Coronavirus Australia live news: Victoria to impose hard border on locked-down SA
The southern state responds to outbreak linked to Adelaide hotel quarantine as locked-down SA records zero new cases.
- Party like it’s 2021: NSW relaxes on crowds
- Victoria to impose hard border on SA
- Virus transmitted with ‘minimal symptoms’
- Business hits back over border closures
Welcome to live coverage of the nation’s response to the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Victoria will move to impose temporary “hard border” restrictions on its border with South Australia from midnight on Thursday The fast-replicating strain of COVID-19 that’s circulating in South Australia is already up to its fifth generation in the community, with transmissions occurring from people with minimal or no symptoms.
Paige Taylor 12:10pm: McGowan’s ‘Locals-only’ T-shirt
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has signed a T-shirt bearing his image and the words “locals only” for a West Australian Labor Party fundraiser, an apparent celebration of tough border restrictions that have kept families apart and hurt business.
WA introduced the nation’s strictest border controls as a response to the pandemic on April 5, a measure Mr McGowan credits with keeping the state safe from a second wave of coronavirus.
However, stories of West Australians stranded in other states and unable to see their children or seriously ill loved ones have caused heartache, and in October a Human Rights Watch report into the state’s hard border found it lacked transparency and some people were rejected multiple times even when they met the narrow criteria for an exemption.
WA has eased its border controls with some states since Saturday. Arrivals from NSW, Victoria and South Australia are still required to quarantine for 14 days.
Photographs of the signed “locals only” T-shirt prompted mixed responses on social media on Thursday. Some expressed their disgust that WA Labor was seen to be jubilant about a regime that could be seen to pander to separatist sentiments while insensitive to the hardship of separated loved ones.
The Australian has sent a query to the office of Mr McGowan.
Natasha Robinson 8.30pm: ‘Poor habits, apathetic medicos to blame’
The chair of the commonwealth’s chief advisory committee on infection control has blamed poor infection control practices within public hospitals and doctors’ apathy for the high rate of COVID-19 cases in healthcare workers, rejecting airborne spread of the virus as the predominant mode of transmission.
Lyn Gilbert, chair of the Infection Control Expert Group, has rejected accusations that inadequate guidelines on the use of personal protective equipment contributed to the spread of coronavirus among thousands of healthcare workers in Victoria who tested positive to the disease.
Professor Gilbert, a clinical professor in immunology and infectious diseases, said many doctors had until recently had “little interest” in infection control, and hospitals had failed to instil robust practices.
More than 3500 healthcare workers in Victoria have tested positive to COVID-19, with 2602 of those infections acquired in the workplace, health department figures show.
Professor Gilbert said accusations of failure to protect healthcare workers by the ICEG, which advises chief medical officers who sit on the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, were misguided.
“This committee consists of some of the most experienced experts in infection control and infectious disease in the country. Some people who have most strongly criticised us have been doctors who until recently had little interest in routine infection control designed to protect patients. They are quite rightly concerned when they feel themselves to be at risk, but a lot of people who’ve never been experts have suddenly become experts.
AFP 7.50pm: EU fund must become operational ‘without delay’
European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde has called for the EU’s planned coronavirus recovery fund to become available “without delay”, after Poland and Hungary blocked the adoption of the plan.
“The package’s additional resources can facilitate expansionary fiscal policies, most notably in those euro area countries with limited fiscal space,” Ms Lagarde on Thursday said ahead of crunch talks by EU leaders on the row.
The €750bn ($1.2 trillion) rescue package “must become operational without delay,” she added.
READ MORE: Hungary and Poland threaten to split ‘woke’ EU
AFP 7pm: Robot reminds shoppers to wear masks
Asking someone to put on a mask is a touchy subject, so one shop in Japan has enlisted a robot to make sure its customers wear them during the pandemic.
“I’m sorry to bother you, but please wear a mask,” says the small humanoid machine after wheeling up to a bare-faced shopper, in a demonstration video released by its developers.
“Thank you for understanding,” it says when the customer obliges, bowing its rounded white head towards them in thanks.
The robot nicknamed “Robovie” has been deployed at a sports store in the city of Osaka in an experiment by Kyoto-based research institute ATR, which built the electronic clerk.
Its camera and laser scanner can detect when people are not wearing a mask, or standing too close together in the queue — in which case it asks them to move apart.
As well as enforcing social distancing, Robovie can direct customers to the part of the store they want to go to, according to ATR.
READ MORE: ‘Gravely ill’ Weinstein may have virus in jail
AFP 6.15pm: Samoa records first case
Samoa has announced its first case of COVID-19, as the coronavirus pandemic continued to spread to previously untouched Pacific island nations.
Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi called for calm in the nation of 200,000 after confirming a man who flew into the country last Friday tested positive while in managed isolation.
“We now have one case and will be added to the countries of the world that have the coronavirus,” the mask-wearing leader said during a televised address on Thursday.
Until recently, the remote Pacific islands were among the most successful in the world at keeping out the virus after closing their borders early in response to the threat, despite the huge cost to tourism-reliant economies.
But in the past two months, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands and now Samoa have lost their coveted virus-free status, although none have so far reported community transmission.
The island nations and territories of Kiribati, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, and Tuvalu are believed to still be free of the virus.
The cautious approach adopted in the Pacific islands was prompted by fears they are particularly vulnerable because of poor hospital infrastructure and high rates of underlying health conditions such as obesity and heart disease.
The devastation a viral outbreak can create in such a fragile environment was demonstrated during a measles epidemic in Samoa late last year that claimed 83 lives, most of them babies and toddlers.
Mr Malielegaoi said the infected man, a sailor, had arrived on a repatriation flight via Auckland, one of the few border arrivals Samoa has allowed in recent months.
He did not say where the man was previously based but said he tested negative before departing New Zealand but a swab came back positive on Tuesday.
He said an announcement would be made later on Thursday on whether any measures would be introduced among the general population to prevent the virus spreading.
READ MORE:
AFP 5.30pm: Japan on ‘maximum alert’ after record cases: PM
Japan is on “maximum alert” after logging a record number of daily coronavirus infections, the Prime Minister says.
More than 2000 cases were recorded nationwide on Wednesday, with nearly 500 in the capital, Tokyo.
While small compared to figures seen in some other countries, the numbers represent a sharp rise in cases for Japan, where testing is often less wide-scale than in other parts of the world.
“We are now in a situation of maximum alert,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday.
“I ask you, the Japanese people, to fully implement principles such as wearing masks,” Mr Suga added, urging people to wear them even while talking during meals in restaurants.
National broadcaster NHK said Mr Suga had asked expert advisers to meet on Thursday and Friday to examine the growing number of infections before the government takes any further measures.
Mr Suga said he would support local regions if they asked businesses to close early, and that restrictions including limiting groups at restaurants to four people should be considered.
Tokyo is expected to raise its alert level to the highest of a four-tier scale on Thursday, but the move does not come with automatic restrictions.
Local media said the capital was not likely to request early business closures for now.
Japan has so far taken a comparatively relaxed approach to coronavirus restrictions, with even a nationwide state of emergency in the northern spring carrying no obligation for businesses to close or people to stay at home.
And while testing has ramped up, it has remained comparatively low, with around 5000-6000 people tested a day in metropolitan Tokyo, home to nearly 14 million people.
Still, Japan has seen a relatively small outbreak, with close to 121,000 recorded infections and just over 1900 deaths since the virus was first detected in the country in January.
READ MORE: Dolly Parton delivers in search for vaccine
AFP 4.45pm: Facebook moderators press for pandemic safety protections
More than 200 Facebook content moderators have demanded better health and safety protections as the social media giant called the workers back to the office during the pandemic.
A petition signed by the contract workers living in various countries said Facebook should guarantee better conditions or allow the workers to continue their jobs from home.
“After months of allowing content moderators to work from home, faced with intense pressure to keep Facebook free of hate and disinformation, you have forced us back to the office,” said the open letter released on Thursday by the British-based legal activist firm Foxglove.
The letter called on Facebook to “keep moderators and their families safe” by maintaining remote work as much as possible and offering “hazard pay” to those who do come into the office.
When the pandemic hit, Facebook sent home most of its content moderators — those responsible for filtering violent and hateful images as well as other content which violates platform rules.
But the social platform discovered limits on what remote employees could do and turned to automated systems using artificial intelligence, which had other shortcomings.
“We appreciate the valuable work content reviewers do and we prioritize their health and safety,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
“The majority of these 15,000 global content reviewers have been working from home and will continue to do so for the duration of the pandemic.”
The workers’ letter said the current environment highlights the need for human moderators.
“The AI wasn’t up to the job. Important speech got swept into the maw of the Facebook filter — and risky content, like self-harm, stayed up,” the letter said.
“The lesson is clear. Facebook’s algorithms are years away from achieving the necessary level of sophistication to moderate content automatically. They may never get there.”
The petition said Facebook should consider making the moderators full employees — who in most cases may continue working remotely through mid-2021.
“By outsourcing our jobs, Facebook implies that the 35,000 of us who work in moderation are somehow peripheral to social media,” the letter said, referring to a broader group of moderators that includes the 15,000 content reviewers.
“Yet we are so integral to Facebook’s viability that we must risk our lives to come into work.”
READ MORE: Pfizer vaccine ‘95 per cent effective’
Richard Ferguson 4.05pm: Political trailblazer Dame Margaret Guilfoyle dies
Former finance minister and political trailblazer Dame Margaret Guilfoyle has died at the age of 94.
Dame Margaret was the first woman to hold a portfolio in Australia’s federal cabinet and served a senator from Victoria from 1971 to 1987.
Under Malcolm Fraser’s prime minister, she served in the education and social security portfolios.
In 1980 she rose to the finance ministry — a position only held by one other woman, Labor’s Penny Wong, since — and dubbed herself “the chief accountant for the nation.”
As finance minister, she worked alongside then-treasurer and future prime minister John Howard.
Assistant minister for superannuation Jane Hume said she was a political hero to many Liberal women.
“Vale Dame Margaret Guilfoyle AC DBE. A pivotal figure in the creation of the modern Liberal Party, Australia’s first female cabinet minister holding a portfolio; Australia’s first female Minister for Finance. An extraordinary legacy. And a personal hero to me. What a loss,” she said.
Vale Dame Margaret Guilfoyle AC DBE. A pivotal figure in the creation of the modern Liberal Party, Australia's first female cabinet minister holding a portfolio; Australia's first female Minister for Finance. An extraordinary legacy. And a personal hero to me. What a loss. pic.twitter.com/QaqLUUp97r
— Jane Hume (@SenatorHume) November 19, 2020
Rachel Baxendale 4pm: Women, young worst affected as Vic unemployment soars
The number of jobs lost in Victoria since the coronavirus pandemic began is more than double that of any other state, with the unemployment rate among women and young people at its highest rate this century.
Australian Bureau of Statistics unemployment figures for October, released on Thursday, show Victoria’s overall unemployment rate rose to 7.4 per cent in October, compared with the national figure of 7.0 per cent.
The unemployment rate among women rose from 7.6 per cent in September to 8.8 per cent in October — the highest rate this century, with a record 146,500 women unemployed — an increase of 51,000 since the pandemic began.
A total of 141,000 jobs have been lost in Victoria since March — the highest of any state, with NSW recording the next most significant loss of jobs at 52,300.
Youth unemployment stands at 18.2 per cent for October in Victoria —- the highest rate since January 1998.
Coalition treasury spokeswoman Louise Staley said the numbers showed women were “bearing the brunt” of a lockdown resulting from the second wave of coronavirus caused by the Andrews government’s bungled hotel quarantine program.
“These are the women who work in industries hit hard by this pandemic, such as retail, hospitality, fitness, and other small businesses,” Ms Staley said.
“Women have been abandoned by Daniel Andrews and Labor, who prioritise male-dominated industries like construction to provide jobs for their CFMMEU mates.”
READ MORE: Unemployment hits 7 per cent
Rachel Baxendale 3.45pm: ’Advance contact tracing’ for staff in new hotel program
Workers in Victoria’s revamped hotel quarantine program will be “advance contact traced” to ensure their close contacts do not work in high risk settings such as aged care, and their contracts will require them to work exclusively in hotel quarantine and not in second jobs, Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed.
The new rules come after breaches in the Andrews government’s hotel quarantine program in May and June led to the state’s second wave of coronavirus, killing 800 people and leading to a three and a half month lockdown, with a coronavirus positive worker moving between shifts in a quarantine hotel and an aged care facility as recently as August.
They follow the revelation that a security guard linked to a cluster which has escaped hotel quarantine in Adelaide was also working while infectious at a pizza restaurant in Adelaide.
Asked what he would do to minimise the risk of the Victorian and South Australian mistakes being repeated yet again, Mr Andrews said he would have announcements to make “quite soon” about the reset of Victoria’s hotel quarantine program, which will see the state take international arrivals for the first time since July.
“Everybody who works in this program will either work for the Victorian government will be exclusively contracted for this purpose and this purpose only,” Mr Andrews said.
“We will advance contact trace every single person who works in this program to work out who they live with, what those people do for a living.
“For instance, we don’t want a situation where someone is sharing a house with an aged care worker. That, we think, would be an unreasonable risk.
“I would just say though, regardless of all measures, this is a wildly contagious environment, and there is always going to be an element of risk. You will never get this to a point where it is zero risk. The key point here though is to manage that, and to have a framework.”
“We will make further announcements about rigorous testing, very, very frequent testing of everybody who works in this environment.”
Mr Andrews said hotel quarantine would restart in Victoria “on a date that’s broadly consistent with the agreements we have with the Commonwealth”.
“I’ve already had some conversations with the Prime Minister,” he said.
“We need to get this right, though, and it is very important that we take the time to develop the model, to refine it. There’s a lot of work going on this week about that, and I’ll have more to say about that at the appropriate time.”
As recently as October, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton claimed it was not possible to prevent personnel moving between hotel quarantine and other vulnerable sites.
“It was never one where you could just step in and say, ‘You cannot work in more than one setting’,” he said.
READ MORE: It’s not an ideal world: Sutton
Natasha Robinson 3.30pm: Doubts cast on SA virus strain claim
Doubts have been cast on the claim that a new virus strain is circulating in South Australia, with the state’s health department confirming it has not yet identified the genetic sequence of the strain.
In response to questions from The Australian about the virus strain’s genetic sequence, SA health said it was not yet known. “While it is too early to identify, the strain we are currently seeing in SA appears to have a very short incubation period compared to what we experienced in the first wave,” the health department said.
SA Premier Stephen Marshall has described the virus strain circulating in South Australia as “particularly sneaky”. with the state’s chief health officer Nicola Spurrier saying it appeared to be highly infectious. The apparent short incubation period of the virus strain was used to justify a six-day lockdown “circuit breaker”.
“This particularly strain has had certain characteristics,” Professor Spurrier said. “It has a very, very short incubation period, that means when somebody gets exposed it’s taking 24 hours or even less for that person to become infectious to others.
“And the other characteristic of the cases we’ve seen so far is they’ve had minimal symptoms and sometimes no symptoms but have been able to pass it on to other people.”
A strain of COVID-19 that has as a characteristic a 24-hour incubation period has not been observed anywhere else in the world. The scientific literature establishes that the usual incubation period for SARS-CoV-2 is between one and 14 days.
“We have always known that 50% of people become infectious on day 4, but there is a large proportion that become infectious on day 3, and a small, tiny proportion, possibly one per cent, are infectious on day one and day two,” says UNSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws. “That’s been the known observation with SARS-CoV-2 since about April.”
“South Australia may be thinking that a couple of cases that are infectious on day one or two is now a new version of the virus, that it’s changed its contagiousness,” Professor McLaws said. “But I’m hoping it’s an aberration, that it hasn’t changed its infectivity. Because if it really is different we are in for a really rough ride.”
READ the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 3.14pm: Positive virus results in sewage ‘difficult to interpret’: Cheng
Victorian Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng says positive coronavirus results in sewage from Portland in Victoria’s far west and Benalla in the state’s northeast could be a result of previously diagnosed but no longer contagious cases visiting the regional towns.
Professor Cheng described the results as “difficult to interpret”.
“There are two possibilities: it could be positive because of an active case in the community, or a recovered case that is continuing to shed viral fragments, and obviously what we need to exclude is that possibility that there is an active infectious case in these communities,” Professor Cheng said.
“It is possible that a recovered case from Melbourne has visited these areas. Obviously that is permitted now, or perhaps a returned in international traveller could have travelled home to one of these communities, following quarantine.”
Professor Cheng said both possibilities had contributed to positive results in sewage in Regional Victorian towns previously.
“In Apollo Bay and Ararat and Anglesea we didn’t find any active cases when we did a testing push, but Kilmore and Shepparton both went positive just as we diagnosed cases there,” he said.
“So the message is, if you have been in Portland, or Benalla since Sunday and if you’re symptomatic, even with the mildest symptoms, please get tested, and we’re also going to be working with the businesses in those areas to make sure that they have their COVID-safe plans ready.”
Melburnians flocked to regional Victoria in droves last weekend after eased restrictions allowed them to visit for the first time in more than four months.
Kathryn Bermingham 2.49pm: Rushed wedding goes off without a hitch
An Adelaide couple due to be married during the state’s six-day shutdown managed to bring their “dream wedding” forward with just a few hours notice.
Paul and Rainey Wood had planned a small, secret wedding for this Saturday, but were forced to cancel when the announcement was made on Wednesday.
Authorities say the “circuit breaker”, which took effect at 12:01 on Thursday morning and applies to the entire state, will allow time for a contact tracing blitz in response to a growing northern suburbs coronavirus cluster.
Mr Wood said he was at work when his partner called to deliver the news, telling him “the wedding and honeymoon are all cancelled baby”.
Detailing the wild night in a Facebook post, he said the whole city had gone into “bat s*** crazy panic mode” after the sudden announcement was made.
“Massive line ups of people are queuing to get into supermarkets, shelves are stripped bare and practically the whole city is preparing for the apocalypse.”
Amid the drama, Mr Wood said it was his mum who suggested they reschedule the wedding for that night.
“Rainey checks with the celebrant and she confirms she’s free and willing to marry us,” he said.
“Mum checks with my sisters and brother and they can just make it in time after work and we lock in a 7.30pm wedding.”
With the shutdown looming, Mr Wood picked up two bottles of champagne after he finished work, and arrived home at 4.30pm.
“Before I knew it, it was 7.30pm, we had our rollerblades and wedding attire on and we were 93 per cent ready,” he said.
“The family and the celebrant rock up just in time and we go into wing it mode.”
Despite the rush, Mr Wood said “everything went perfect”.
“My now wife, Rainey Wood, and I rollerbladed our way to the altar and had a magical intimate backyard wedding with my family,” he said.
“My amazing parents and Rainey somehow put a whole wedding together in literally five hours and it went off without a hitch.”
South Australia’s lockdown requires residents not to leave their homes for any reason with some exceptions, including to attend approved work, shop for food or access medical care.
It was specified that no gatherings are to be held during the six-day period, including weddings and funerals. — NCA Newswire
David Penberthy 1.53pm: Parafield cluster suspects covered a third of Adelaide
There are 23 confirmed cases and 17 suspected cases linked to the Parafield cluster but combined these people visited locations across roughly one-third of Adelaide’s suburbs, with 2000 contacts or relatives of contacts already identified, but thousands more unidentified.
Professor Nicola Spurrier explained that her state’s six-day lockdown was designed not just as a catch-up to identify and test remaining people, but also to take the entire population out of circulation for six days to stop any further spread.
Professor Spurrier named seven locations around the CBD including the key hotspot in the cluster, the Woodville Pizza Bar, where it has emerged that a security guard at a CBD medi-hotel who tested positive to the virus was also working a second job at the western suburbs pizzeria.
Every customer who bought pizzas from that store between November 6 and 16 is still being urged to be tested for Covid.
“The best bit of good news is we have no new cases to report,” Professor Spurrier said.
“But we are putting a double ring-fence around all of those people. This is why we have done the pause – to stop the virus in its tracks and find as many of those people as possible.”
READ MORE: Greg Sheridan — As we slowly reopen, migrants must top our agenda
Angelica Snowden 1.41pm: Party like it’s 2021: NSW relaxes crowd numbers
Outdoor New Year’s Eve parties of up to 3000 people will be allowed in NSW under new special and temporary health orders for the holiday announced today.
NSW recorded no new cases of locally acquired #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) November 19, 2020
Five cases were reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine. This brings the total number of cases in NSW to 4,325 since the start of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/PpjCR5kGxA
“Dr Chant and health experts have deemed it safe to have up to 3000 people at an outdoor event so long as they follow specific COVID safe requirements,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
If events are to go ahead, they must have a COVID safe plan and members of the public will be able to take picnic blankets or outdoor seats to the events to ensure they are socially distanced and adhere to the one person per two square metres.
Ms Berejiklian confirmed the CBD will still only be accessible to visitors with a pass or those who have booked a spot in a restaurant.
Other restrictions which will be eased on November 23 include a rise in the number of people allowed to perform in a choir, which will be 30.
Outdoor religious gatherings will also increase to a maximum of 500 people.
Three hundred people can also attend a funeral from December 1.
Ms Berejiklian also announced she would consider easing other restrictions soon.
“I know in the past we have been asked about the two square metre rule and I have been asked about how many people we can welcome into the home,” she said.
“We are having a watching brief on what is happening the next few days and potentially we will also be able to make some announcements.”
READ MORE: Map of the stars — Hollywood arrives down under
David Penberthy 1.26pm: ‘You’re being unreasonable’: SA Police chief
South Australia’s first lockdown daily Covid update took a fiery turn this morning as South Australia Police Commissioner Grant Stevens angrily defended the management of hotel quarantine.
Commissioner Stevens was pressed as to the findings of the Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry which recommended that medi-hotel workers should not have second jobs.
Amid public concern about the medi-hotel worker holding that second job, Commissioner Stevens said it was unfair for people to suggest that medi-hotel staff should live their entire lives outside of work in virtual lockdown.
BORDER CLOSURE UPDATE: Temporary hard border between South Australia and Victoria
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 19, 2020
From 11:59pm Thursday 19 November, a ‘hard border’ will be in place for 48 hours before a permit system comes into effect from 11:59pm Saturday 21 November.#COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/ZieDg18vxV
“You’re being completely unreasonable,” Commissioner Stevens told reporters.
“Let’s be balanced in our perceptions about what these people are doing. These people have lives. Does it make any difference if a person who works in a medi-hotel has a second job?
“Your expectation at the moment is that these people go to work and then isolate until they return to work. There is a level of risk that must be expected by them and by us. They have lives to lead, they have mortgages to pay.”
He said that it would not be feasible to have such a restriction in SA as it would require that everyone working in quarantine, including police and ADF soldiers, would be prevented from having any contact with anyone outside of their quarantine work.
“I would suggest to you that it comes down to best endeavours,” he said.
“They have lives beyond their responsibilities in a medi-hotel. It simply would not be possible to bring in the required number of people.”
READ the full story here
Rachel Baxendale 12.40pm: Victoria to impose hard border on SA
Victoria will move to impose temporary “hard border” restrictions on its border with South Australia from midnight on Thursday, before moving to a permit system from midnight on Saturday, in response to a cluster of coronavirus community transmissions linked to hotel quarantine in Adelaide.
The move comes after virus fragments were detected in sewage in Portland in Victoria’s far west, and Benalla in the state’s northeast, both of which are on frequently used freight routes.
The wastewater test results from Tuesday November 17, come as Victoria on Thursday reached 20 straight days with no new coronavirus cases, despite more than 300,000 tests having been conducted during that period.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the preliminary positive results were “unexpected and concerning given there are no residents of either area known to have had a recent coronavirus illness or diagnosis”, however, it is possible the results have arisen from persistent shedding of the virus in people who have previously had COVID-19 but are no longer infectious.
Residents of Portland and Benalla and anyone who has visited between 15 and 17 November with any symptoms at all are urged to get tested, and to isolate until they get their result.
Hours will be extended at local testing sites for the coming days, with additional testing capacity to be made available.
Further wastewater samples are being taken from both towns – and this detection has no impact on local water supplies.
Mr Andrews said that as a result of community transmission in South Australia and in light of the sewage test results, Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services had advised him to make the “difficult decision” to introduce temporary border controls with South Australia.
From 11.59pm Thursday 19 November, a ‘hard border’ will be in place for 48 hours before a permit system comes into effect from 11.59pm Saturday 21 November.
Under the hard border, only freight drivers and those with medical or emergency reasons, urgent animal welfare or as authorised by law will be able to pass through the border.
Mr Andrews said the final details of the permit scheme would be provided as soon as possible, with reasons to enter Victoria from South Australia from Saturday night including:
• if you are an emergency services worker or a worker providing essential services;
• for agricultural work;
• to receive medical care (including seeking coronavirus testing), obtain medical supplies or compassionate reasons;
• to shop to obtain essential supplies.
Victoria Police will establish checkpoints on roads between South Australia and Victoria.
From today, interstate truck drivers travelling through Victoria from South Australia will be offered extra testing at
a site at Nhill on the Western Highway.
Other testing sites are being activated at other major freight routes.
Mr Andrews said the government was working with major freight companies, independent operators and industry peak bodies to provide advice about the need for testing.
“All tested will have their samples fast-tracked for analysis,” he said.
Angelica Snowden 12pm SA police chief slams hotel quarantine questions
South Australia commissioner of police Grant Stevens says expectations hotel quarantine workers live in a “bubble” are “unreasonable”.
He slammed questions about whether medi-hotel staff should be able to have a second job.
“People have an entitlement to get on with their life when they are not at work so please balance your expectations in relation to what we are asking these people to do,” Commissioner Stevens said.
When he responded to a statement that the community are “concerned” hotel quarantine, he said: “I accept those concerns”.
“This is an insidious virus that is highly contagious, people with decades of experience in the health sector catch the virus when they are treating people with the disease,” he said.
“Let’s be balanced in our perceptions about what these people are confronting and be grateful for the fact they are stepping up to do this job because otherwise these people (returned overseas travellers) would be infiltrating our community without any balance.”
Read more: NSW relaxes restrictions before Christmas
Angelica Snowden 11.45am NSW records no locally-acquired cases
NSW has recorded 12 days without a case of locally acquired COVID-19.
Five cases were reported in returned overseas travellers.
There were 20,160 tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with 17,047 in the previous 24 hours.
NSW Health has also announced people who visit from South Australia will be required to complete a declaration form to check if they have visited any of the venues of concern identified by the South Australian authorities.
Editorial: NSW borrows and builds to generate recovery, jobs
Angelica Snowden 11.15am South Australia records zero new cases
South Australia’s chief health officer Nicola Spurrier has confirmed there are no new cases of COVID-19 in the state, with 23 cases linked to the cluster.
Professor Spurrier said there are 3,200 close contacts who have been identified and are in quarantine.
Premier Steven Marshall said a “record” 20,000 South Australians have been tested for COVID-19 in the last 48 hours.
More than 12,000 were tested yesterday.
“We have woken up to a very different South Australia today,” Mr Marshall
“We may be physically distanced but I believe we are more united than ever.”
He said there were “potentially thousands” of South Australians who visited “a site of concern and who may be carrying this disease”.
He said contact tracing teams are working around the clock to track down everyone who has been exposed to this cluster.
International flights to Adelaide have been cancelled until November 30.
Mr Marshall said there was no evidence “anything that happened in hotel quarantine” has not met health standards when asked if workers at medi-hotels should be allowed to work at other sites.
“I don’t believe there was a recommendation (in the national hotel quarantine review) with regards to people working at multiple sites … I am happy to check that,” he said.
Aged care workers are not able to work across multiple sites in South Australia.
Read more: SA supermarket trading hours extended to allow social distancing
Cameron Stewart 10.45am Vaccines the only hope for the US
The size and speed of the coronavirus pandemic now scorching the United States is hard for the rest of the world to comprehend. So let’s put it into an Australian context.
As of today, a quarter of a million Americans are now dead from COVID-19. That is equal to losing the entire population of Hobart. Every. Single. Person.
Each day now more than 180,000 Americans are becoming infected with the virus. That is more than the whole population of Darwin. Every. Single. Day.
So far, more than 11.7 million Americans have been infected. That is the equivalent of every Australian who lives Western Australia, South Australia, Northern Territory and Tasmania catching COVID-19.
Of course the US is a much larger country than Australia, so it’s not an apples-for-apples comparison.
But when you adjust for the different populations in each country, the scale of America’s tragedy compared to Australia’s experience is just as stark.
Read the full story here.
Damon Johnston 10.25am Teen self-harm tripled in lockdown
Sixteen teenagers harmed themselves and were admitted to one hospital’s intensive care unit in just three months during Melbourne’s coronavirus lockdown, a surge doctors warn is part of an alarming mental health crisis among children.
The Australian has confirmed that the admissions to the Monash Children’s Hospital ICU from August to last month represented a significant increase on the five self-harm cases treated there in the same period last year. A senior child psychiatrist warned Melbourne was in the grip of a deepening teen mental health crisis linked directly to the four-month lockdown ordered by the Victorian government to beat COVID-19.
“Lockdown was an extremely traumatic and sustained experience for young people,” said the mental health expert, who asked not to be named. “It was also well outside the range of normal stresses and troubles of life.
“We all know you are going to have to deal with heartbreak, or death, or illness in yourself or family … but a lot of the young people I talk to, they are disproportionately far more fearful of the virus itself than I think is warranted from a data point of view.
“Amplifying that were the stresses and restrictions of isolation and lockdown, of being away from your friends and being trapped in a family … even if that’s a perfectly good family.”
Read more from The Australian on mental health here.
Angelica Snowden 9.55am Six-day lockdown might not cut it
A six-day lockdown in South Australia may not be enough to curb a COVID-19 outbreak, epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws says.
Professor McLaws said she suspected authorities have used the six-day time frame as a way to get the public on board with new restrictions.
“Six days is about one incubation period on average,” Professor McLaws told the ABC.
“Usually outbreak managers would use two to make sure that all cases are captured because there are some people that have longer incubation periods than others,” she said.
“I would suspect that they are telling the public to start with six to get them ready with their resolve and resilience but it’s probably likely it might have to go for a bit longer.”
Professor McLaws said she would go further than restrictions announced by South Australia Premier Steven Marshall yesterday and make the 8pm curfew earlier and enforce use of masks.
“Just a few more bells and whistles to ensure that they’ve really got this,” she said.
“Because the cost of a second wave is enormous.”
Angelica Snowden 9.30am Wade defends use of ‘gold star’ private security
South Australia health minister Stephen Wade has defended his state’s use of private security guard at medi-hotels, saying the system was given a “gold star” in a national hotel quarantine review.
“The fact of the matter is from day one, police have supervised hotel quarantine in South Australia, backed by nurses, backed by security guards,” Mr Wade told Sky news.
“We believe that our hotel quarantine system is robust. But of course we’re always looking for opportunities to improve,” he said.
“We’ll certainly be doing that in this case.”
A security guard who worked at Peppers medi-hotel also worked at a pizza bar which is now at the centre of transmission fears.
Mr Wade refuted claims the six-day lockdown – which has closed almost every business except grocery stores and bottle shops, stopped elective surgery and closed all schools – was more extreme than that in Victoria.
“Victoria experienced a lockdown for more than 100 days and we are determined to nip this cluster in the bud so that we can avoid a second wave,” he said.
“We haven’t got significant community transmission. All of our cases are linked. But this is a strong epidemiological response, a clear public health response to protect lives and jobs in South Australia.”
He said if authorities have “nipped” the coronavirus outbreak in the bud after the current six-day lockdown, restrictions could be eased for a period of eight days.
“At the end of the six day community pause will be an opportunity to reset,” he said.
“Our government is very committed to opening up society and the economy. It means that we, if you like, are more vulnerable to an outbreak.”
Read more: Satan’s stamp duty
Patrick Commins 9.10am Christmas season a curate’s egg for retail
The COVID-19 pandemic will drive wildly divergent fortunes among the country’s stores this Christmas, with close to 40 per cent of retailers expecting “supercharged” sales growth as a quarter predict business this festive season will be substantially worse than usual.
While the likes of supermarkets and shops catering to the ballooning number of Australians working from home this year have done extraordinarily well, others such as hair and beauty salons, fashion stores, and food catering businesses have struggled to attract shoppers, or have faced devastating restrictions.
Deloitte’s ninth annual survey of executives and senior management in the retail industry found a “strong polarisation” in sales expectations for the all-important Christmas period.
The survey showed 39 per cent of respondents expected festive season sales to exceed last year by more than 5 per cent – close to double the proportion from the 2019 survey. This contrasted with 24 per cent who said they expected sales to decline by more than 5 per cent — in the 2019 survey, no respondents expected Christmas sales to fall by this much.
Deloitte national retail group leader David White said total spending “will likely be lower in 2020” but “many retailers are seeing supercharged demand”.
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 8.45am Victoria records its 20th day of no new cases
Victoria has recorded its 20th straight day with no new cases of coronavirus and no deaths.
The figures come after 17,161 tests were processed in the 24 hours to Thursday – comparable with 17,354 to Wednesday and 17,412 to Tuesday and up from just 6,695 in the 24 hours to Monday.
Another day of 0 new cases, 0 lives lost. There are still 3 active cases, 0 with an unknown source. Thanks to all who were tested, 17,161 results were received. https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz#StaySafeStayOpen #COVID19Vic #EveryTestHelps pic.twitter.com/8woerVSlVf
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) November 18, 2020
Three known active cases remain in Victoria, including among two people who have been in hospital for more than a fortnight.
Read more: SA wait in 10-hour queue for Covid tests
Richard Ferguson 8.30am PM backs SA’s ‘unconventional’ lockdown
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has backed South Australian premier Stephen Marshall’s “unconventional” six-day lockdown of Adelaide, saying the COVID-19 outbreak was causing a lot of uncertainties.
Almost every South Australian business is now closed including shopping malls, retail, construction, restaurants and takeaway, pubs, cafes, open inspections, elective surgery, along with every school and the state’s three universities. Supermarkets and bottle shops will remain open.
The Prime Minister said on Thursday he hoped the short, sharp lockdown would only last a few days, but he understood why Mr Marshall had taken the action he had.
“This is a precautionary circuit breaking action that they’ve taken in South Australia. There are some elements of what is occurring there where there is some real uncertainty,” Mr Morrison told the Seven Network.
“I can understand why they would take that precautionary action to avoid something a lot more long-term as we’ve seen in other cases, this a lot of learning has gone on.
“I know this is unconventional to take that step so early, but at the same time, given the uncertainties, I can understand why he took that decision.”
Read more: Picking up the Covid piece
Angelica Snowden 8.20am ‘Lockdown is our best shot at Christmas’: Marshall
South Australia Premier Steven Marshall has defended his extreme six-day lockdown to curb an outbreak of coronavirus, noting that it is his state’s best hope at being able to celebrate Christmas.
“It’s quite a different arrangement to many of the lockdowns we’ve seen in other parts of the world, often those lockdowns follow massive outbreaks right across the city or country,” Mr Marshall told Sunrise.
“We are in front of this cluster but we want to remain in front of the cluster,” he said.
Mr Marshall said health authorities enforced a six-day lockdown because the incubation period of this strain of the virus is very short.
“We want to knock out those chains of transmission, we want to get all of the people they could have gotten into contact with the disease into a quarantine situation so that we can then lift those restrictions for the rest of the state and move forward,” he said.
“We want to have Christmas in South Australia this is our very best shot of making sure this can happen.”
Mr Marshall said he did not want to retain restrictions a day longer than he needed to.
He said health authorities did not yet have the latest case numbers.
A press conference will be held later this morning.
Mr Marshall told the Today show he had “good news” a few hours ago, although he would not be more specific.
“The good news is that the last update I had which was only a few hours ago was that we are very hopeful that we have been able to nip it in the bud,” he said.
“Nothing will stop us from doing everything we can to make sure that we can stamp this out.”
Read more: Short-term lockdown send SA into panic buying chaos
Angelica Snowden 8.10am: ‘Extreme’ lockdown to get ‘Covid-normal’
An “extreme” six-day lockdown in South Australia to contain an outbreak of coronavirus is warranted to get back to “COVID-normal” as quickly as possible, Trade Minister Simon Birmingham says.
When asked on Sunrise if he thought it was the right thing to do, Senator Birmingham responded, “Yes, this is a big challenging time for South Australia’s and it is a huge step that the state government has taken in terms of this extreme six-day shutdown.”
Mr Birmingham said he hoped the lockdown would stop the spread of what is feared to be a super-virulent virus.
“The state government is describing this as a circuit breaker and that’s exactly what it needs to be … short, sharp and effective so that we can quickly see South Australians, businesses, jobs and COVID-normal as best as can be,” he said.
A cleaner who worked at the Peppers medi-hotel in Adelaide contracted COVID-19 from an Australian who returned from the UK.
It then spread to her family and as a result sparked a cluster of now 22 cases in the state.
There is also concern the outbreak stemmed from a pizza bar in the western suburb of Woodville where an infected worker from Peppers worked part time.
Read more: Adelaide sneezes and cricket catches cold
Angelica Snowden 7.45am: Lambie gets in early on loo paper ‘rush’
Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie has admitted she “rushed” to buy toilet paper after South Australia went into a six-day lockdown.
“I can see what is going to happen here so I thought I would get in early just in case,” Senator Lambie told the Today show.
“I don’t know if six days will do it or not,” she said.
Senator Lambie said lockdown announcements have been received differently, depending on whether the leader is Labor or Liberal.
“I find it bizarre that when everyone goes into lockdown when they are a Labor Premier, the Prime Minister is having a go at them but as soon as it’s Liberal it’s all right,” she said.
Senator Lambie questioned the six-day period for the lockdown and criticised a lack of federal co-ordination after the states and territories bickered over border closures amid the outbreak.
“This is what happens when you don’t have a federal policy on how to deal with this situation when it comes to COVID and you’re leaving it to the states,” she said.
“I think we are getting a little bit annoyed.
“Are we going to keep going in and out of lockdown?”
Read more: Toilet paper panic sees a new problem surface
Angelica Snowden 7.25am: New York closes public schools
New York City will close its public schools for the second time this year and switch to fully remote learning for students because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases, Mayor Bill de Blasio says.
The health care workers on the frontlines of this pandemic are true heroes. Tune in as we thank them for their work and discuss how a Biden-Harris administration will support them. https://t.co/RpBLnot7Be
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 18, 2020
The announcement came as the share of people tested in the city who are positive for the virus rose above 3 per cent over a seven-day average.
The city had set a 3 per cent seven-day average positivity rate for COVID-19 tests as the threshold for stopping in-person instruction in the nation’s largest school district.
Fully remote learning for all students will begin Thursday (Friday AEDT), Mr de Blasio said.
The Democratic mayor had warned parents on Friday that they should prepare for a school shutdown that could last at least through the rest of November.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has previously said the mayor was within his rights to close the city’s schools. But has now suggested that the city should make closure decisions based on positivity rates at individual schools.
Thanksgiving is a week away.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) November 18, 2020
LARGE INDOOR DINNERS will spread COVID.
Limit Thanksgiving to your immediate household.
Gatherings over 10 people are not permitted.
Spread thanks, not COVID.
Mr de Blasio said classrooms wouldn’t automatically reopen if the seven-day average positivity rate dips below 3 per cent.
The change followed a hectic and difficult chapter for city families. Public schools shut down abruptly in mid-March when the virus surged, and the city scrambled to create a remote-learning plan for the rest of the year.
Then families and teachers had to adjust to two last-minute delays in reopening classrooms in September, as the district struggled to meet safety standards agreed upon with the powerful teachers union.
New York City, which had about one million students last year, became one of the few big urban districts nationwide to open for in-person instruction this fall, but more than 541,000 students chose to attend only remotely, according to the most recent data available.
The department says that its random monthly testing program at schools has tested more than 111,000 students and staff since October 9.
With Dow Jones
Read more: Pfizer vaccine ‘95 per cent effective’
Angelica Snowden 7.10am: US records 250,000 Covid deaths
The US has recorded 50,000 Covid-linked deaths in the past 60 days, reaching a total of 250,000 as of Wednesday (Thursday AEDT).
The death toll has remained above 1,000 a day for eight of the past nine days, according to a seven-day average of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The last time deaths were above 1,000 in the country was in late August, during the tail end of the country’s second surge of infections.
During today’s COVID-19 update, I discussed the recent increase in hospitalizations & stressed the importance of staying safe during Thanksgiving. We also received an update on enforcement of the public health guidelines. Full briefing here: https://t.co/1T2NePDGMt pic.twitter.com/KQmgVYEqAj
— Gov. Asa Hutchinson (@AsaHutchinson) November 17, 2020
In April and May, when the first wave hit the Northeast, daily death tolls rose above 2,000 a day as the virus spread inside assisted-living facilities and densely populated regions in New York and New Jersey.
New confirmed cases have gone from 40,000 a day to 150,000 over the course of six weeks, and daily deaths have steadily increased over the same period.
The rise in deaths, while still climbing, has not been as sharp as previous spikes.
Epidemiologists and public-health leaders said many factors have contributed to a lower mortality rate than in previous months, including earlier detection due to increased testing availability, more younger people becoming infected, and better treatments and therapeutics to combat the virus.
Yesterday Dr. @StevenStackMD, commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Public Health, shared new models demonstrating how COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths will likely progress in the state if Kentuckians don’t take action to flatten the curve.https://t.co/AsAVrStXZM
— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) November 18, 2020
Nevertheless, daily death tolls are hitting record numbers in some states, and high hospitalisations continue to put a significant strain on local hospitals and their staff.
Wisconsin, which became an early hotspot for the latest surge broke its record for deaths this week, with over 100 in one day – a record set just a week ago.
New Mexico, Arkansas, Kentucky and Iowa also all reported a record number of daily deaths this week.
Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson warned that if the state continued at its current pace, an additional 1,000 residents would die of COVID-19 between now and Christmas.
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear urged people to take action and said he would announce new restrictions on Wednesday.
“The house is on fire at this point,” Mr Beshear said.
“And we need everybody not to close their eyes, close their ears, and sit in the house while it burns in on them.
We need everybody to join the bucket brigade and to do what it takes to address the crisis.”
With Dow Jones
Angelica Snowden 6.40am: European leaders bicker as coronavirus spreads
Despite a drop in weekly cases for the first time in three months the coronavirus crisis has deepened in Europe, with governments continuing to bicker about a COVID-19 rescue package and protests across the continent.
World Health Organisation data showed the number of new cases in Europe declined last week from 1,852,837 new cases on November 9 to 415,399 new cases on November 16.
Support and solidarity are key to overcome this pandemic.
— European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) November 18, 2020
We provide additional guidance to EU countries on rapid antigen tests and step up support to increase their testing capacity.
More on the recommendation: https://t.co/HBmOKB9FnP#StrongerTogether #HealthUnion pic.twitter.com/R3fE5zadMW
Amid a drop in cases, Poland and Hungary have continued to refuse to pass the EU’s long-term budget and coronavirus rescue on the eve of a summit in Brussels.
The two countries — which are both accused by Brussels of rolling back democratic freedoms — are opposed to the EU’s plans to tie funding to criteria on rule of law.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said a “European oligarchy” was trying to bully weaker EU members, while his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban called the conditionality plan a form of “blackmail” against member states opposed to immigration.
But the European Parliament said that “no further concession will be made on our side” and France warned there might be a way of proceeding without the two countries vetoing the 1.8-trillion-euro package.
Speaking in Warsaw, Mr Morawiecki said new conditions for funding could lead “to a break-up of the EU”.
“This is a turning point in EU history. Making decisions based on the arbitrary provisions of regulation may lead to its collapse,” he said.
In Hungary, Mr Orban has been implacably opposed to schemes to resettle refugees arriving in other parts of the continent, notably Italy and Greece.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, a close ally of Mr Orban on migration, weighed into the row on Wednesday, saying EU institutions should “not be involved in member states’ internal political conflicts”.
But other Central and East European states including Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia opposed the vetoes.
As the EU battled to pass the rescue package and budget, other parts of the continent continued to suffer under the coronavirus crisis.
A Swiss medical association said intensive care units were saturated across the country as the second wave of the virus takes a heavy toll.
Berlin police fired a water cannon to disperse thousands of unmasked protesters demonstrating against new measures to curb the spread of the virus.
In Hungary, a state of emergency that enabled partial lockdown measures has been extended for an extra two months to February 8.
And Greek police had to use tear gas, stun grenades and water cannons in Athens to break up a demonstration to mark a 1973 student uprising against the country’s then-military leaders. The gathering had been banned because of the pandemic. — with AFP
David Penberthy 5.15am: Super-virulent SA strain ‘has minimal symptoms’
The fast-replicating strain of COVID-19 that’s circulating in South Australia is already up to its fifth generation in the community.
South Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Nicola Spurrier said while there remains only a small number of confirmed cases, there more than 4000 South Australians in mandatory quarantine on account of having visited the same places as infected persons.
“The other characteristic of the cases we’ve seen so far is they’ve had minimal symptoms, and sometimes no symptoms, but have been able to pass it on to other people,” Professor Spurrier said.
“We need to stop the virus right at this point. This is still very early days in the cluster. All positive cases have been linked and that’s a phenomenal effort.”
Much of the concern about the outbreak stems from a pizza bar in the western suburb of Woodville where an infected security guard from the Peppers medi-hotel also worked part-time. That pizza bar is now at the centre of transmission fears, even for customers who ordered home delivery.
Professor Spurrier urged anyone who had ordered food from the pizza bar from November 6 to 16 to get tested even if they had no symptoms.
READ MORE: Picking up the mental health pieces from COVID-19 lockdowns
Paige Taylor 5am: Business’ plea to McGowan over border closure
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan’s latest assertion that his tough border measures are a superior pandemic response prompted the state’s business lobby to urge him to reconsider in the interests of the national economy.
Mr McGowan said on Wednesday that South Australia’s coronavirus outbreak had reinforced his belief that “you can’t be too careful”. WA’s borders with other states and territories were closed for 222 days until Saturday. WA was open to people from the Northern Territory, South Australia, Tasmania, the ACT and Queensland for just a few hours when the SA outbreak prompted a swift retightening of restrictions.
WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Chris Rodwell said a pandemic response that was not nationally consistent had serious consequences. He said he would continue to urge WA to agree to a joint road map along with all the other states.
“The business community is carrying an unnecessary burden. It is having to predict potential actions of state governments, as well as interpret and manage the operational impact of decisions. This leads to underperformance and puts jobs unnecessarily at risk.”
This weekend WA moves to a controlled border.
— Chris Rodwell (@CCI_CEO) November 13, 2020
It’s critical every business review its plan for protecting people in the workplace.
Every WA business can go to https://t.co/neabs5lpca for more:
✅ Office safety pack
✅ WFH pack
✅ JobKeeper 2.0 Guide
✅ eLearning modules pic.twitter.com/Fwrr1Ds6lP
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 4.45am: Masks may be on the way out for Victorians
Victorians are set for a reprieve from compulsory mask-wearing in outdoor settings where they are away from other people, after Premier Daniel Andrews flagged a relaxation of the policy.
Currently, Victorians can be fined $200 if they are not wearing masks while outside their homes, but Mr Andrews indicated a planned announcement on Sunday on relaxing coronavirus restrictions was likely to include an easing of mask rules.
However, the Premier yesterday indicated that the wearing of masks in indoor settings and crowded locations was likely to continue, despite Victoria reaching 19 straight days with no new coronavirus cases.
“I think on Sunday you’ll see some changes to mask policy,” he said. “That’ll be principally, I think, where you’re outside and you’re away from others.
“They won’t be here forever. They won’t be a feature of our public health response for all of next year, for instance, but for so long as they’re serving a purpose, then they’ll be part of our rules.”
Read the full story here.
Ex-union boss to lead Safe Work
One of Anthony Albanese’s closest union allies, Tony Maher, has been appointed to lead the workplace health and safety watchdog.
Federal review to give verdict on puberty blockers
A newly announced inquiry by the National Health and Medical Research Council will cut short the Queensland government’s review of puberty blocker prescriptions.