Coronavirus Australia live news: second wave ‘has smashed the economy’; suicide rise as women struggle with lockdown
The Victorian COVID-19 lockdown has been worse for the national economy than the 1990s recession, according to Treasury.
- Trump breaks silence to talk up vaccine
- Urgent virus alert for NSW after NZ case
- Covid vaccine for all Australians by end of 2021
- Superspreaders key to halting pandemic
Welcome to The Weekend Australian’s rolling coverage of the coronavirus crisis. As Donald Trump outlines a plan to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine in America, the Morrison government has revealed all Australians will be vaccinated by the end of next year and national contact tracing will be boosted to withstand outbreaks in an effort to encourage states to reopen borders.
John Lyons 12am: US daily record surges to 184,514 cases on Friday
The number of newly reported coronavirus infections in the U.S. surged to another record Friday, notching a 20% increase from the tally a day earlier.
The 184,514 newly reported infections, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, bring the U.S. total to more than 10.8 million. The U.S. reported 153,496 cases on Thursday.
The number of people dying in the U.S. of Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, is increasing as well. More than 1,400 deaths were reported on Friday, according to Johns Hopkins data, the highest death toll in 10 days. However, that number remains lower than the 2,606 peak in daily deaths recorded in April. All told, more than 244,000 people have died of the disease in the U.S.
States in the Midwest are being hit particularly hard, including Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, Nebraska and the Dakotas.
With the U.S. reporting more than 100,000 new cases each day over the past 10 days, governors, mayors and other officials this week unveiled new measures to help curb the pathogen (https://www.wsj.com/articles/as-covid-surges-to-new-levels-across-u-s-states-impose-flurry-of-measures-11605199815).
“It’s on fire. We’ve got to slow it down,” Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told The Wall Street Journal. “We’ve never seen anything like this. Our spring surge and summer surge were nowhere like this.
NOTE: In-line links reference additional content of interest chosen by the WSJ news team.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event
John Ferguson 10.25pm: Second wave ‘has smashed economy’
The economic cost of the Victorian lockdown on GDP was greater than the national impact of the 1990s recession, according to Treasury estimates that emphasise the challenges facing the economy.
Treasury also estimates that the number of effectively unemployed people in Victoria increased by more than 2000 each day over the lockdown while it fell by nearly 3000 a day across the rest of the country.
As Victoria celebrates the collapse of infection rates, Treasury numbers show the impact of the lockdown sparked when the coronavirus leaked out of the state’s hotel quarantine program.
Josh Frydenberg said the 14th successive day of no new COVID-19 cases in Victoria was good news for the country but the second wave had significant economic consequences. “This loss of national economic output is expected to be greater than what occurred as a result of the 1990s recession,” the Treasurer told The Weekend Australian.
“Victoria’s second wave has cost the state dearly.”
Mr Frydenberg added that the slashing of infection rates was positive: “It is really pleasing to see the reduction in COVID-19 cases in Victoria, the reopening of the economy and people getting back to work.”
His comments came as business, Melbourne’s lord mayor and welfare groups warned that the economic recovery in Victoria would be deeply challenging as the state tried to recover from an unprecedented, state government-induced economic hibernation.
Read the full story here.
Alexander Osipovich, Jem Bartholomew 9.25pm: Record close on vaccine hopes for Wall Street
Key US stock benchmark the S&P 500 rose to a record Friday as optimism over a Covid-19 vaccine led investors to pile into previously underperforming sectors like energy and banks.
In a striking reversal, investors have pulled away from the highflying technology stocks that had powered the market higher since March, and shifted into economically sensitive stocks seen as likely to benefit from a post-pandemic recovery.
The S&P added 1.4 per cent, or 48.14 points, to 3585.15, its first record close since early September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 400 points, or 1.4 per cent. The blue-chip index rallied 4.1 per cent this week, its second straight week of gains.
The S&P 500 gained 2.2 per cent for the week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 1 per cent Friday, recovering some ground from recent days, but it still lagged behind the other benchmarks with a 0.6 per cent loss.
The last week when the Dow outperformed the Nasdaq by such a wide margin was 2002, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Among the week’s biggest losers were companies that had benefited from the stay-at-home trade – businesses that can prosper when lockdown measures force people to spend more of their work and leisure time at home. Amazon.com and Facebook have both fallen more than 5 per cent this week, while videoconferencing firm Zoom Video Communications slumped 19 per cent.
Read the full story here.
Wall Street Journal
Hannah Moore 9pm: Four returned travellers diagnosed with Covid
There have been no locally-acquired cases of coronavirus in New South Wales up to 8pm on Friday, but four diagnosed in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
No cases of locally acquired #COVID19 were diagnosed in NSW in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) November 14, 2020
Four cases were reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 4,297 since the start of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/BxaIsb7GWm
Saturday marks one week since the state recorded a case of community transmission.
The good news comes hours after NSW Health issued an urgent warning to 455 travellers in the state who had come from New Zealand without quarantining, after a locally acquired case was detected in Auckland.
NSW Health contacted the travellers on Friday night, calling attention to “venues of concern” in the city, consistent with advice being provided in New Zealand.
The same advice was given to passengers arriving in Sydney from New Zealand around the same time.
“No passengers reported having attended the venues of concern and none had symptoms,” a spokeswoman for NSW Health said.
Read the full story here.
Darren Cartwright 8pm: Drones deploy across Sydney beaches
Drones will be used to monitor the number of visitors to more than two dozen of Sydney’s most popular northern beaches and parks from Saturday to prevent overcrowding and ensure they COVID-safe.
The four month trial starts on November 14 and is a partnership between Surf Life Saving NSW (SLS NSW) and Northern Beaches Council (NBC).
It has been introduced ahead of what is anticipated to be one of the busiest summers on record on Sydney’s beaches.
Drones will provide SLS NSW and the NBC authorities with real-time information on the number of beachgoers at popular destinations to avoid overcrowding.
Among numerous beaches that will be under surveillance includes the inner beachside suburb of Manly which is one of 21 beaches to be monitored.
Remy Varga 7pm: Suicide rise as women struggle with lockdown
Victorian women in their 30s and 40s have emerged as being particularly vulnerable to self-harm during the pandemic, with the number of suicides to the end of October for that group exceeding the total for 2019.
As of October 31, 35 women aged between 35 and 44 had committed suicide, compared with 29 for the previous year, a report by Victoria’s Coroners Court notes.
The report said there could be “an emerging elevated suicide frequency” in the age group, but the deaths remained under investigation.
Jo Robinson, a suicide prevention researcher with youth mental health organisation Orygen, said women had been cut off from their doctors, family and friends during lockdown, leaving them without support networks.
“There’s been less opportunity for women to access informal support and … for them to access the formal support they would usually use,” she said.
“I think that’s probably a bit different to what we see with men, who tend not to use formal or informal things in the first place.”
She said it was harder for women to reach out through platforms such as Zoom when they were housebound with their families, particularly if they had a controlling or violent partner.
“You might be able to be less open about some of the things that are troubling you if you have a difficult partner listening in the background to your call,” she said.
Victoria recorded a total of 580 suicides by the end of October, representing a decrease of 20 compared to the same period last year, with men accounting for three out of four deaths.
Lifeline: 13 11 14; or Beyond Blue: 1300 224 636
Read the full story here or read more on mental health from The Australian here.
Bernard Salt 6pm: Cities shrink as Covid takes its toll
One of the concerns arising from the coming of the coronavirus is the impact the contagion and its management has had on the central business districts of our largest cities, and especially Melbourne given the extent of the lockdown in Victoria.
The theory is that office workers may have become conditioned to working from home, and that employers will be only too willing to support a permanent work-from-home arrangement to relinquish some of the cost of accommodation in commercial office buildings.
And that’s just for starters. There’s also the issue that Australia’s hard border closures have halted international visitor arrivals, which affects the demand for city hotel accommodation.
And unless a solution is found to admit foreign students before the beginning of the 2021 academic year, there’s the possibility that yet another tranche (year) of the international student market will be lost.
Indeed, one of the great new additions to the CBD in recent years has been the rise of the student accommodation industry, which has injected youth, life and energy into the city centre and its fringe.
The question city planners, commercial office building owners, investors and others must be asking right now is this: what will be the long-term effects of the pandemic on the vibrancy, the value and the role of the CBD?
Read the full story here.
Ben Packham, Olivia Caisley 5.20pm: PM cancels trip amid PNG crisis
Scott Morrison has cancelled his upcoming trip to Papua New Guinea after being asked by the island nation’s leader, James Marape, to postpone the visit.
The Prime Minister will still meet with his Japanese counterpart Yoshihide Suga in Tokyo next week as planned.
“Prime Minister Marape contacted the Prime Minister and asked him to defer his visit, and the Prime Minister was happy to do so,” a government spokesman told The Australian.
Mr Morrison was due to visit Port Moresby next Wednesday on the way home from a trip to Japan, where he was going to announce a new $142m loan to PNG and an Australian bailout of Pacific airlines.
However, a mass defection of ministers and MPs on Friday from Mr Marape’s ruling coalition to the opposition benches, apparently in support of former prime minister Peter O’Neill, forced a rethink of the trip.
This is the second time political chaos in Port Moresby has prevented Mr Morrison from visiting the country.
Read the full story here.
Lisa Allen 4.45pm: Triguboff admits he was terrified during downturn
When the pipeline of immigrants arriving in Australia was suddenly shut off earlier this year, multi-billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff admits he was terrified, given Chinese mainlanders are among the biggest buyers of his residential apartments.
“I was scared when the Chinese left, we would be finished, definitely. That is the truth,’’ Mr Triguboff, worth an estimated $15.5bn, told The Weekend Australian.
Over the past decade, China has surpassed Britain as Australia’s primary source of permanent migrants and, along with India, has continued to provide the highest number of migrants — 154,000 each year.
“We need foreign students and migrants, and they don’t have to be Chinese. We want everyone from India, to Korea to China, these guys are prepared to do the jobs that our people don’t want to do,” Mr Triguboff says.
The prolific property developer, whose Meriton business is building 3000 apartments on the eastern seaboard, said this month’s decision by the Reserve Bank to slash interest rates to 0.1 per cent had changed the mood among the property industry.
He said interest rate cuts “help us a lot. It is what saved us of course. The government and the Reserve Bank definitely saved our property market. By lowering interest rates, they made it possible for us to keep building.
Read the full story here.
John Ferguson 4.10pm: Second wave ‘has smashed the economy’
The economic cost of the Victorian lockdown on GDP was greater than the national impact of the 1990s recession, according to Treasury estimates that emphasise the challenges facing the economy.
Treasury also estimates that the number of effectively unemployed people in Victoria increased by more than 2000 each day over the lockdown while it fell by nearly 3000 a day across the rest of the country.
As Victoria celebrates the collapse of infection rates, Treasury numbers show the impact of the lockdown sparked when the coronavirus leaked out of the state’s hotel quarantine program.
Josh Frydenberg said the 14th successive day of no new COVID-19 cases in Victoria was good news for the country but the second wave had significant economic consequences. “This loss of national economic output is expected to be greater than what occurred as a result of the 1990s recession,” the Treasurer told The Weekend Australian.
“Victoria’s second wave has cost the state dearly.”
Mr Frydenberg added that the slashing of infection rates was positive: “It is really pleasing to see the reduction in COVID-19 cases in Victoria, the reopening of the economy and people getting back to work.”
Read the full story here.
Bruno Waterfield 3.20pm: Swedish herd immunity lower than first thought
Swedish “herd immunity” is lower than previously thought, Anders Tegnell, the architect of the country’s approach to fighting the pandemic has disclosed.
Hospital admissions are surging with the fastest rate of growth in Europe, amid fears that the virus is spreading in care homes again.
A 10pm curfew on bars and pubs was introduced this week and 17 of 21 Swedish regions are subject to stricter restrictions issued by the country’s public health agency and Dr Tegnell, the state epidemiologist.
He was forced to admit on Thursday night, after previously playing down the risk, that Sweden is fighting a second wave in the pandemic.
“It is a different situation than we had in the spring when it was more local. Now we have a community spread in many regions at the same time, which is partly a reason why we see such high numbers,” he said.
In August, the scientist attributed low infection rates to the emergence of protection through herd immunity generated earlier in the spring when Sweden’s light-touch pandemic regime was blamed for one of the highest per capita death rates in the world.
“The number of people we don’t find with diagnostics is, with high probability, smaller than we thought,” he said.
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Frances Vinall 2.35pm: Traffic chaos as ‘ring of steel’ lifted
Melbourne residents fled the city in droves on Friday evening for the first weekend since the “ring of steel” keeping them within the metro area was lifted.
The Channel 7 News helicopter captured the slow-moving line of traffic making its way into regional Victoria about 6pm on Friday.
The footage showed city residents grabbing the opportunity for a weekend away after being stuck in their homes for months.
Victorians had been subject to a ban on travelling more than 25 kilometres from their homes, and a five kilometre ban before that.
There was also a general ban on Melbourne residents going into regional Victoria without an approved reason.
But the “ring of steel” was lifted on Monday.
Residents were clearly seizing the opportunity to get some fresh country air as they flocked to the regions for the weekend.
Channel 7 journalist Laurel Irving commented the heavy traffic was an unusually welcome sight.
“This is something we haven’t seen for a long time — a Friday night traffic jam,” she said.
“There is a long line of Melburnians looking to escape the city and head to regional Victoria for a couple of days.
“We don’t normally welcome this kind of traffic but in this case it is a sign of a big step back towards normal life.”
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Sunday the ring of steel lifting meant “Victorians will be able to make up for lost time with loved ones”.
“Nothing about this year has been easy,” he said.
“But the hardest thing of all has been missing the people we love most.
“Collectively, we’ve missed the big moments and the small.
“But we did it. Because staying apart meant keeping each other safe.
“Because of that sacrifice, our state can be whole again.
“Families will be whole again too.”
More restrictions in Victoria are scheduled to lift next Sunday, November 22.
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Emily Ritchie 2pm: Situation in Italy ‘is out of control’
As of Saturday morning AEST there had been over 53 million COVID-19 cases detected across the world, with the fatality rate surpassing 1.3 million.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US recorded its tenth day in a row of over 100,000 new daily cases on Friday.
California and Texas this week surpassed one million confirmed COVID-19 infections and for the third consecutive day the country set a record for hospitalisations, which now total more than 67,000.
The pandemic has killed more than 240,000 people in the US, more than any other country.
In his first press conference since losing his re-election bid, President Donald Trump said his administration would not order a lockdown despite rising infection rates. He said a vaccine would ship in a few weeks to vulnerable people.
In the UK there were early signs emerging on Friday suggesting the country’s resurgence of the virus was levelling-off after wide-ranging restrictions were imposed.
In its weekly survey of new infections, Britain’s statistics agency said the rate of growth of the virus in England appeared to be slowing around the time a new four-week lockdown took effect on November 5. The British government’s main scientific advisory group said the virus’ reproduction rate dipped even before the latest lockdown.
Britain recorded a 27301 daily rise in cases and another 376 virus-related deaths, taking the total to 51,304 — Europe’s highest.
New daily coronavirus cases in Germany hit a record of 23,542 on Friday, prompting government spokesman Stefan Seibert to say measures “were not expected to be relaxed” by next week as had previously been the plan.
Italy has broken its daily increase record, reporting 41,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday.
The southern Italian city of Naples is braced for further restrictions as hospitals risk becoming overwhelmed by new cases, with medics forced to bring oxygen tanks outside to treat desperate patients waiting in their cars.
“The situation in Campania is out of control,” the Italian foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, said after a video emerged showing an 84-year-old man dead in a hospital bathroom where he had been waiting for a Covid test. “We need urgent restrictions… people are dying.”
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Paige Taylor 1.10pm: Dismantling of strict border controls begins
The dismantling of the nation’s strictest border controls has begun, with Western Australia opening itself back up to all states and territories except Victoria and NSW.
From Saturday morning, people from Tasmania, Queensland, South Australia, the ACT and the Northern Territory no longer need an exemption to enter WA and they no longer need to spend two weeks in quarantine when they arrive.
Western Australia could open up to Victoria by the end of November and to NSW by early December if those states continue their run of zero cases. WA premier Mark McGowan has repeatedly refused to commit to ease all domestic travel restrictions by Christmas but says the last of WA’s domestic borders will come down once all states achieve 28 days without a case of community transmission. Victoria has not recorded a locally-acquired case for 15 days and NSW has not recorded a locally-acquired case for a week.
WA‘s tough border controls created extra income for Perth nurse Emmanuelle Lamond - at the beginning of the pandemic she was stationed at Perth airport conducting Covid tests on fly-in, fly-out mine workers. But Ms Lamond, 21, was looking forward to her state effectively rejoining the rest of Australia. She and her friend Rynhardt Dohse, a 19-year-old medical student, welcomed the beginning of the end of a regime that has stoked separatist sentiment, hurt business and kept families apart for 223 days.
Ms Lamond’s grandfather Frankie turned 90 during the pandemic in Griffith, NSW.
“We had planned to be there for his birthday. We miss him,” she said.
While the easing of restrictions was expected to lead to a significant increase in travel in and out of WA, there were only three flights - one each from Brisbane, Sydney and Darwin - scheduled to arrive in Perth on Saturday.
Read the full story here.
Richard Ferguson 12.23pm: Block on foreign students a body blow
Australia’s $40bn foreign education sector is “devastated” by Scott Morrison’s refusal to let it begin quarantining thousands of international students in time for classes in 2021.
Leading figures from the sector have warned that Australia’s quarantine regime must be broadened beyond hotels to include other forms of accommodation.
The nation’s two biggest student accommodation providers, Scape and UniLodge, say they have dozens of empty apartment blocks and up to 10,000 ensuite rooms ready to house students.
But on Friday, the Prime Minister said the national cabinet was not convinced there was an alternative to hotel quarantine and that existing caps on international arrivals would stall plans to bring in thousands of foreigners with student visas. “Sadly that will delay any ability to be bringing international students to Australia soon because we must use every available place to get Australians home,” Mr Morrison said.
“I can’t give a commitment to the states that we’d be in a position to allow any broader entry of international students at this time. But we’ll look at it again in several weeks.
“It’s understandable that many are looking to get back before the end of the year, around Christmas and so on. We’re going to keep looking at what the options are … but we haven’t been able to find any viable options that are safe at this time.”
Read the full story here
Tessa Akerman 12pm: Greg Hunt dodges Daniel Andrews’ request
Health Minister Greg Hunt has sidestepped a plea from the Victorian Premier for $250m to fund an Australian Institute for Infectious Disease in Melbourne, saying the federal government has already committed $220m to another disease research project in Victoria.
Daniel Andrews announced plans for the institute on Friday morning, committing $155m from the state government to the new $550m facility in Parkville’s biomedical precinct.
A further $150m will be provided by the University of Melbourne and its partners and Mr Andrews said he would present a case to the federal government to try to secure a further $250m in funding. “We want the federal government to join us — that’s entirely a choice for them but we’ll provide any and all information,” he said.
Read the full story here.
Emily Ritchie 11.32am: NSW records fourth straight day of zero cases
NSW has recorded its seventh straight day with no local transmission of COVID-19, with four cases acquired overseas and detected in hotel quarantine.
There have now been 4297 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state since the start of the pandemic.
There are 70 patients currently being treated for the virus across the state, none of those in intensive care.
On Saturday, NSW Health reiterated its concerns about passengers who had recently arrived from Auckland following a locally acquired case of COVID-19 there, confirming travellers are being alerted to venues of concern.
“These 455 passengers – who have arrived in Sydney since Thursday November 5 – have been sent a message with NSW Health advice and are also being alerted to the venues of concern in Auckland, consistent with advice being provided in New Zealand,” NSW Health said in a statement on Saturday.
“This advice was also provided to passengers arriving in Sydney from New Zealand on Friday evening’s flight. No passengers reported having attended the venues of concern and none had symptoms. Airlines will ascertain if passengers have attended these venues before they leave New Zealand and if they have, they will be not allowed to travel.”
Anyone who arrives in NSW from New Zealand is asked to monitor for even the mildest symptoms and urged to get tested if they develop. NSW Health said the risk posed by quarantine-free travel from New Zealand remains low.
NSW Health also issued a call for Rouse Hill residents to come forward and get tested after further sewage testing detected more traces of the virus in the area.
“Fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been detected in samples taken on Wednesday November 11 from the sewerage system that drains parts of Quakers Hill, Castle Hill, Annangrove, Kellyville, Box Hill, Kenthurst, Glenhaven, The Ponds, Rouse Hill, North Kellyville, Kellyville Ridge, Beaumont Hills, Stanhope Gardens, Baulkham Hills, Glenwood, Bella Vista, Parklea, Acacia Gardens and Norwest,” NSW Health said.
“Everyone in these areas is urged to immediately get tested if they have any symptoms at all that could signal COVID-19. Symptoms such as a runny nose or scratchy throat, cough, tiredness, fever or other symptoms could be COVID-19. After testing, you must remain in isolation until a negative result is received.”
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Darren Cartwright 11am: Drones to monitor Sydney beaches for crowding
Drones will be used to monitor the number of visitors to more than two dozen of Sydney’s most popular northern beaches and parks from Saturday to prevent overcrowding and ensure they COVID-safe.
The four month trial starts on November 14 and is a partnership between Surf Life Saving NSW (SLS NSW) and Northern Beaches Council (NBC).
It has been introduced ahead of what is anticipated to be one of the busiest summers on record on Sydney’s beaches.
Drones will provide SLS NSW and the NBC authorities with real-time information on the number of beachgoers at popular destinations to avoid overcrowding.
Among numerous beaches that will be under surveillance includes the inner beachside suburb of Manly which is one of 21 beaches to be monitored.
The beach at Manly was already under surveillance from drones before the coronavirus pandemic.
The trial will cover parks and reserves including Clontarf, Apex Park, Mona Vale and Governor Phillip Park.
Northern Beaches Council Mayor, Michael Regan said the joint initiative was about keeping people safe during the pandemic and to avoid overcrowding at beaches.
“This partnership is a critical part of our summer COVID safety operations,” Mayor Regan said.
“Our aim is to keep our popular beaches and parks open so locals and visitors alike can enjoy them to the full this summer.
“Using this real time data we can even more effectively manage our public spaces and reduce the COVID risk to beachgoers.”
The information will also be uploaded on the Beachside website and app to allow beachgoers to easily identify less crowded beaches before they leave home with the tap of a button on their mobile phone.
Surf Life Saving guards have been using drones to assist with rescues but will now be of added value and provide quality data to allow beachgoers to make an informed choice about which beach will be safest to head to.
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Agencies 10.23am: School finds DIY answer to anti-virus ventilation
Keeping the windows open to combat Covid-19 is easier said than done as winter approaches. One German school believes it has found a cheap and simple solution with a DIY ventilation system designed by a teacher’s scientist husband.
“It works like a kitchen extractor fan,” said inventor Frank Helleis, standing in a classroom at the IGS Mainz-Bretzenheim secondary school.
Above every desk hangs a clear plastic funnel attached to a narrow pipe, with all the pipes in turn connected to one wide pipe leading to a fan that directs the air outside through a tilted window.
Warm breath exhaled by the pupils, potentially carrying virus-laden tiny particles known as aerosols, rises up overhead and is sucked through the tubes and pushed outside before it can spread through the room.
Another window is kept ajar to allow in fresh air.
Tests carried out by the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, where Helleis works, have shown the system manages to remove over 90 percent of aerosols from the room, on par with the most high-tech air filtration units on the market.
The difference is that Helleis’ light-weight contraption can be built from materials from the do-it-yourself store for around 200 euros ($235).
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Charlie Peel 10am: Tourism operators plead for certainty
Tourism operators hit by reduced interstate Christmas holiday bookings are frustrated by the lack of assurance from Annastacia Palaszczuk over the prospect of the Queensland borders opening to Sydney and Victoria next month.
After Friday’s national cabinet meeting, the Premier said she was hopeful of lifting COVID-induced border restrictions before Christmas, but did not budge on her refusal to lock in a date, despite two weeks of no cases in Victoria.
She said the decision to open borders to Victorians and greater Sydney would be reviewed at the end of the month.
Ms Palaszczuk said the national cabinet had agreed that opening all borders by Christmas was desirable, but she would wait on advice from Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young at the end of the month before making a decision. “There is a national aspiration to have the borders open before Christmas,” she said. “In relation to Victoria, we are very encouraged with what is happening down there and we will be looking very closely at the end of the month at Victoria and also NSW.”
Read the full story here.
Christine Kellett 9.05am: President breaks silence to trumpet vaccine
Doanld Trump insists America will not go into lockdown, despite a single-day record in coronavirus infections int he country.
Mr Trump used his first public remarks since his election defeat last weekend to give an update on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“No medical breakthrough of this scope and magnitude has ever been achieved this quickly. And we’re very proud of it,” Mr Trump said during a White House press conference.
“Operation Warp Speed is unequalled and unrivalled anywhere else in the world.
“This far exceeds any and all expectations.”
Outlining a plan to roll out the vaccine nationally — and free — within months, Mr Trump said it would not be delivered to New York due to comments by Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has called the vaccine plan “flawed”.
“For political reasons, the governor decided to say – I don’t think it’s good politically – he wants to take his time with a vaccine, he doesn’t trust where the vaccine is coming from,” Mr Trump said.
“We won’t be delivering it to New York until we have authorisation to do so, and it pains me to say that.
“The governor will have to let us know when he’s ready for it. We can’t be delivering it to a state that won’t be giving it to its people immediately.
“He’s had some very bad editorials recently about this statement and what’s happened with respect to nursing homes. I hope he doesn’t handle this as badly as he’s handled the nursing homes.”
Read the full story here.
Christine Kellett 9am: Victoria records 15th day with zero cases
Victoria has notched a 15th consecutive day with zero cases of coronavirus or deaths.
More than 14,000 tests were conducted across the state in 24 hours but no new infections were detected.
There are just three active cases in the state and only one infection from an unknown source, according to the DHHS.
Yesterday there was 0 new cases and 0 lives lost. Three active cases remain, 1 with unknown source. There were 14,614 test results received – thanks to all who were tested #EveryTestHelps #StaySafeStayOpenhttps://t.co/pcll7ySEgz#COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/ZGiuIqjNKy
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 13, 2020
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Frances Vinall 8.30am: Urgent virus alert for NSW after NZ case
There are fears COVID-19 could have been brought into the country from New Zealand after a locally acquired case was uncovered across the Tasman after flights to Australia resumed.
NSW Health is contacting 455 people who have arrived from New Zealand since November 5 following the locally acquired case in Auckland.
The infected person visited three main venues in Auckland.
New Zealanders who have recently arrived in Australia have been contacted to see if they visited the same venues at the same time.
The venues include a restaurant, an apartment block, and a clothing store where the person worked as a shop assistant.
An Auckland Regional Health spokesperson said the person had gone to work despite being asked to isolate after being tested for COVID-19.
“This person became symptomatic on 9 November, was tested on 10 November, was asked to isolate, then went to work on 11 November,” they said.
“We now know that this case called in sick to work after receiving the advice to isolate, but after a conversation with their manager went to work and wore a mask.”
A NSW Health spokesperson said they were investigating if any arrivals from New Zealand could have come into contact with the new NZ case.
“Passengers have been sent a message with NSW Health advice and are being called to be alerted to a number of venues of concern in Auckland, consistent with advice provided in New Zealand,” a NSW Health spokesperson said.
“This advice was also provided to passengers arriving in Sydney from New Zealand on (Friday) evening’s flight.
“No passengers reported having attended the venues of concern and none had symptoms.”
The spokesperson said the risk posed by quarantine-free travel remains low.
Flight passengers from New Zealand to Australia will be asked if they have attended these venues before they depart.
A full list of locations of concern in New Zealand is available here
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Joe Kelly 8am: Covid vaccine for all Australians by the end of 2021
All Australians would receive a COVID-19 vaccination by the end of next year and national contact tracing would be boosted to withstand outbreaks under a Morrison government plan aimed at encouraging the states to drop all border restrictions by Christmas.
Healthcare workers, quarantine guards, indigenous people and the elderly would be first in line for a COVID-19 vaccine as part of the national cabinet plan but vaccination would not be mandatory.
As Scott Morrison urged all states to open by Christmas, he released a review of the national contact tracing system that called for quicker testing and for states to create a digital system to share information instantly in the case of an outbreak.
The moves to bolster the system came as Queensland and Western Australia continued to frustrate efforts to open the economy. While South Australia pledged on Friday to open up to Victoria by December 1, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk refused to lift her state’s border restrictions despite two weeks of no cases in Victoria and a capacity crowd allowed into Suncorp Stadium for Wednesday’s State of Origin decider.
Western Australia has also rejected any reopening to NSW or Victoria under the national framework, with Premier Mark McGowan calling the December 25 timeline unwise.
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Jill Rowbotham 7.30am: Superspreaders ‘crucial to halting pandemic’
A specific class of “superspreaders” should be top of the queue for any COVID-19 vaccine once the most vulnerable groups have been treated and we already have the means to identify them, a new study argues.
Using data collected from 600,000 people using social network app Momo, a team led by Macquarie University computer scientist Bernard Mans argues the most effective way of putting a brake on potential outbreaks is by identifying people who have been the most mobile, and come in contact with the most people.
“It’s impossible to really, truly record who you meet all the time without enormous means, but also there are privacy issues,” Professor Mans said. “And with the indirect contacts, you can’t know the people you have been indirectly in contact with by entering the lift after them.”He said analysing QR codes and other sign-in data for people who have been in multiple locations could identify this class of superspreader.
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