Coronavirus Australia live news: Wearing masks ‘not a human rights issue’; Ten dead in Victoria as new cases surge to 459
Daniel Andrews has blasted those refusing to don face coverings as Clive Palmer’s virus claims earn rebuke: ‘He’s a menace to Australia’.
- Victoria records 10 deaths, 459 new cases
- Victoria overhauls virus messaging
- Businesses want JobKeeper 2.0 changes
- Celebs accused of avoiding quarantine
Welcome to live coverage of the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Ten people have died in Victoria in the past 24 hours alone, as the state records 459 new cases. Meanwhile, he Andrews government has overhauled its COVID-19 messaging with a new graphic advertising blitz built around personal stories of coronavirus survivors, frontline workers and their families.
Adam Creighton 10pm: World’s highest wage rate ‘to hurt recovery’
Australia has the highest minimum wage in the world, igniting business concerns it will hamper the economic recovery and penalise young job seekers.
Read the full story here
Emily Ritchie 9.20pm: Customer unmasked in Bunnings visit video
Footage of a woman who refused to wear a mask inside a Victorian Bunnings and threatened to sue staff for discrimination has gone viral.
See the video here
The Economist 8.45pm: Is the residential aged care model broken?
As the global pandemic rips through care home corridors, Western nations are waking up to the urgent need to transform residential aged care.
Read the full story here
Imogen Reid 8.10pm: Restaurant worker near night-life strip tests positive
NSW Health is urging anyone who attended a Thai restaurant in central Sydney between July 15 and Saturday to get tested after a staff member was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Thai Rock in the suburb of Potts Point — next to the eastern suburbs entertainment hub of Kings Cross — is the second restaurant of the same name at the centre of a coronavirus scare and is linked to a confirmed case who had reported visiting the venue on July 17.
The restaurant has the same owners as the Wetherill Park eatery, which is now associated with 67 cases.
“A staff member at the restaurant has now tested positive, and the venue has been closed for cleaning,” the public health warning said.
“Investigations into the source of the infection and contact tracing are under way.
“The Thai Rock Potts Point has the same owners as Thai Rock Wetherill Park, which has now been linked to 67 cases of COVID, but investigations to date have not identified links between cases at the two sites.”
READ MORE: Companies find remote work isn’t so great after all
AFP 7.45pm: Global cases top 16m
The global number of coronavirus cases crossed 16 million on Sunday, more than half of them in the Americas and the Caribbean, according to an tally by the news service Agence France-Presse.
The 16,050,223 cases include 645,184 fatalities, with the US the worst-hit country, registering 4,178,021 infections and 146,460 dead.
Latin America and the Caribbean have recorded 4,328,915 cases and 182,501 dead followed by Europe on 3,052,108 cases and 207,734 dead.
The spread of the pandemic continues to accelerate and more than five million cases have been declared since July, which represents a third of the total number of cases since the pandemic began.
The World Health Organisation says more than a million cases had been recorded in each of the past five weeks, with more than 280,000 being reported on July 24 alone.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 85 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Britain with 67, Spain 61, Italy 58, and Sweden 56.
READ MORE: Cultural tourism paints better picture of recovery
Hyung-jin Kim 7.20pm: North Korea reports first case
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un placed the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea under total lockdown after a person was found with suspected COVID-19 symptoms, saying he believes “the vicious virus” may have entered the country, state media reported on Sunday.
Read the full story here
AFP 6.40pm: Boris to unveil obesity plan after near-death experience
Boris Johnson is set to roll out a £10m ($18m) anti-obesity campaign, including junk food advert bans, following his own brush with death that he partly blamed on his weight.
The British Prime Minister will announce his “Better Health” campaign on Monday, which is expected to include encouraging doctors to issue “cycling prescriptions” for overweight patients, more segregated cycling lanes and a ban on junk food television ads before 9pm, according to British media reports.
“COVID-19 has given us all a wake-up call of the immediate and long-term risks of being overweight, and the Prime Minister is clear we must use this moment to get healthier, more active and eat better,” said a government spokesman on Sunday.
“We will be urging the public to use this moment to take stock of how they live their lives, and to take simple steps to lose weight, live healthier lives, and reduce pressure on the NHS.” Restaurants will also have to publish the number of calories in the meals they serve, according to a report in the Daily Mail.
Johnson, who has fought his own battles to control his weight, required intensive care treatment in April after catching the coronavirus.
The plan marks a U-turn by the Prime Minister, who has long railed against the interventionist “nanny state”.
Nick Tabakoff 6.15pm: Nine chairman’s son pans Chairman Dan
Seb Costello, son of Nine chairman and former Treasurer Peter Costello, has raised eyebrows with a series of tweets attacking Victorian Premier Dan Andrews.
Read the full story here
Rachel Baxendale 5.45pm: Ten people aged under 50 in intensive care
Ten people under 50 are battling COVID-19 in Victorian intensive care beds, including two in their 20s and two in their 30s.
The breakdown of the state’s 42 coronavirus patients in ICU on Sunday reveals six people in their 40s are in intensive care, as well as seven in their 50s, 15 in their 60s, seven in their 70s, two in their 80s and one in their 90s.
A total of 228 people are in Victorian hospitals with the virus.
Since July 5, 51 people have died in Victoria with COVID-19.
The death toll since the pandemic began is 71.
This includes 10 people who died in the 24 hours to Sunday, seven of whom were linked to known aged care outbreaks.
Of three women who died in the 24 hours to Sunday, two were in their 80s, and one in her 70s.
Of the seven men, three were in their 70s, two in their 80s, one in his 60s and one in his 40s.
Active cases in ICU:
20-29: 2
30-39: 2
40-49: 6
50-59: 7
60-69: 15
70:79: 7
80-89: 2
90+: 1
Total: 42
READ MORE: BLM protest thrown out of court
Kellie Southan 5.10pm: Map of active confirmed cases
Rachel Baxendale 5pm: Active confirmed cases list
Active confirmed cases of COVID-19 by Victorian LGA as of Sunday, with net increase since
Saturday in brackets:
#Brimbank (outer west): 515 (+34)
Wyndham (outer southwest): 476 (+2)
#Hume (outer north): 354 (+16)
#City of Melbourne: 279 (-2)
#Moreland (north): 271 (+33)
Whittlesea (outer north): 262 (+17)
#Moonee Valley (northwest): 217 (-10)
Melton (outer northwest): 211 (+16)
Casey (outer southeast): 157 (+8)
Banyule (northeast): 153 (+6)
Yarra (inner northeast): 133 (+7)
#Maribyrnong (inner west): 128 (+11)
Darebin (north): 96 (+5)
Greater Dandenong: (outer southeast): 87 (+3)
Hobsons Bay (inner southwest): 76 (+3)
Whitehorse (east): 55 (+6)
Monash (southeast): 53 (+4)
Boroondara (east): 52
*Colac-Otway (western regional Vic): 47 (+1)
Kingston (southeast): 46 (+4)
Port Phillip (inner south): 44 (+2)
Stonnington (inner southeast): 40 (+1)
Manningham (east): 38 (-2)
Yarra Ranges (outer east) 37 (+11)
Nillumbik (outer northeast): 34 (+10)
Knox (outer east): 33 (+7)
*Greater Geelong (southwest regional Vic): 31 (+2)
Glen Eira (east): 31 (+3)
Bayside (southeast): 30 (+4)
Frankston (outer southeast): 28 (+10)
Maroondah (outer east): 24 (+4)
Cardinia (outer southeast): 23 (-1)
Mornington Peninsula (outer southeast): 13 (-1)
Mitchell (central regional Vic, north of Melb): 11 (+2)
*Ballarat (western regional Vic): 11
*Moorabool (western regional Vic): 9
*Macedon Ranges (central regional Vic): 8
*Horsham (western regional Vic): 7
*Greater Bendigo (central regional Vic): 6 (+2)
*Glenelg (western regional Vic): 6 (+1)
*Golden Plains (western regional Vic): 5 (-1)
*South Gippsland (eastern regional Vic): 4
*Surf Coast (southwest regional Vic): 4
*Latrobe (eastern regional Vic): 4
*Baw Baw (eastern regional Vic): 3
*Loddon (northwest central regional Vic): 2 (+1)
*Swan Hill (northwest regional Vic): 2
*Warrnambool (southwest regional Vic): 1 (+1)
*Mansfield (northeast regional Vic): 1
*Mount Alexander (central regional Vic): 1
*East Gippsland (east regional Vic): 1
*Bass Coast (southeast regional Vic): 1
*Greater Shepparton (northern regional Vic): 1
Interstate: 8 (+1)
Unknown: 63 (+17)
TOTAL: 4233 (+238)
*Denotes LGAs outside the Melbourne metropolitan/Mitchell Shire lockdown
#Denotes LGAs with postcodes locked down from 11:59pm on July 1
Source: Victorian Department of Health and Human Services
READ MORE: Supreme Court prohibits Sydney’s Black Lives matter protest
Rachel Baxendale 4.50pm: Hotspot case number doubles
One Melbourne local government area has more than doubled its number of active COVID-19 cases in a week. Brimbank, in Melbourne’s outer west, has 515 active cases as of Sunday, despite being home to three postcodes that were part of the early stage three stay-at-home lockdown three and a half weeks ago.
Brimbank had 252 active cases last Sunday, but a week later has the highest of any LGA in Victoria.
When three postcodes that take up much of Brimbank went into stage three lockdown on July 2, the LGA had 49 active cases.
Brimbank is near the Somerville Retail Services abattoir in Tottenham, linked to 90 cases, and home to the JBS abattoir in Brooklyn, linked to 69 cases, and the Estia Health aged-care home in Ardeer, linked to 82 cases.
Nine Victorian local government areas recorded double-digit net increases in active COVID-19 cases between Saturday and Sunday.
They include Brimbank, with a net increase of 34 active cases, Moreland, in Melbourne’s inner north, with 33, Whittlesea in the outer north with 17, Hume in the outer north and Melton in the outer northwest with 16 each, Maribyrnong in the inner west and Yarra Ranges in the outer east with 11 each, and Nillumbik in the outer northeast and Frankston in the outer southeast with 10 each.
All 31 metropolitan Melbourne LGAs have at least 13 active cases, while the Mitchell Shire, which is also part of the Stage Three lockdown, has 11.
Three other regional Victorian LGAs have now exceeded or equalled the Mitchell Shire’s tally, with a total of 47 active cases in Colac-Otway (home to the Australian Lamb Company abattoir cluster of 47 cases), 31 in Greater Geelong, and 11 in Ballarat.
There was a net increase of seven active cases outside the metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire lockdown zone in the 24 hours to Sunday.
There are now 155 active cases in regional Victoria outside the lockdown zone, across 21 LGAs.
When the Melbourne and Mitchell Shire lockdown was imposed on July 9, there were 14 active cases across six LGAs.
READ MORE: Bunnings ‘Karen’ goes viral
John Ferguson 4.40pm: All Victorians urged to do their part
Chief health officer Brett Sutton has again appealed for every Victorian to do their part as the state hits a grim new milestone in the pandemic.
With 10 people dead in a single day — the youngest a man aged in his 40s — Dr Sutton said the virus did not discriminate.
Hundreds of the 459 new cases recorded on Sunday are without an established source.
“As investigations are undertaken throughout the day, these outbreak totals are likely to change as the public health team identify links between cases and identified outbreaks,” he said.
“People living in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire are required to wear a face covering when leaving home for one of the four reasons.
“There will be some reasons not to wear a face covering. For example, those who have a medical reason, children under 12 or during strenuous exercise.
“Stage 3 Stay at Home restrictions are in force across metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire.
“These restrictions are necessary because of the sharp increase in cases,” said Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.
“If you live in these areas, there are only four reasons to leave your home: shopping for food and essential items; care and caregiving; daily exercise; and work and study — if you can’t do it from home.
“These are tough measures, but this virus is not selective — it will impact anyone it encounters, and personal contact is the clear source of its transmission. We need everyone to do their part and ensure it is stopped in its tracks.”
READ MORE: How coronavirus has changed the world order
John Ferguson 4.18pm: Where most Melbourne cases are coming from
More than 1250 cases of community transmission have been detected in Victoria after the state recorded a headline increase of 459 new cases.
There are 4233 cases active in Victoria and the death toll has climbed to 71 after 10 more fatalities were announced on Sunday.
There are 223 cases of coronavirus in hospital, including 42 in intensive care, while 3680 people have recovered.
The total cases include 4088 men and 4001 women while there have been more than 1.5 million tests.
Most cases are from metropolitan Melbourne.
There are 381 active cases among health care workers.
There are 369 cases linked to public housing, more than 300 of which are at the Flemington/North Melbourne towers.
The local government area of Brimbank has 515 active cases, while Wyndham has 476 and Hume 354.
READ MORE: Rush on sewing machines and fabric hits Melbourne
Paige Taylor 3.50pm: ‘Menace’ Clive Palmer slammed over COVID claims
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has described mining magnate Clive Palmer as selfish and irresponsible after he was reported to have claimed that the pandemic with a global death toll of 683,000 is a media beat up.
Ahead of a three-day trial in which Mr Palmer is challenging Western Australia’s closed border, Mr McGowan said: “He’s a menace”.
The commonwealth government has joined the court action against WA’s hard border closure.
“He’s a menace to Australia and I just say to the Liberal party ‘don’t support him in the High Court. It’s wrong’,” Mr McGowan told reporters on Sunday.
“We are seeing deaths now in Victoria and we don’t want to see them here (in WA).”
Mr McGowan made the comments as he announced a $2.7 billion jobs stimulus package that included installing solar power systems at state schools.
He predicted that reopening the WA economy and the state government’s stimulus would create more than 60,000 jobs. An estimated 120,000 West Australians lost their jobs when the pandemic hit. The state government’s plan for economic recovery was underpinned by very low rates of infection. The only people in WA known to have coronavirus are returned travellers locked in hotel quarantine.
“We haven’t had a case of community spread now in three months. We also have a lot of people out of work so we have to come up with the long term blueprint to get our economy back up to where it was and get people back to work,” Mr McGowan said.
READ MORE: ASIC accuses Palmer of $12m fraud
John Ferguson 3.20pm: Victorian aged care ‘a united effort’ as death toll rises
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says his government is working closely with Canberra on aged care in a united effort.
Speaking at a press briefing on Sunday, he said his government had “clear line of sight” regarding the sector, which is predominantly a federal responsibility.
More than 500 aged care residents and staff have been infected, with seven out of the 10 deaths recorded in the past 24 hours in the state occurring in an aged-care setting.
“We need to be working with the commonwealth and we are,” Mr Andrews said.
The Premier added that aged care settings were often complex and outwardly simple tasks were not always straightforward.
This included shifting patients.
“This is a person’s home,” he said.
“We need to be working with the commonwealth and we are.
“I think everything that can be done is being done.”
Mr Andrews said he was concerned about the large numbers of young people who were contracting the virus and urged them to wear masks.
He also said that 10 families were preparing to bury the dead, which was a sober task and one which reminded the community of the high stakes situation the country was in.
READ MORE: Grim toll as unskilled staff put residents, colleagues at risk
John Ferguson 2.40pm: Wearing a mask ‘not a human rights issue’
Daniel Andrews says the wearing of masks is not a human rights issue.
While the Victorian Premier has praised the efforts of those following new mask wearing rules that took effect last week, there have been reports of some flatly refusing to don a face covering, including a woman who filmed her own mask meltdown in a Melbourne Bunnings.
“This is not about human rights,” Premier Andrews said. “There are 10 families that are going to be burying someone in the next few days.
“Wear a mask — it’s not too much to ask.”
READ MORE: Latest research on homemade face masks
Shae McDonald 2.15pm: Bunnings ‘Karen’ mask fight goes viral
Outrageous footage of a woman refusing to wear a mask inside Bunnings has gone viral.
It shows her walking into a store, believed to be in Melbourne, where she was immediately stopped by staff and asked if she had a mask.
“Well it’s clear I don’t and you are not authorised to ask me or question me about it,” she says in the video.
The woman is then asked if she wants to speak to the manager, who tells her she needs a medical certificate if she wants to continue into the store.
“I actually don’t need a medical certificate,” she says.
“You’re discriminating against me.”
When another staff member tells her the mask is a condition of entry, she lashes out.
“That’s discrimination and I can have you sued personally for discriminating against me as a woman,” she says.
“It’s an unlawful condition of entry, therefore that exposes you, personally and Bunnings to being sued for discrimination because it is in breach of the 1948 Charter of Human Rights to discriminate against men and women.”
READ MORE: ‘Bored better than intensive care’ — Andrews’s swipe at Brighton ‘Karen’
Emily Ritchie 1.45pm: BLM protesters to defy court ban, march anyway
NSW Police have won their Supreme Court bid to prohibit a Black Lives Rally in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, but organisers say they will go ahead even if their appeal is quashed.
The NSW Supreme Court has ruled the scheduled protest will not go ahead, refusing the defendants claim that it is unlawful to stop the freedom of public expression.
Padraic Gibson, who is acting on behalf of David Dungay Jr’s family — an Aboriginal man who died in custody in 2015 — said they will be lodging an appeal later on Sunday afternoon.
They plan on changing the location of the protest from Sydney’s Town Hall to the Domain parklands to ensure there is more space for people to remain socially distanced.
Mr Gibson said outside the court on Sunday the protest would go ahead in any case but “we will be running into the Court of Appeal to try and maintain the legitimacy of our initial protest application”.
“We certainly will not be stopping regardless of whatever orders have been handed down by the Supreme Court today,” Mr Gibson said.
He said organisers understood that there was “an enormous amount of fear and anxiety across Sydney about the renewal of community transmission of coronavirus”.
“Very, very unfairly the government, political leaders...and the Police Commissioner have channelled that anxiety towards us,” Mr Gibson said.
Read the full story here.
Gerard Cockburn 12.50pm: NSW Police win bid to ban Black Lives Matter protest
New South Wales police have won their Supreme Court bid to prohibit a Black Lives Rally in Sydney scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
The NSW Supreme Court on Sunday ruled the scheduled protest would not go ahead, refusing the organisers’ claim it is unlawful to stop the freedom of public expression.
Padraic Gibson, representing the Dungay Family who lodged the court action, said they would lodge an appeal on Sunday afternoon.
The court heard an application could be lodged to the Court of Appeal by 7pm on Sunday.
The latest Black Lives Matter march was planned to occur in the Sydney central business district.
Both parties have agreed to a stay in motion order, which will prohibit any potential criminal charges laid upon protest organisers until an appeal judgment is made.
More to come...
Christine Kellett 12.15pm: NSW Police hand out tens of thousands in fines
Revellers at a dance party, hospitality venues and a travel company are among those to be hit with tens of thousands of dollars in fines following a weekend COVID compliance blitz by NSW Police.
Twelve people were issued with $1,000 fines after police discovered a bush dance party attended by up to 200 people near Lake Jindabyn on Friday night.
Licensees in Figtree, near Wollongong, and the ski resort town of Thredbo, as well a a travel company operator were also fined $5000 each for breaching the Public Health Orders for failing to enforce proper social distancing rules.
And in a separate incident, a 63-year-old Victorian man was arrested after being caught crossing the border from Echuca to Moama and refusing to provide a permit or identification, claiming he was ‘a sovereign citizen’.
READ MORE: Fears NSW on ‘path to Victoria’
John Ferguson 11.25am: Ten dead in Victoria as new cases surge to 459
A record 10 people have died in Victoria due to the coronavirus. The state has also recorded 459 new coronavirus cases in another setback.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews revealed the latest high toll on Sunday.
It comes despite optimism the use of masks would start to shift the coronavirus in Victoria.
Seven of the 10 dead were in aged care setting. The dead were aged between their 40s and 80s.
There are 228 people in hospital and 42 in intensive care. The state’s death toll stands at 71, with more certain to come.
Premier Andrews urged people to get tested and wear masks.
“These numbers are far too high,” he said.
“Whilst there is some relative — and I stress the term relative — stability, we are not seeing the doubling and doubling again (of infections) which is what the modelling told us we would be dealing with.
“If we all follow the rules we’ll get through this.”
Mr Andrews said he could not guarantee the Victorian lockdown would
end at the six week deadline.
“Things change rapidly,” he said.
“But you’ve got to say the numbers are way too high.
“We’ve got to drive these numbers down.”
More to come...
Olivia Caisley 11.15am: Jobs support must be sustainable, says Treasurer
Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has defended the winding back of wages support as the economy improves, saying the government’s program must be sustainable.
From September, JobKeeper will fall from $1500 to $1,200 a fortnight, while the JobSeeker payment will fall from $1,100 to $800 a fortnight.
“Now with the economy starting to recover and in transition, obviously beyond and outside of Victoria, we thought that it was important to continue this program because there is still need, but to do so with a reapplied eligibility test with a stepped-down payment and with a two-tiered payment,” Mr Frydenberg told the ABC on Sunday.
“These payments are going to continue and are going to be at a significant amount.
“Ultimately this is a program that at $11 billion cannot be continued and $11 billion a month.
“At the end of the day we have to make sure that our spending is sustainable and $11 billion a month, that is an enormous bill. At $86 billion, it is the single largest initiative that any Australian government has undertaken. It is a transition.”
.@JoshFrydenberg: "It means we're favourably disposed to continuing [an increased rate of JobSeeker], but we've got to do an assessment of where the jobs market is at that time. And obviously, it's all about getting the balance right, David." #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/FmJ1JJnxUe
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) July 25, 2020
Mackenzie Scott 11am: Two in five Melbourne homes pulled from sale
Two in five homes slated for auction this weekend in Melbourne were withdrawn from sale as the number of successful sales fell below half for the second consecutive week in the face of citywide lockdowns and economic uncertainty.
The auction slowdown in the usually bustling Melbourne auction landscape is being reflected in both volumes and the success rate, which have each fallen significantly behind Sydney.
Preliminary clearance rate data from property researcher CoreLogic showed 49.8 per cent of the homes 545 homes taken to the auction block last week in Melbourne sold compared to the 68.3 per cent strike rate in Sydney from 602 listings.
The national clearance rate sat at a preliminary 59.2 per cent from 1,344 auctions.
Withdrawal rates in the locked down city hit 41 per cent of scheduled auctions, all of which are counted as failed sales in the data. Sydney’s withdrawals hit just 16 per cent last week. CoreLogic said nervous sellers are partly to blame for the low results, with adjusted figures showing underlying demand from buyers.
READ MORE: Pandemic crushes mall values
Olivia Caisley 10.30am: Treasurer defends Thatcher’s economic inspiration
Josh Frydenberg has defended drawing inspiration from Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan when it comes to economic reform, declaring the reason the former English Prime Minister and American President were “figures of hate for the Left” is because they were so successful.
Speaking on ABC Insiders on Sunday just days after delivering a special economic update on Thursday the Treasurer defended the Morrison government’s decision to cut the rate of Jobseeker and JobKeeper in October as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy.
“Thatcher and Reagan are figures of hate for the left because they were so successful,” Mr Frydenberg said. “One got two terms, which was the maximum that you can get in the United States. Margaret Thatcher got 11.5 years.”
.@JoshFrydenberg on taking inspiration from Thatcher and Reagan:
— Insiders ABC (@InsidersABC) July 26, 2020
"Thatcher and Reagan are figures of hate for the left because they were so successful. One got two terms, which was the maximum that you can get in the US. Margaret Thatcher got 11.5 years." #Insiders #auspol pic.twitter.com/BNBTRd9Cid
The Treasurer said that while he took inspiration from a lot of different sources, including former Prime Minister John Howard and predecessor Peter Costello, “the reality is that Thatcher and Reagan cut red tape and cut taxes and delivered stronger economies.”
The claim drew the ire of Australian Council of Trade Union boss Sally McManus on Sunday, who questioned Mr Frydenberg’s sources of inspiration.
She tweeted that Ms Thatcher’s policies were about “crushing worker rights” and the ramifications of her decisions on industrial relations were still being felt by workers in England today.
READ MORE: Alan Kohler — Only jobs matter now
Paige Taylor 9.50am: WA goes a week without any new cases
Western Australia has detected no new and active cases of coronavirus for a week, after carrying out 585 tests on Saturday.
Currently five people in hotel quarantine in Perth have the virus. They are returned travellers.
However, the WA Department of Health has reported that it discovered two women had recovered from the virus earlier this year and did not know it. One is a woman in her 20s who went overseas in March. The other is a woman in her 40s who was a passenger on the Ruby Princess cruise ship linked to 700 cases and 21 deaths. Both women learned they had been infected and recovered from the virus through serology testing. This is a blood test that detects antibodies.
READ MORE: Victoria can’t blame bad luck for coronavirus
Agencies 9.30am: BLM protesters clash with Trump’s ‘security surge’
Police and federal agents have fired tear gas and forcefully dispersed protesters in the US city of Portland overnight, amid President Donald Trump’s heavily-criticised “surge” of security forces to major cities.
The city, the biggest in the state of Oregon, has seen nightly protests against racism and police brutality for nearly two months, initially sparked by the death of unarmed African American George Floyd at the hands of police in Minnesota Portland is also now the scene of a highly controversial crackdown by federal agents ordered by Trump —one that is not supported by local officials, and which many said smacked of authoritarianism.
Civil unrest was not only confined to Portland — on Saturday, three members of a black militia were shot in Louisville, Kentucky after a gun discharged at a Black Lives Matter protest, local media reported, citing police. Their injuries were not life-threatening.
AFP
READ MORE: Greg Sheridan — Maybe Trump deserves a second term
Christine Kellett 8.45am: Why mask-wearing is a ‘game changer’ for Victoria
Community transmission rates in Victoria should begin to drop by Wednesday next week as the effects of widespread mask-wearing kick in, one expert says.
Professor Tony Blakely, from the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Melbourne, said masks had been shown to reduce community transmission rates by 80 per cent in other countries.
“The big game-changer here will be the mask-wearing,” Professor Blakley told the ABC.
“We should see that really kicking in Wednesday next week and then allow three days for the delay in picking up the case reduction. That should really reduce things.”
He recommended people in NSW living in suburbs surrounding established COVID-19 hot spots should already be wearing masks in public.
Professor Blakely said Victoria’s most pressing issue was the situation in aged-care homes.
“It very hard to stop it in a rest home. It is a very challenging environment. I am concerned about this for a number of reasons. One is morbidity and mortality will be high among those residents. Two, where are the lessons we’ve learnt from this? Cleaning crews going to one rest home rather than going to several rest homes, cleaning crews from eight down to two, so that each of those go to one rest home. I do think there are staff not doing as well as they should be in the rest home environments.”
READ MORE: Face masks — All your questions covered
Christine Kellett 8.15am: Top doctor busts common aged-care infection myth
The spread of coronavirus inside Victorian nursing homes is not just a problem for the aged-care sector, the federal government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer says.
“When you have community transmission to the extent that there is in Victoria, we mustn’t assume that every health care worker or residential aged-care infection is due to acquisition in the workplace. In fact, the opposite is true,” Dr Nick Coatsworth told the ABC on Sunday.
“The majority of cases are those that are acquired by a healthcare worker or residential aged-care worker in the community.”
He said the new Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, announced by the federal government yesterday, will ramp up the response to aged-care outbreaks by better co-ordinating the running of these facilities when COVID-19 is detected.
“This is about ensuring that there is appropriate emergency management structure, so there is excellent co-ordination of things like workforce distribution,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“It is very challenging when many staff can be off home isolated with COVID-19 to provide enough staff for aged-care facilities and that includes kitchens, meals, all the things you would need to run an aged-care facility, the sort of logistic support that we need to implement when there are over 500 cases linked to aged-care facilities in Victoria.”
READ MORE: Pandemic brings failing system into full view
Dow Jones 7.45am: Stuck at home, now everyone’s a day trader
Stuck at home in lockdown, millions of Americans are trading the markets like never before.
At E*Trade Financial Corp., investors opened roughly 260,500 retail accounts just in March, more than any full year on record. Newer rival Robinhood Markets Inc., maker of a wildly popular trading app, logged a record three million new accounts in the first quarter.
Individual investors’ last big binge was for dot-com stocks in the late 1990s. That era saw money-losing technology companies vaulted into the stratosphere and spawned a culture of day traders who played the markets as a full-time job.
It appears even bigger — and broader — this time around, amplified by digital communities on Twitter and Discord, a popular online chat hangout. Investors have transformed those social-media platforms into virtual trading desks, a place to swap tips, hype stocks and talk trash as they attempt to trade their way to a quick fortune.
The market’s extreme moves this year have made trading especially enticing. With professional sports largely on pause and group gatherings discouraged, users have flocked to day-trading apps to cure isolation and boredom from lockdown.
“I feel like Sonic the Hedgehog, collecting my coins,” said real-estate agent Sharmila Viswasam, 38 years old, of Lake Linganore, Md., referring to a video game where the character collects gold rings.
Before the pandemic, she hadn’t considered investing beyond the money she had put aside in her 401(k) retirement account, much less day trading. Now, she says, she trades thousands of dollars in stocks every day.
READ MORE: AFL great Chris Judd sweats over a new game — micro-cap investing
Ellen Ransley 7.15am: Special response centre to tackle aged care spread
A partnership between the Victorian and federal governments will ensure additional support in the wake of Victoria’s coronavirus outbreaks in aged care centres.
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt today announced the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre would ensure the alarming rates of community transmission were adequately addressed.
“Aged care is a significant reflection of community transmission. Wherever that is high, there’s no immunity for our magnificent and courageous aged care workers,” Mr Hunt said.
“Focusing on supporting this is an absolute priority.”
The response centre will focus on quality control, workforce provision, prevention of outbreaks, rapid response, supporting provider and communication to families.
Mr Hunt said: “This will be at the Victorian State Control Centre, and will be jointly managed by Emergency Management Australia, Emergency Management Victoria and VicHealth.
“Participating members include the ADF, the Australian Government, the Victorian Government, the Aged Care quality and safety commissioners team, clinical leadership, geriatrician and emergency management support.
“That is an important step forward in helping to ensure rapid response where these cases are occurring.”
READ MORE: Home, alone and in aged-care hell
Dow Jones 6.45am: Saudi Arabia faces a major challenge as Hajj looms
As Saudi Arabia prepares to host the hajj pilgrimage next week, authorities face the unprecedented challenge of balancing their responsibility as stewards of the Muslim world’s most important religious event with the need to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
The hajj, a once-in-a-lifetime duty for Muslims able to make the journey, is a source of great political and religious prestige for Saudi Arabia, while typically generating billions of dollars in revenue for the kingdom.
Grappling with the second-largest coronavirus outbreak in the Middle East after Iran, Saudi authorities this year have curtailed the five-day event in Mecca to fewer than 10,000 people already present in the country. Usually, more than two million people flock from around the globe in the world’s largest annual Muslim gathering, which starts on Wednesday.
Religious congregations have emerged as among the biggest spreaders of the coronavirus across the world. Mecca until recently was the centre of the outbreak in the kingdom, where more than 260,000 people have been sickened by the virus and 2,672 have died.
The restrictions to the pilgrimage are another blow to Saudi Arabia’s economy, which has already been hit by depressed oil prices and coronavirus-related measures, including a ban on international travel, that hurt the kingdom’s nascent tourism and entertainment sectors. The International Monetary Fund expects the kingdom’s economy to contract 6.8% this year.
READ MORE: Hajj pilgrimage threatened for the first time in 1000 years
Agencies 6am: German cruise ship sets sail, tests pandemic waters
A German cruise ship is gingerly testing the water amid the coronavirus pandemic, setting sail for the first time since the industry was shut down months ago and using strict precautions to keep passengers and crew as safe as possible.
The TUI cruise ship “Mein Schiff 2” — literally “My Ship 2” — set sail for a weekend cruise in the North Sea late Friday night, the dpa news agency reported.
Occupancy was limited to 60% so passengers could keep their distance from one another, but even that level was not reached. The ship sailed off with 1,200 passengers on board compared to its normal 2,900 capacity. It was not reported how many crew were also on board.
The ship sailed from the northern port of Hamburg toward Norway, and passengers will spend the weekend at sea with no land stops before returning to Germany on Monday.
On board, passengers and crew are required to stay 1.5 metres away from one another or wear protective masks and they will not be able to serve themselves at the ship’s buffet. All passengers also had to fill out a health questionnaire before boarding and have their temperatures taken.
AP
READ MORE: Cabin fever — On board the Ruby Princess
Adrian McMurray 5.30am: Victorian government overhauls virus messaging
The Victorian government has overhauled its COVID-19 messaging with a new graphic advertising blitz built around personal stories of coronavirus survivors, frontline workers and their families.
The Victorian government got this one right. #coronavirus #coronavirusaustralia #coronavirusvictoria https://t.co/4LVNrM5rR9 pic.twitter.com/1UPnRAfLIF
— Daniel Sankey (@Daniel_Sankey) July 25, 2020
The multi-language campaign launched as Victoria recorded 357 new cases and five more deaths in the 24 hours to midday Saturday, with 320 of those cases still under investigation.
In one clip, virus survivor Michael says his experience was “like drowning”.
“I’d have coughing fits that go for one to two minutes … I was put in an induced coma, the doctors thought I was going to die,” Michael says.
The middle-aged Victorian details how his wife contracted the virus, and his mother-in-law, who most likely caught it from his wife, would go on to die from COVID-19.
“COVID is real, it is very real,” he adds.
As the state grapples to bring the virus under control, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the second wave was an “unfolding tragedy that is hard to get your head around”.
“This isn’t like the first wave: the numbers have remained stubbornly high,” he said. “They haven’t gone up significantly and they haven’t gone down significantly in the last week.”
There are 229 Victorians in hospital and 22 in intensive care.
The new cases were identified out of 20,313 tests, and Premier Daniel Andrews said aged care facilities were a particular concern for the government.
There are multiple significant outbreaks at such facilities across Melbourne, with 536 active cases in 38 aged care settings and infections split “roughly” evenly between staff and residents.
In total, there are 3395 active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria.
NSW meanwhile recorded 15 new cases on Saturday, with an additional four picked up after the reporting period to be added to Sunday’s tally. There are fears of a growing cluster linked to a church in Sydney’s southwest, with a woman who attended five separate services between July 16 and 19 spreading the virus among worshippers.
Health authorities conducted 30,535 tests in the 24 hours to Saturday. There are currently 97 active cases of coronavirus in the state, while 51 people have died. — with Paul Garvey, Frances Vinali
READ MORE: Calls for coronavirus campaign overhaul
Rosie Lewis 5.15am: Business, unions want JobKeeper 2.0 overhaul
A leading business group and unions have urged the federal government to let new workers receive JobKeeper 2.0 payments, as Scott Morrison stands by a stricter eligibility test that industry is warning will trigger mass job losses after September.
With Labor signalling it may not wave through JobKeeper 2.0 legislation if there are “improvements” to be made, concerns are growing within industry that too many employers and employees will be cut off from the wage subsidy and forced on to JobSeeker after the first phase ends on September 27.
The Australian revealed on Friday that industry groups feared the tougher turnover test to qualify for the second phase — in which a business must show its turnover declined by at least 30 per cent in the June and September quarters — would be the “death knell” for some sectors.
There are also concerns the government has kept March 1 as the date an employee must be connected with an employer to receive JobKeeper 2.0 payments.
That will rule out any full-time, part-time or fixed-term employee who has been hired by an employer since March 1 from receiving the wage subsidy, as well as casuals who may have clocked up 12 months with a business after that date.
Read the full story here.
Bernard Lagan 5am: Celebs accused of avoiding COVID-19 quarantine
Australian celebrities, including Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman and singer Dannii Minogue, have been accused of avoiding strict quarantine rules, causing outrage in areas that have suffered a resurgence of the virus.
Under measures to prevent people bringing in the infection, all overseas travellers must isolate for two weeks in Australian hotels under government management. Those in hotel quarantine are confined for two weeks to their rooms, except for exercise sessions.
The rules also appear to have been eased for Kerry Stokes, allowing the 78-year-old media mogul to avoid two weeks in a hotel room on his return to Australia from America. Instead, he is in isolation at his Perth home.
Kidman, 53, and her husband, musician Keith Urban, 52, were criticised when it became known this week that they travelled to their home south of Sydney after landing in a private jet from America with their two daughters. They will be able to roam their property and swim in the pool.
Journalist and former senator Derryn Hinch led the complaints. He tweeted: “How come? How can people with names like Kidman and Minogue get to do their 14-day Covid quarantine at private residences and not in hotels.”
How come? How can people with names like Minogue and Kidman get to do their 14-day Covid quarantine at private estates and not in hotels ?
— Derryn Hinch (@HumanHeadline) July 19, 2020
Kidman and Urban returned to Australia to film a television series. They were allowed to travel to their home despite NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian having insisted that there would be no exceptions from hotel quarantine for people arriving from overseas.
Read the full story here.
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