Victorian man was arrested and taken to Albury Police Station, where he is currently assisting police with inquiries.
The man’s wife and three children complied with a police direction and returned to Victoria.
More than 50,000 vehicles have crossed the border from Victoria into NSW.
READ MORE: Border farce: chaos as barriers shut
Adam Creighton 3.10pm: NZ’s economic slump laid bare
Australia Post chief executive has revealed the depth of New Zealand’s economic slump during the coronavirus in a Senate committee hearing, claiming the nation’s parcel deliveries plunged by almost three quarters in late March.
Christine Holgate revealed she became “extremely alarmed” after a phone call to her opposite number in New Zealand in late March after the country went into one of the world’s most extreme lockdowns.
“They had gone into full lockdown, we didn’t quite go into that. This was day four of their lockdown and their parcels business had fallen 70 per cent,” she told the Senate communications committee.
David Walsh is the chief executive of New Zealand Post.
“It became very evident from the CEO that they were going to need help and support,” Ms Holgate said.
Australia Post’s parcel delivery business by contrast surged during the lockdown period, delivering an extra 23.3 million parcels according to analysis revealed by The Australian on Wednesday.
New Zealand shut all businesses that were not deemed essential whereas Australian states and territories permitted retail business to keep operating.
Ms Holgate’s comments come amid debate about the relative merits of the two approaches, and a head of a general election in New Zealand in September, in which the government of Jacinda Ardern is expected to win easily.
New Zealand’s economy has reopened except for international travel.
READ MORE: Posties flat-out as shoppers embrace online
Robyn Ironside 3.08pm: Major virus breach at Sydney Airport
A planeload of Jetstar passengers from Melbourne was allowed to leave Sydney Airport unchecked on Tuesday night because health workers were busy with another airline.
It’s been confirmed that 48 passengers on the flight were able to leave Sydney Airport without any screening following an apparent breakdown in communication between the airline and New South Wales Health.
The incident has created concern the flight could result in another “Ruby Princess” type outbreak, given the explosion of COVID infections in Melbourne.
READ the full story here.
Remy Varga 2.53pm: Woman stretchered out of locked down tower
A woman has been removed from a public housing tower in hard lock down by paramedics wearing hazmat suits.
An emergency situation is unfolding at Flemington.
— Madaale Productions (@MrMadaale) July 8, 2020
One woman is taken from 130 buildings to Showground makeshift hospital. another ambulance just arrived at 120 buildings. Day 5 of Hard lockdown #melbournelockdown #Melbourne #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/axtnP8xKio
The woman wore a pink hijab as she was carried out on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance in the suburb of Flemington in Melbourne’s inner north on Wednesday.
Vision of the woman was posted on social media by local Somali film company Maadale Productions.
READ MORE: Lockdown veterans unmask panicking
Richard Ferguson 2.21pm: ACT records three new cases linked to Melbourne
Canberra has recorded three new cases of coronavirus – the first new cases in a month – after one of the patients returned to the ACT from Melbourne.
All cases are in the same household and one of the patients had recently arrived back from Melbourne.
ACT COVID-19 Update (8 July 2020)
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) July 8, 2020
There have been three (3) new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the ACT in the past 24 hours, bringing the ACT’s total to 111. For more details, please read our statement here https://t.co/aQE1zJYjiJ pic.twitter.com/uWADMI2zPu
ACT chief minister Andrew Barr said a planned easing of restrictions on Friday are now likely to be delayed until the Victorian outbreak is better understood.
“Given the news today we have new cases in the ACT, the community should expect that the implementation of stage three is likely to be postponed,” he said in Canberra.
“We understand that not moving to these stage three restrictions will be frustrating.
“We cannot put our hard work in jeopardy because we move too far, too fast.”
READ MORE: Virus puts wheel maker in a spin
Rachel Baxendale 2.17pm: Where Melbourne’s new cases are
There have now been 456 COVID-19 cases in Victoria with no established source — including 155 in the past week, and 215 in the past fortnight.
As of Wednesday, Victoria has 860 active confirmed cases, 490 more than this time last week, and 719 more than a fortnight ago, when there were only 141 known active cases in the state.
Of the total 2942 cases, 2058 people have recovered.
The death toll is 22, with no deaths sinceMonday.
Of the total cases, 2,575 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 263 are from regional Victoria.
There have been 1,545 Victorian cases in men and 1,372 in women.
Two new cases on Wednesday have been linked to the locked down North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers, bringing the total in that cluster to 75.
Yet another new case has been linked to the Stamford Plaza hotel quarantine outbreak, bringing that cluster’s total to 43.
There have also now been two cases at the PM Fresh food service business in Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s outer north, the second of which was one of Wednesday’s new cases.
The health department said contact tracing was underway and testing of staff at the business would be undertaken.
A new cluster of five cases has also emerged at the Brunswick Private Hospital, in Melbourne’s inner north, after four patients and a staff member tested positive.
The department said contact tracing was underway, with the “outbreak squad” set to visit on Wednesday and the hospital closed to new admissions.
There have also been three additional cases linked to the Woolworths Customer Fulfilment Centre in Footscray, in Melbourne’s inner west, taking the total number there to four, including three staff members and a household contact.
READ MORE: TikTok a ‘risky’ platform
Anthony Piovesan 2.14pm: Hospital shuts over COVID-19 outbreak
A Melbourne hospital has shut as health authorities scramble to deal with a coronavirus outbreak at the private health facility.
Four patients and a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 the facility on Moreland Rd, Brunswick, the Department of Health confirmed.
Contact tracing is under way, while the hospital remains closed to new admissions.
Victoria recorded 134 new virus cases overnight, as total infections for the state rise to 2942.
A massive number of cases, 123, remain under investigation, while 11 were linked to contained outbreaks, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said this morning.
A total of 75 infections are related to the nine locked-down public housing towers.
It comes after NCA NewsWire revealed the Northern Hospital in Epping was temporarily diverting some ambulances to other hospitals as a coronavirus outbreak in the facility’s emergency department grew.
The cluster grew to nine yesterday after a household contact contracted COVID-19 from one of seven emergency department staff who tested positive to the deadly infection.
“Due to a number of staff cases of coronavirus and quarantined close contacts in the emergency department, the hospital is operating reduced services and some ambulances are temporarily being diverted to other hospitals,” a hospital spokesperson said. — NCA Newswire
DAMON JOHNSTON 2.07pm: Junior footy players devastated at new season delay
Thousands of junior footballers in Melbourne have been left devastated by the further delay of their season.
The Yarra Junior Football League announced on Wednesday that the suburban competition – due to resume games this Sunday — would be further delayed by the six-week lockdown starting tonight.
The league’s CEO Tim Murray said the Victorian lockdown left the league no option but to cancel this weekend’s planned games and delay any resumption until late August.
“Yesterday’s decision is extremely disappointing for our boys & girls, but one we know was made by the government with their best interests in mind,” Mr Murray said.
“Clearly, there will be no YJFL games this weekend, & as it currently stands for the next 6 weeks, but … I want you all to know that we are deferring the season, not cancelling it.
“Yarra will be back. Junior Footy will be back.”
The YJFL is one of Melbourne’s biggest junior football competitions for boys and girls and covers the inner city to the outer eastern suburbs.
Mr Murray urged the junior players not to lose faith in football, and drew on AFL young gun Matt Rowell as inspiration.
“To our boys & girls I say this: Keep your head up, we have to put yesterday’s disappointment aside, and let’s keep looking ahead to Round 1. Matty Rowell, a former YJFL player at Canterbury Cobra’s and Boroondara Hawks, used the first lockdown to hone his skills, and it looks like he had 3 BOG’s early on – follow his lead,” he said.
READ MORE: Sport much more than a game
Rachel Baxendale 1.54pm: Islamic school records another seven cases
The number of cases linked to Victoria’s second-largest COVID-19 cluster, Al-Taqwa Islamic College in the outer western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, has risen to 102.
In case details released by the state Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday afternoon, the department said seven of Wednesday’s 134 new cases had been linked to the school.
There were 90 known cases linked to the school on Tuesday, meaning five previously notified cases have been added to the cluster.
DHHS said five positive cases had also been linked to aged care facilities across Melbourne, including in:
– a staff member who was infectious while at the Doutta Galla, Lynch’s Bridge site in Kensington in Melbourne’s inner northwest on 2 and 3 July;
– a resident who tested positive at the Glendale Aged Care facility in Werribee in Melbourne’s outer southwest;
– a staff member who worked at the Uniting AgeWell facility in Preston, in Melbourne’s north;
– a staff member at BaptCare Karana, in the eastern suburb of Kew, who tested positive but did not work while infectious;
– a positive case who provides aged care services to clients in their homes through Mercy Health.
READ MORE: How Japan beat coronavirus without lockdowns
Rachel Baxendale 1.29pm: Islamic school: ‘Outbreak out of our hands’
The Principal of the Victorian school linked to the state’s second-largest COVID-19 cluster says the school has tried its “utmost best” to prevent an outbreak of the virus, but the situation is out of their hands.
The number of cases on Tuesday reached 90 at Al-Taqwa College, in the outer western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, just over a week after the first case was made public on June 29.
More cases are expected to be attributed to the cluster when the state health department releases details later on Wednesday.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Tuesday health authorities were treating all 2000 students and 300 teachers at what is the state’s largest Islamic school as close contacts.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Al-Taqwa College Principal Omar Hallak said he regretted that “a number” of his staff and students had tested positive for COVID-19.
“All staff and students have been asked to get tested and have been placed in quarantine while (the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services) continues their tracing and the college undergoes a deep clean,” Mr Hallak said.
“We first became aware of a possible case on Saturday 27 June 2020.
“We have been working closely with DHHS to support their efforts to trace the origin of the virus and to trace all the contacts of the affected people.”
Mr Hallak said the school knew the positive cases would “add to anxiety” in the community.
“We pray that our state overcomes this pandemic and we wish every affected person a speedy recovery,” he said.
“Before news of these infections, we had taken every precaution to protect our staff and students who live in different areas across Melbourne.
“We have been vigilant since the outbreak of COVID-19 and put in place safety measures to keep all staff, students and the wider community safe.
“Temperature checks on a daily basis were conducted for all staff, students and anyone needing to visit the school.
“Any staff or student that presented with even the mildest cold and flu symptoms were sent back home as a safety precaution.
“Staff were directed to abide by the guidelines of the Premier and the Chief Health Minister (sic) at all times.
“Good hygiene posters were placed all around the school as were hand sanitisers to ensure everyone was practising good hygiene and told to social distance.”
Mr Hallak said the school had enacted additional action since the outbreak, including spending more than $100,000 on cleaning and hygiene measures involving a DHHS-approved organisation.
“We have tried our utmost best to prevent having any cases in our school, however, unfortunately, this is out of our hands as it is with quite a few other schools around Victoria, around the nation and around the world, which is quite saddening,” he said.
READ MORE: Islamic school’s alarming virus spike
Richard Ferguson 1.20pm: JobKeeper extension ‘national, not local’
Scott Morrison says any changes to the JobKeeper wage subsidies will not be extended based on geography, as concerns rise about the economic damage inflicted on Melburnians during the second COVID-19 lockdown.
The federal government is due to reveal its next wave of income support once the current JobKeeper and JobSeeker support programs phase out in September.
The Prime Minister said the support will continue to be national, and will not be localised.
“We’re running a national program of support. That national program of support will give people in the same areas of need the same support. So it’s not a state-based program or anything like that,” he said in Canberra.
“In the same way it is operated up until now, it’s something that has operated nationally and something that has been directed towards businesses that have had that fall-off in turnover and to their employees and similarly JobSeeker is applied across the nation.
These programs act very much as automatic stabilisers in these circumstances and that’s the design element that will continue.”
READ MORE: Treasurer flags early tax cuts
Richard Ferguson 1.15pm: Opening borders for all other states a priority
Scott Morrison will continue to push for all states other than Victoria to open their internal borders, saying Premier Daniel Andrews is effectively self-isolating his state.
The Prime Minister has strongly backed the decision to shut off Victoria despite his previous urgings for Queensland, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia to open up.
Mr Morrison said in Canberra his position on those other states has not changed as Australia should be “one country”, and outbreaks should be treated separately.
“We need to understand what’s happened here in Victoria. What we have effectively done is Victoria has self-isolated,” he said.
“So that creates a protection for all the other states and territories at the one time and it doesn’t leave it to the arbitrary decision of one premier or another premier.
“I mean, my view about people moving from New South Wales to Queensland or to South Australia or Western Australia has not changed. When you have a situation of an outbreak, you contain the outbreak. And that outbreak is presently in Melbourne.
“Arbitrary decisions about state borders is a separate issue and we’ll continue to maintain our position – that Australia is one country and that response that is needed in relation to outbreaks, well, that will be put in place and that will provide the appropriate protections and that’s what’s being done.”
Richard Ferguson 1.00pm: Returning traveller numbers needs to slow
Scott Morrison will move to slow the number of people returning to Australia from overseas.
Victoria has suspended international flights coming into Melbourne due to its COVID outbreak and NSW has sought to stop its hotel quarantine system from becoming overwhelmed by extra flights.
The Prime Minister said he will take a proposal to the national cabinet on Friday to ensure the number of Australians returning home does not become unmanageable.
“The fact is that New South Wales has been bearing the largest burden of people returning to Australia and they’re people – they’re Queenslanders, they’re Western Australians, they’re Tasmanians – and New South Wales has done the heavy-lifting on that and foot the bill for it, I should say,” Mr Morrison said in Canberra.
“Now, in Victoria, we have suspended those flights coming in and that has meant that people have moved on to other flights going into other capitals and we have looked at that and as I said I’ll be taking a proposal to the national cabinet to slow that down as of this Friday.”
EXPLAINER: What Melbourne’s return to lockdown means
Richard Ferguson 12.52pm: PM: ‘We are all Melburnians now’
Scott Morrison has told Australians “we are all Melburnians now” as he pledges to continue to support Victoria through its hard, six-week-long COVID-19 lockdown.
The Prime Minister said in Canberra that nearly 600 Australian Defence Force personnel are either securing the Victorian-NSW border or aiding health efforts in Melbourne, and a further 900 Commonwealth officials are assisting doorknocking and testing efforts.
“We’re all Melburnians now when it comes to the challenges we face. We’re all Victorians now because we’re all Australians and that’s where the challenge is right now,” Mr Morrison said.
“It is a very significant Commonwealth effort to support what is happening in Victoria right now and we will prevail and we will get on top of it and we will protect the rest of the country.
“ For the people, in particular, of Melbourne – this is hard. This is a hard call on you. It’s tough. And it will test you and it will strain, but you have done it once before and you will be able to do it again because you have proven that. You have demonstrated your ability to deal with this.”
READ MORE: Market starts to worry about dud loans
David Ross 12.45pm: Woolies shuts site after two more positive cases
Woolworths will close its entire West Footscray Customer Fulfilment Centre after two more workers at the site tested positive for COVID-19.
These cases come after a supervisor who last worked at the site on Wednesday last week tested positive to COVID-19.
“As a precautionary measure we have made the decision to temporarily close the site so we can undertake testing of all team members,” a spokesman said.
“We have also asked our team to self-isolate while they wait for their results.”
The site closure is not expected to impact online deliveries as had happened earlier in the week.
Coles is not taking staff temperatures but has nurses on call available 24/7 for its staff and will follow all federal and state health advice.
READ MORE: Just how do you get coronavirus?
Jared Lynch 12.39pm: Police order border-crossing truckies to isolate
NSW Police are serving isolation notices to truck drivers entering the state, according to the Transport Workers Union.
The union said on Wednesday morning that several of its members had been issued the notices.
The notices are despite the NSW government stating on Monday that “special conditions will be in place for freight operations and other critical services”.
The government has announced a permit system for entry into the state. Permits are available to truck drivers and must be lodged electronically with Service NSW.
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Richard Ferguson 12.23pm: LIVE: PM to address Melbourne lockdowns
Scott Morrison will address the media in Canberra soon to make an announcement on aged care.
It is also expected the Prime Minister will address the Melbourne lockdown and the closing of the NSW-Victoria border.
Yoni Bashan 11.47am: Victorian teen on holiday in NSW tests positive
A teenager from Victoria on holiday on the NSW south coast has been diagnosed with COVID-19.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said there was an error with the testing, but that the boy’s family had regardless acted in an exemplary fashion to abide by COVID safety arrangements.
“The boy and his family are not from a (Victorian) hotspot. They travelled to NSW on the 4th of July. They were under the impression their result was negative. Their actions have been exemplary. They did exactly what we wanted people to do.”
“The child and his family were not from a hotspot in Melbourne at the time. They were tested before coming to NSW and were advised the test result was negative, but subsequent to their arrival they were advised that was an error and the test result was positive.
“The only event the family did … was visit the Tathra hotel. Pleasingly … the Tathra Hotel did have a COVID safety plan … and the risk to other patrons has been assessed as very low. But as a precaution we’re following up with the 18 people who were in the hotel.”
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Glenda Korporaal 11.43am: China hits back at travel advice
The Chinese Government has hit back at warnings by the Federal Government that Australians should be wary of travelling to China for fear of facing “arbitrary detention”.
READ the full story here
Yoni Bashan 11.27am: Berejiklian weighs quarantine for NSW border communities
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says there is a high probability of COVID-19 contagion in NSW due to events transpiring in Victoria, and that the government is considering plans to enact localised quarantines for communities situated along the state’s southern border.
Ms Berejiklian said she was taking advice almost hourly from health officials, adding that border communities remained particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of infection.
She said residents in these communities should remain in place rather than travel to other parts of NSW.
“If you are an Albury resident, we do not recommend that you travel to other parts of NSW,” she said, adding that nearby towns of Wagga Wagga should abide by the same advice,” Ms Berejiklian said.
She said situation was moving quickly and further announcements – potentially relating to quarantines and lockdowns – could occur over the coming days.
“We don’t want it to come to that, but I’m asking everyone to respect what we’ve asked you to do.
“I ask everyone in those border communities, including residents in NSW who live in Albury or Moama or places across the border, do not travel to other parts of NSW unless you absolutely have to.
“NSW has been able to come this far due to the outstanding work of police. We have to protect the community, and I ask everybody who feels that their freedom is limited … think about the consequences for our poor Melburnians. To be in lockdown for six weeks is not a situation I want anyone in NSW to be in.”
NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said there were eight new cases of the novel coronavirus diagnosed overnight. Seven of those cases were identified in returned travellers, but the other was in a woman aged in her thirties from southwestern Sydney.
Investigations are continuing into how she contracted the virus.
Ms Berejiklian apologised for her heightened levels of concern and strong language about potential risks, but she said a number of drastic measures were being considered to prevent any spread of the Victorian outbreak.
This included rethinking the number of people permitted to gather in public spaces, and potentially forcing NSW residents into hotel quarantine if they return from Victoria. More than 50,000 border permits have already been issued, officials said.
Ms Berejiklian added that she did not want any residents to “be surprised by what we may need to do in the next few days”.
“The government is considering compulsory 14-day quarantines for those residents, which they will have to pay for,” she said.
“If we find the bubble we’ve created doesn’t work along the border, we will definitely need to take further action.
“I’m sorry that my language is so strong, but this is a serious situation. It’s a major health risk to all the good work that we’ve done.”
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Rachel Baxendale 10.32am: Victoria records 134 new cases, 75 linked to towers
There have been 134 new cases of coronavirus confirmed in Victoria in the 24 hours to Wednesday – the second-highest daily tally after Tuesday’s 191.
Only 11 of the 134 are have been linked to known outbreaks, with the remaining 123 under investigation.
There have now been 75 cases linked to locked down housing commission towers in Melbourne’s inner northwest.
Victoria now has 860 active cases.
There are 41 people in Victorian hospitals with COVID-19, including seven in intensive care.
More than a quarter of Victoria’s total of 2942 known cases have been confirmed in the past week.
A record 29,420 tests were conducted on Tuesday, bringing the total number of tests conducted in Victoria to 1,008,677.
READ MORE: Supermarkets limit milk, bread, eggs
Sarah elks 10.27am: Expect lengthy delays when Queensland opens border
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has warned there will “be lengthy delays” when the state’s borders reopen on Friday at midday.
Queensland’s border closure will lift from midday on July 10 to all states but Victoria.
Ms Palaszczuk said despite Queensland’s good coronavirus management – with just two active cases, and no community transmission for many weeks – residents needed to be vigilant.
“What’s happening in Melbourne could happen anywhere; we have to be vigilant,” she said.
She said Queensland was prepared for the border reopening and was confident it would not lead to extra cases.
“We’ve put in place very strong measures, these are the strong measures we’ve taken to protect Queenslanders’ health,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“There will be delays at our borders because we’re going to get this right.”
She urged people to stagger their journeys on the weekend and not travel at peak times, because there would be “lengthy delays”.
Queensland has sent its deputy chief health officer to Victoria, as well as 27 nurses.
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STEPHEN LUNN 10.22am: Anger at lack of info before border shut
Locals in the Albury Wodonga border community are angry about the lack of consultation before governments put a hard border through their twin city.
Dog groomer Jessica Roberts said she sat in traffic for two hours this morning as she navigated the normally 10 minute drive from her home in West Wodonga to her business premises in Albury.
“I’ve got no choice but to make the trip, and it likely mean two hours for me in the mornings,” Ms Roberts said.
“They should have worked this out before now. Albury Wodonga is a joint community, and a lot of people who live in Wodonga work in Albury and vice versa,” she said.
“There are plenty of more sophisticated ways they could be thinking about doing this, with number plate scanning technology and such like.
“It just needs to be more streamlined,” Ms Roberts said.
She said she had managed to acquire the permit required to cross the border after a 90 minute wait on Tuesday evening as the Services NSW computer system crashed.
“I feel sorry for the police at the checkpoint. They are just doing their job and there will be plenty of angry people coming across.”
Sarah Elks 10.16am: Queenslanders ‘deserve to be congratulated’
Queensland has recorded zero new cases of coronavirus overnight, with the state celebrating only two active COVID-19 patients.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, opening a new $42m accident and emergency hospital department in the central Queensland city of Gladstone, said the coronavirus result meant Queenslanders deserved congratulations.
“You should be incredibly proud of the great work you’re doing,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
She urged Queenslanders to keep up their social distancing and hand hygiene to keep the virus under control.
So far, 395,000 tests have been carried out.
READ MORE: 700 Victorian travellers turned away
Amos Aikman 10.12am: Northern Territory borders to stay closed to Victorians
The Northern Territory will maintain a hard border closure with Victoria for the foreseeable future after Chief Minister Michael Gunner decided Melbourne’s deadly coronavirus outbreak had the potential to spread.
“The Territory’s borders will stay closed to all of Victoria, until further notice,” he said.
“They are shut indefinitely.”
Mr Gunner cited the 191 new cases detected in Victoria on Tuesday.
“More than 150 of those cases are still under investigation – which means the source of the infection cannot yet be explained. They don’t know where it’s coming from,” he said.
Mr Gunner noted that just two Melbourne local government areas did not have an active COVID-19 case.
“When you look at the data, you can see the areas of highest risk are on the edges of metropolitan Melbourne – areas like Hume and Wyndham.
That makes the risk of spread outside Melbourne higher,” he said.
“One adjoining area – the Mitchell Shire – already has an outbreak, and has to go into lockdown. We also have reports of large numbers of visitors from Melbourne in regional Victorian communities for the school holidays.
“For these reasons, while the spread in confined mainly to the Melbourne area, we cannot be confident at this time that it will stay in that area.
Melbourne is out of control. That makes it harder for the rest of Victoria to stay in control. And that is not a risk that we in the Territory are prepared to take.
“So to the rest of Victoria – I’m sorry, you haven’t done anything wrong, but it’s my job to put the Territory first.
That means the Territory stays shut to Victoria, until they get back in control.”
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Richard Ferguson 10.06am: Frydenberg flags early tax cuts to boost Victorian economy
Josh Frydenberg has opened the door to bringing forward personal income tax cuts to boost the economy through the Victoria-induced second wave of coronavirus.
The tax cuts – which are already legislated – would lift the 19 per cent tax rate’s application from $41,000 to $5,000 and the 32.5 per cent rate from $90,000 to $120,000. This is currently due to come into force on July 1, 2022.
The Treasurer said the creation of “one big tax bracket” was already clear and cabinet will consider bringing the cuts forward in coming weeks.
“We are looking at that issue and the timing of those tax cuts,” he told ABC radio.
“We do want to boost aggregate demand, boost consumption, put more money in people’s pockets, and that’s one way to do it.”
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Glenda Korporaal 9.54am: Bondholders push to lift veil on Virgin deal
Two of the bondholders owed $2bn by Virgin Australia have applied to the Federal Court to force administrators Deloitte to reveal the details of their deal with Bain Capital.
READ the full story here
Agencies 9.33am: Tom Hanks: ‘Get on with it and do your part’
Tom Hanks is “heartbroken” that his World War II thriller must skip the big screen due to the pandemic — but hopes it can still teach audiences at home a thing or two about acting decently in a global crisis.
“Greyhound,” out on Apple TV+ Friday, was written by and stars Hanks as a rookie captain escorting a convoy of Allied ships as they cross the freezing North Atlantic, hounded by Nazi U-boats.
The movie follows a destroyer’s terrified young crew crossing the treacherous ocean beyond the range of air cover, bound together in life-and-death responsibility for protecting the fleet and each other.
“Those guys on the ship … all they can do is what’s expected of them, and hope for some combination of providence and serendipity to see them through,” said Hanks.
“COVID-19, no one knows how long it’s going to go on, no one knows who’s going to die because of it … you don’t have to go very far to see the correlations and the similarities to the war years,” he told a virtual news conference.
Hanks should know. The Saving Private Ryan star and Band of Brothers producer in March became the first Hollywood A-lister to test positive with the deadly virus while he was filming in Australia. Hanks spent time in a Gold Coast hospital with his wife Rita Wilson to recover.
Contrasting today’s simple instructions to socially distance, wash hands and wear a mask with World War II sailors pulling together as torpedoes tore through the icy waters and slammed into ships’ hulls, Hanks sounds indignant.
“If anybody cannot find it in themselves to practice those three very basic things, I just think, shame on you,” he said.
“Don’t be a pussy. Get on with it, do your part. It’s very, very basic.”
-AFP
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STEPHEN LUNN 9.20am: Border crossings choked with traffic
Motorists crossing the border from Victoria into New South Wales at Albury-Wodonga faced traffic queues of up to two hours on Wednesday as NSW police stopped every vehicle to check for a permit.
On the first morning of the border closure a line of traffic several kilometres long snaked along the Lincoln Causeway in Wodonga, even extending back to the turn-off from the Hume Highway.
Despite the permit system operated by Services NSW only coming online at 7pm Tuesday night, all motorists were being asked to prove they had a legitimate right to make the border crossing.
READ the full story here
Adeshola Ore 9.10am: Canavan flags extension to JobKeeper
Nationals MP Matt Canavan has foreshadowed the extension of JobKeeper, but called for the wage subsidy to be more targeted if it continues past September.
Mr Canavan said the economic impact of Melbourne’s six-week lockdown would be significant, but stressed he did not want people in the city to feel “ostracised”.
“I do think we will look at JobKeeper, it cannot continue at $10 billion or so a month, that’s it costing,” he told Channel 9 on Wednesday morning.
“So what we will have to do post September is better target it. Hopefully target it only to the areas where there is an impact, a lockdown and or industries which are still struggling,”
The federal government is due to give an economic and budget update on July 23.
READ MORE: $1bn hit a week, banks to help loans
Staff writers 9.01am: Melbourne doctor working in hospital tests positive
A doctor at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital has reportedly tested positive to COVID-19.
According to Nine News, he worked at the hospital in Fitzroy on Monday before being tested.
The hospital is one of many sites that offers coronavirus testing.
READ MORE: Queues, empty shelves return to Melbourne supermarkets
Richard Ferguson 8.52am: WHO team heads for China to begin virus inquiry
A global investigation into coronavirus is due to begin this weekend as a team from the World Health Organization heads to China on the next available flight.
After Australia successfully lobbied for a review of coronavirus’s origins, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom announced a team including animal virus experts will head to China to work out the scope of the investigation.
.@WHO experts will travel to #China this weekend to work together with their Chinese counterparts to prepare scientific plans for identifying the zoonotic source of #COVID19. The experts will develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) July 7, 2020
“WHO experts will travel to China this weekend to work together with their Chinese counterparts to prepare scientific plans for identifying the zoonotic source of COVID-19. The experts will develop the scope and terms of reference for a WHO-led international mission,” Dr Tedros tweeted.
“Identifying the origin of emerging viral disease has proven complex in past epidemics in different countries. A well planned series of scientific researches will advance the understanding of animal reservoirs and the route of #COVID-19 transmission to humans.
“This process is an evolving endeavour which may lead to further international scientific research and collaboration globally.”
Scott Morrison has pushed for an independent review into coronavirus since late March to figure out its origins and prepare for a future pandemic, despite pushback from Beijing.
China later accepted an investigation after the countries which make up the African Union and the European Union backed Australia’s push at May’s World Health Assembly meeting.
The WHO will lead the investigation despite criticisms of its role in failing to contain the first COVID-19 outbreak in China and US President Donald Trump’s decision to take the US out of the global health protection body.
READ MORE: Buying the China story
Adeshola Ore 8.39am: Corrections officers take over quarantine hotels
Daniel Andrews says Corrections Victoria is now at the helm of the state’s heavily criticised hotel quarantine system.
Genomic testing has linked several of the state’s cases to private contractors working at two quarantine hotels.
“I can’t change what’s going on there. We got an independent process to get to the bottom of that,” he told the ABC on Wednesday morning.
“I apologise for the position that we find ourselves in. I’m accountable as the leader of our state. The key point is here, I can’t be making popular and easy calls.”
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Adeshola Ore 8.24am: Back to home learning likely for school students
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says a return to home learning is “likely” ahead of a stage three lockdown tonight.
On Tuesday, the premier announced a one-week extension of school holidays, excluding VCE students and specialist schools. Speaking to the ABC, Mr Andrews said he “couldn’t rule out” a return to remote learning.
“If I had to call it, that’s probably more likely rather than less likely. That’s not an easy decision,” he said.
READ MORE: Melbourne’s social and economic crisis
Jack Paynter 8.05am: ‘Massive queues’: Supermarkets overrun again
Panicked customers have rushed to Coles and Woolworths in Melbourne as lockdown measures come into force.
Just a day after they were scrapped, supermarkets have reinstated buying limits across Victoria as shoppers raid shelves.
Came to pick up a few things from Woolies - massive q to get in! pic.twitter.com/zf2V7lZock
— Leo Stubbing (@LeoStubbing) July 7, 2020
Lock down is back and so is the panic buying and the long lines to enter the super market in bayside Melbourne pic.twitter.com/NKFu2IrLmt
— Chris AU (@OfficialChrisAU) July 7, 2020
If anyone in Melbourne is wondering, yes the supermarket is already a terrifying place to be
— Rosa Martorana (@RosaMartorana) July 7, 2020
Supermarket queues - Melbourne. pic.twitter.com/Ij4l1pqsdJ
— Malcolm Farnsworth (@mfarnsworth) July 7, 2020
Melburnians are rushing to supermarkets in the wake of the news of the lockdown. This is the long queue waiting to enter a @woolworths in the South-East #melbournelockdown I haven’t seen it like this all year. Shops will still be open! pic.twitter.com/kTTKSUAXN8
— Lucie Morris-Marr (@luciemorrismarr) July 7, 2020
Stores across the city were stripped bare on Tuesday night as customers made a mad rush to stock up after Premier Daniel Andrews reintroduced stage three coronavirus restrictions.
This is despite customers being allowed to shop during lockdown.
Woolworths reinstated a purchase limit of two items per customer early on Wednesday morning across 27 product categories in Victoria both in store and online.
Coles put product limits on 20 products at stores in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire.
The Woolworths product limits apply to:
Frozen vegetables
Frozen potatoes
Frozen fruit
Frozen fish
Frozen poultry
Pre-packed sausages from the meat department
Pre-packed burger patties, rissoles and meatballs from the meat department
Pre-packed carrots
Pre-packed potatoes
Chilled fresh milk
Sliced bread loaves from the bakery department
Frozen pizza
Frozen party snacks
Frozen meals
Frozen seafood
Chilled juice
Pre-packed bacon
Tissues
Dry pasta
Eggs
Flour
Hand sanitiser
Long life milk
Mince
Paper towel
Rice
Sugar
The existing limit of two toilet roll packs per customers remains in place in Victoria and all other states and territories.
The Coles two-pack limits apply to:
Chicken breast
Hand sanitiser
Chicken Thigh
Liquid soaps
Chilled pasta
Long-life milk
Eggs
Mince meat
Flour
Paper towels
Fresh white milk
Pasta
Frozen chips
Rice
Frozen desserts
Sugar
Frozen fruit
Tissues
Frozen vegetables.
Coles also has a one-pack limit on toilet paper.
Coles chief executive Steven Cain said while it was disappointing to reinstate purchase limits, it was an important measure to help manage demand for staple items at a critical time for many customers in Victoria.
“Our thoughts are with the many Victorians who will now be required to isolate at home, and we will continue to work with the state government to provide whatever assistance they need,” Mr Cain said.
“To help provide a safer shopping experience in our stores, we would ask that customers continue to treat our team members with respect, observe social distancing in stores, make use of the sanitising stations at the entrance, and plan their visit so they can be ‘speedy shoppers’.”
A Woolworths spokesman said the move followed a surge in demand across Victoria overnight and would help ensure more customers had fair access to fresh food and essentials at Woolworths.
“All Woolworths supermarkets in Victoria will remain open throughout the next six weeks of stage three restrictions just as they did earlier this year,” they said.
“We have more than enough stock flowing from our distribution centres into stores to support all our customers’ food and grocery needs. We encourage our customers to continue shopping as they usually would.”
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Adeshola Ore 7.55am: Victoria’s wave could spread interstate: DCMO
Australia’s Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer has warned that further cases of coronavirus could emerge in other parts of the country, as Victoria faces a second wave.
The metro areas of the southern state will return to a lockdown tonight, after it reported a record-high of 191 new cases on Tuesday.
Professor Kidd said the recent spike in Melbourne’s number of cases has surprised the public and highlighted the importance of vigilant social distancing.
“It reinforces for us all just how infectious COVID-19 is and how serious this is when it gets into people who are vulnerable to this disease,” he told Sky News.
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Adeshola Ore 7.45am: Rush for permits in NSW-Victoria border towns
More than 44,000 people have applied for permits to cross the NSW-Victoria border since the system went live overnight.
NSW’s Police Commissioner Mick Fuller says only a handful of people have been turned away from crossing state lines this morning.
The state government has warned that there will be delays at the border in the first two to three days of the operation.
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Adeshola Ore 7.30am: Intensive care beds nearing limit in Florida
Coronavirus outbreaks in the US have has worsened, with Florida, it’s third most populous state, close to running out of intensive care beds. Cases in the state have soared over the last month, with daily count of new cases topping 10,000 three times in the last week. The state’s death toll stands at 3,800. Montana, Oklahoma and Missouri all recorded their highest daily numbers of new cases on Tuesday.
Russia reported more than 6,000 cases of the virus on Tuesday, taking its nationwide count to more than 694,000. The country’s health authorities say 198 people have died from the virus in the past twenty-four hours.
India, which has now the third-worst hit country by case numbers, has continued its surge in cases. The death toll from the pandemic surpassed 20,000 this week, with 467 new deaths on Tuesday.
Globally, more than 540,000 people have died from coronavirus.
With agencies
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Tim Smith 7.05am: Three ministers must go over closures
Victorians are officially the pariahs of the nation, with NSW closing the state border. We Victorians are literally banned from the rest of our country.
The border closure is a stiff economic penalty for regional communities along the Murray River, which are being punished for the negligence of Daniel Andrews and his ministers to manage hotel quarantine.
We also have 3000 residents of nine public housing estates under house arrest and the rest of our suburbs and an adjoining shire back to stage-three lockdown because Andrews decided to use bouncers who fraternised with returned travellers in quarantine and spread the virus into the northern and western suburbs of Melbourne. The government proposes replacing private security with a mixture of prison officers and laid-off staff from Qantas and Jetstar to manage the mess. You couldn’t make this up.
READ the full article here
Adeshola Ore 7.00am: Victoria lockdown economic impediment: Frydenberg
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has labelled Victoria’s return to lockdown is a “serious impediment” to the country’s economic recovery.
Asked whether there would be financial support for Victorians beyond JobKeeper ending in September, Mr Frydenberg told Sky News “we will provide targeted support for those who need it.
“The measures we have announced have been temporary, they’ve been targeted, scalable, proportionate to the challenge we face and that will continue to be the case for any more announcements we make.”
Mr Frydenberg will announce the findings of Treasury’s review of wage subsidies on July 23 alongside a financial update
READ MORE: Retailers weigh closure in Melbourne lockdown
Adeshola Ore 6.35am: Airborne spread likely, pandemic accelerating: WHO
The World Health Organisation has acknowledged this is “emerging evidence” of the airborne spread of coronavirus, after a group of scientists urged the global body to update its guidance on the transmission of the virus.
The WHO has previously said the virus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease spreads primarily through small droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person.
But in an open letter to the agency, published on Monday in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, 239 scientists from 32 countries outlined evidence that they say shows floating virus particles can infect people who breathe them in.
The health body also warned that the pandemic was still accelerating, with about 400,000 new cases of COVID-19 reported over the weekend.
The warning came as US President Donald Trump formally started the country’s withdrawal from the WHO, making threats over the UN body’s response to the coronavirus. The move will cut off one of the organisation’s top aid sources.
Critics say Mr Trump is seeking to deflect criticism from his own handling of the pandemic in the United States, which has suffered by far the highest death toll of any nation.
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Agencies 5.55am: Brazil’s Bolsonaro tests positive for virus
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro announced on Tuesday he had tested positive for the coronavirus but said he was feeling “perfectly well” and had only mild symptoms.
The far right leader has caused huge controversy in Brazil for repeatedly flouting containment measures and minimising the risk of the virus, which has killed 65,000 people in the South American country and infected 1.6 million.
The test “has come out and it’s positive,” Mr Bolsonaro said in a television interview from his residence in the capital Brasilia, adding that he was taking hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat the illness.
Hydroxychloroquine is a medication usually used to treat malaria and lupus, while azithromycin is an antibiotic that can be used to treat pneumonia.
At 65, Mr Bolsonaro is in one of the highest risk categories for a virus that has killed more than half a million people worldwide and infected close to 12 million.
Mr Bolsonaro said he started feeling unwell on Sunday and got worse on Monday, feeling “tiredness, illness and a fever of 38 degrees” Celsius.
But he insisted he was feeling “good, calm” and took off his face mask to emphasise the point.
“Life goes on. We’re going to take care, particularly of old people and those with illnesses that are a risk factor,” he added before repeating his mantra that the “collateral effects” of the virus should not be worse than the illness itself.
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Stephen Lunn 5.45am: NSW-Victoria border now shut down
Victoria is now cut off by road from NSW for the first time since the Spanish flu pandemic more than 100 years ago.
From just before midnight on Tuesday, 650 NSW police were deployed along border crossings between the states to enforce new restrictions banning Victorians from travelling into NSW without a permit.
NSW residents can travel freely into Victoria, but will be required to self isolate for 14 days on their return if they don’t have a permit.
Five major road crossings have the most dedicated police resources, which in coming days will be supported by around 350 defence personnel.
These are the Hume Highway in Albury-Wodonga, the Sturt Highway in Mildura, the Cobb Highway passing through Echuca-Moama, the Newell Highway in Tocumwal and the Princes Highway running down the east coast.
READ the full story here.
Jacquelin Magnay 5.30am: Virus ‘brought forward’ UK deaths
The number of deaths recorded in the United Kingdom for the rest of this year is expected to fall below the five year average because COVID-19 has already claimed many vulnerable aged people.
The Office for National Statistics said the virus had “brought forward’’ the deaths of those hit hardest by the pandemic.
More than 44,000 people have died in the UK of coronavirus – mainly people aged over 80 and with existing health conditions.
But total “excess’’ deaths in the country over the past few months have risen to more than 65,000. That extra 21,000 are attributed to people dying in the home from strokes and heart attacks as they were too frightened to go to hospital, as well as elderly people in care homes “giving up’’ amid depressing strict lockdown conditions.
Statisticians said many of the coronavirus and excess deaths would have been expected to occur in any case later in the year.
Researchers said: “The disease has had a larger impact on those most vulnerable – for example, those who already suffer from a medical condition – and those at older ages.
“Some of these deaths would have likely occurred over the duration of the year, but have occurred earlier because of the coronavirus. These deaths occurring earlier than expected could mean we start to see a period of deaths below the five-year average.” On average around 10,000 people die each week in the UK in normal times.
ONS figures released on Tuesday show there were 8,979 deaths from all causes in England and Wales in the week ending June 26 – 314 fewer than the five-year average.
This is the second week in a row that weekly deaths have been below the average for this time of year.
On Tuesday there were 155 deaths attributed to coronavirus and 581 new cases reported.
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