Coronavirus Australia live news: Victoria calls in ADF to help; Victorian man dies, Melbourne testing clinics buckle, 20 new cases
Andrews government asks for help from other states and ADF as Victoria’s coronavirus crisis deepens and grocery limits return amid panic buying.
- Grocery limits back amid panic buying fears
- Latest figures as cases double in Vic’s worst hot spot
- Victoria calls in military as virus crisis worsens
- Chaos as thousands flock to be tested
- Vic man in 80s dies of virus
- Victoria records 20 new cases
- Berejiklian warns over Vic family, business visits
Welcome to live coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. Victoria has requested assistance from other states and the ADF help get on top of Victoria’s spike in coronavirus cases as CHO Brett Sutton has encourages Victorians to “shop around” for a less busy testing centre as clinics struggle to meet demand with hours-long delays. An 80-year-old Victoria man has become Australia’s 103rd victim, as Victoria records the eighth day of double digit cases. Melbourne is dangerously close to a second hard lockdown as the virus spreads across more than 20 per cent of the city’s population.
Imogen Reid 10.15pm: Sydney school closed after student tests positive
A Sydney school has closed its gates after a Year 2 student tested positive to coronavirus.
Staff and students from Lane Cove West Public School on the Lower North Shore will undertake online learning on Thursday while the campus is cleaned and contact tracing is conducted.
A statement released by the department of education on Wednesday said a clinic has been set up at Royal North Shore Hospital for students from the school.
“The department has been advised by NSW Health that a Year 2 student has tested positive for COVID-19,” the statement read.
“The school will continue to support students with learning materials provided by classroom teachers using SeeSaw and Zoom tomorrow.
“Only students who are unwell with a fever or respiratory symptoms such as a sore throat or cough will need to be tested.”
READ MORE: Eid family feast sparks big cluster
Imogen Reid 8.20pm: ADF sends 28 troops to battle Victoria spike
A total of 28 military personnel are assisting with logistics and planning in Victoria, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says.
“We’re operating as one single country, everyone’s pitching in, we’ve always said there will be spikes, there will be outbreaks, and this is one of those cases,” Mr Hunt said on Wednesday after the Victorian government accepted assistance from the ADF to help with the state’s coronavirus spike.
“Therefore we’re taking it very seriously and we are giving all out resources needed to give our support.”
Mr Hunt urged Victorians feeling unwell to be tested for COVID-19 after the state recorded 20 new cases in its eighth consecutive day of double-digit increases.
“The chief medical officer at this stage has said it remains a low level outbreak but one we take very seriously,” Mr Hunt said on Nine’s A Current Affair program.
“The message for Victorians, and in particular people in the affected suburbs of Melbourne, is: If you do have any symptoms please be tested, please continue the distancing, this really matters.”
“Extraordinary things” had been achieved in the battle against the pandemic, but Australia had to remain vigilant, Mr Hunt said.
“The key for us is to not blame and to not focus on any one state,” he added.
“At the moment we are helping Victoria to manage, but it could be any one of us at any time.
“We will continue to face challenges and outbreaks over the coming months and we have to be focused and we also have to believe that we’re going to get through this.”
READ MORE: New Zealand quarantine regime under fire
Paige Taylor 8pm: Dentist defied quarantine to work on patients, police claim
A Perth dentist who was supposed to be in home quarantine under the McGowan government’s strict pandemic travel rules was instead at work and in contact with patients, police allege.
West Australian police have charged the 30-year-old woman after she allegedly failed to self-quarantine on arriving home from interstate on June 16.
Under the rules of WA’s hard border, residents of the state who leave can only return for certain reasons including compassionate reasons but they must go directly to quarantine — at a government-controlled hotel or, in some circumstances, their home — for 14 days.
It will be alleged that officers from the Assurance Team — a police unit that checks on whether people are complying with quarantine requirements — went to the woman’s house on multiple occasions on successive days but “failed to sight her”. They did the doorknocks at her house on June 17, the day after the woman arrived back in WA, and on June 18.
“After conducting further inquiries, police will allege the woman had been working at a northern suburbs dental practice where she is employed as a dentist,” police said on Wednesday.
She has been charged with failing to comply with a direction and is due to appear in Joondalup Magistrates Court on July 13.
Police said the woman had subsequently been tested for COVID-19, and received a negative result.
READ MORE: Why Victoria has failed to tame COVID
AFP 7.40pm: UK medical leaders warn of ‘real risk’ of second wave
Medical experts have warned the British government to prepare for the “real risk” of a coronavirus second wave just a day after the biggest lifting yet of lockdown restrictions in England.
“While the future shape of the pandemic in the UK is hard to predict, the available evidence indicates that local flare-ups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk,” said the experts in an open letter printed in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday.
The letter added that the overriding task was “to ensure that the country is adequately prepared to contain a second phase”.
It was signed by 16 leading experts, including the heads of the Royal College of Surgeons, the Faculty of Public Health and the Royal College of Nursing.
Prime Minister boris Johnson on Tuesday announced what he called the beginning of the end of “national hibernation”, allowing the reopening of large parts of the hospitality, culture and tourism sectors in England from July 4.
That includes pubs, hotels, restaurants, museums and galleries. The 2m social-distancing rule, in place since March, was also relaxed to 1m, subject to measures such as the use of face coverings.
The decision was seen as vital to large parts of the economy, which faces recession and large-scale job losses after more than three months of closure and stay-at-home restrictions.
READ MORE: Nobody started off knowing what steps to take
Associated Press 7.10pm: Slovak President quarantined, scraps meetings
Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova has cancelled her meeting with her Austrian counterpart, Alexander Van der Bellen, to go into quarantine after a member of her office met with a person who tested positive for the coronavirus.
The presidential office said Ms Caputova would stay at her home until Friday and had cancelled all her appointments.
Slovakia is one of the least hit countries by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe.
It has had a total of 1607 cases, with 28 deaths.
READ MORE: State versus state and Victoria with no mates
AP 6.32pm: New US virus cases at highest level in two months
New cases of the coronavirus in the United States have surged to the highest level in two months.
According to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the US on Tuesday reported 34,700 new cases of the virus.
That’s more than on any single day since the outbreak began with the exception of April 9, when 34,800 cases were reported, and April 24, when a record 36,400 cases were reported.
New cases in the US have been surging for more than a week, after they had been trending down for more than six weeks.
While early hot spots like New York and New Jersey have seen cases steadily decrease, the virus has been hitting the south and west. Several states on Tuesday set single-day records, including Arizona, California, Mississippi, Nevada and Texas.
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Jack the Insider 5.34pm: A century later and we're back again
During the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-19, the then teenage Commonwealth of Australia was swept aside by states brawling. A century later and we’re back again. Only the virus has changed.
READ MORE: State versus state and Victoria with no mates
Rachel Baxendale 4.30pm: Quarantine hotel link to major Victoria family cluster
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has confirmed a family cluster in Hallam, in Melbourne’s outer southeastern suburbs, had been linked to a security contractor who brought the virus home from work at the Stamford Plaza quarantine hotel in Melbourne’s CBD.
At least 14 cases have been linked to a cluster of security contractors at the Stamford Plaza hotel in Melbourne where recently returned overseas travellers have been in hotel quarantine, while 17 were linked to an earlier cluster at Rydges on Swanston.
“The Hallam family cluster has been related to the quarantine hotel. It’s suspected that a staff member, or rather a contractor at the Stamford Plaza, has brought it to their family,” Professor Sutton said.
The health department have not confirmed how many cases are linked to the cluster, but there are nine active cases, including a new case on Wednesday, in the Casey local government area where Hallam is located.
Professor Sutton said there had been concerns about social distancing among security staff, who are now being replaced by medical and ADF professionals in quarantine hotels.
“I think it’s always a risk when people are less than 1.5 metres distance apart,” he said.
“There are a number of staff, some of those spaces where they gathered meant that they were too close together, so that’s been observed.
“Obviously it’s been reinforced that that distancing needs to be maintained at all times for everyone.
“They know the protocols in regards to how to manage accompanying guests for fresh air, so the same messages in terms of the distance that they need to keep and the hygiene procedures that they all need to go through routinely.
“Clearly there’s been transmission to those contracted staff, and so whether that’s been from a surface, or whether it’s been from a guest to a contracted staff member through respiratory droplets it’ll be impossible to find out.
“We’ve gone through a thorough review process and there’s been additional health service support to infection prevention and control, and with a review of all processes and everything that might have occurred in the past I think we need to see that it’s under control.
“There is no constraint on personal protective equipment supply, and obviously those contracted services have an obligation for their staff members ... to make sure that they are putting in all of the procedures to keep them safe.”
Eli Greeblat 3.25pm: Supermarkets bring back limits amid panic buying
Coles and Woolworths have reinstated buying restrictions amid COVID case rises in Victoria.
Coles has brought restrictions into Victoria and some regions of NSW, closely following a move by Woolworths after a spike in coronavirus cases in the state prompted panic buying again in some Melbourne suburbs.
A source told The Australian that the decision by Woolworths to reinstate buying limits on key grocery staples was made early Wednesday morning following scenes of panic buying in parts of Melbourne.
The move by Woolworths was also discussed with other major supermarket retailers as part of the Supermarket Taskforce, established in March by the Department of Home Affairs to resolve issues impacting supermarkets, and other supermarket chains are expected to soon also bring in buying limits in Victoria to match Woolworths.
Coles said Wednesday afternoon it is implementing a number of temporary measures to improve the availability of key food and grocery items in its Victorian supermarkets and to help our customers shop safely.
Purchase limits will hit key grocery categories including toilet paper and will revive for many the angst and frustration of three months ago when panic buying saw shoppers strip the shelves of items such as toilet paper, rice and pasta and which saw fights in the aisles between supermarket shoppers.
READ FULL STORY here.
Rachel Baxendale 3.15pm: Latest numbers as cases double in Victoria’s worst hot spot
The number of active cases in Victoria’s worst COVID-19 hotspot has doubled in just three days, from 10 to 20.
Brimbank, in Melbourne’s outer northwest, now has 20 active cases, including five new cases on Wednesday, and ten since Sunday.
The local government area is home to a Keilor Downs family cluster linked to 15 cases across at least eight households.
There are now 12 LGAs in Victoria with at least four active cases each.
Victoria’s other hotspots include Hume, in the outer north, with 14 active cases — the same number as Tuesday — and Whittlsea in the outer north and Casey in the outer southeast, both of which have nine active cases each, including one new case each.
Moreland in the inner north has eight active cases, including one new case, while Moonee Ponds in the north west has seven, including two new cases, and Melton in the outer northwest has five including one new case.
Cardinia, in the outer southeast has five active cases, while Knox, in the outer east, has four including one new one.
Greater Dandenong in the outer southeast and Darebin in the northeast have four each, as does Maribyrnong, in the inner west, which has two fewer than Tuesday.
The City of Melbourne has 20 active cases, but these are primarily people in hotel quarantine, with no net gain or loss on Wednesday.
There is a total of 141 active cases in Victoria.
READ MORE: Probe into Packer’s Crown to resume after COVID delay
Rachel Baxendale 2.25pm: Victoria’s backflip on military assistance
The Victorian government’s acceptance of ADF assistance to help with the state’s coronavirus spike comes little more than 24 hours after Premier Daniel Andrews said he didn’t believe it was necessary.
“No, I don’t think we need to do that now, but of course I’m very grateful to the Prime Minister for the ongoing dialogue that I have with him,” Mr Andrews said on Tuesday, when asked whether he would accept an offer for the ADF to assist with the cluster-plagued hotel quarantine system..
At least 14 cases have been linked to a cluster of security contractors at the Stamford Plaza hotel in Melbourne where recently returned overseas travellers have been in hotel quarantine, while 17 were linked to an earlier cluster at Rydges on Swanston.
Other states have used ADF personnel in these security roles.
“I don’t know that you could necessarily describe any hotel quarantine system as being risk free. There are always inherent risks,” Mr Andrews said yesterday.
“There’ll be more staff in those settings, and I think that probably the best staff to have in those settings, more of them, are people that have got a clinical background, so I think you’re going to see more and more nurses, for instance, in that hotel quarantine system, and I think that’ll serve us well.”
Mr Andrews also implied that a security contractor had been among several people who knowingly breached quarantine, having tested positive, but refused to go into any detail.
“I’m not going to identify individuals,” he said, when asked whether he could confirm a hotel security guard had broken the rules.
“We have had a couple of issues, we have dealt with those, we’re confident that this is a bigger issue than just where people work.
“If it was just what you’re alluding to, that would be one thing, but the notion that there’s only one particular group of people or one particular class of worker, working in one particular hotel, this is much broader than that and it’s people that are well away from hotel quarantine.
“It’s people that have got nothing to do with hotel quarantine, who are making the choice that they want it to be over, and therefore they’re going to pretend that it is, and that’s just not right.”
READ MORE: State versus state and Victoria with no mates
Matthew Denholm 2.15pm: Bigger crowds, local sport as Tas restrictions ease
Tasmania has further lifted coronavirus restrictions, allowing bigger crowds in venues and kick-starting local sport, while agreeing to help Victoria conduct hundreds of COVID-19 tests each day.
As foreshadowed by The Australian earlier this week, Premier Peter Gutwein on Wednesday scrapped the 4 sqm per person rule for venues, reducing it to one per 2 sqm.
From Friday noon, when the latest rules will apply, numbers will be capped at 250 people indoors and 500 outdoors, while households will continue to be limited to gatherings of 20.
The decision allows small markets, food courts, garage sales, spas and bathhouses to reopen, subject to the new limits, as well as amateur sport clubs, which can also reopen change rooms and showers.
Mr Gutwein said he had on Tuesday night been telephoned by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, who had requested assistance with COVID-19 testing.
“We’ve indicated we’ll be able to provide … up to 300 additional tests per day if they want us to do them on their behalf,” he said. “I know they are also working with NSW and SA has also provided contact tracing a tracking assistance to them.”
He would on Friday announce when and how Tasmania lifted its border restrictions, with a selective opening — favouring COVID-free jurisdictions — expected.
Tasmania has enjoyed 39 days without any confirmed new cases of the virus.
READ MORE: New plan to get Virgin flying again
Rachel Baxendale 1.55pm: Victoria calls in miltary for help amid virus spike
The Dan Andrews government has requested assistance from other states and the Australian Defence Force to help get on top of Victoria’s spike in coronavirus cases.
A spokeswoman for Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on Wednesday Victoria had asked for help to ramp up testing and community awareness in virus hot spots.
“This support will mean we can get even more tests done and results back quickly — and a stronger effort to remind Victorians if you are sick, stay home and get tested,” the spokeswoman said.
“We thank our neighbouring states for agreeing to provide this support — which will ensure we keep Victorians safe.”
The request for support has been accepted by New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and Queensland.
Victoria has also requested ADF logistical support and discussions with the federal government are ongoing.
The Australian understands Victoria has requested 500-1000 ADF personnel, including to help with hotel quarantine.
Further details are still being established.
READ MORE: Why Victoria has failed to tame COVID
Richard Ferguson 1.40pm: Kyoto credits unacceptable ‘rort’: Albanese
Anthony Albanese will not accept the use of Kyoto carryover credits to meet Australia’s carbon emissions targets under the Paris Agreement, despite calling for an end to the energy wars.
The Opposition Leader said the use of Kyoto credits is a “rort” and it will not be part of negotiations for a post-COVID energy framework.
“Yes, it’s a rort. If it looks like a rort and sounds like a rort it is. And that’s why the rest of the world is saying no to carry over credits,” Mr Albanese told the National Press Club.
“ I mean there’s some irony I’ve got to say in a government that completely opposed ratifying
Kyoto- and was opposed to what Labor put in place – saying we want to use those credits when we had an energy policy in order to make up for the fact that we don’t.
“And what I’m putting forward today is a proposal in which we can have an energy policy in this country. We don’t have one at the moment.”
READ MORE: ‘Sounds like England want the Ashes back’
Rachel Baxendale 1.23pm: Why Keilor Downs school community a test target
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says the health department is targeting the Keilor Downs College community for testing because the school has had “a number of students related to the Keilor Downs family outbreak”, now linked to 15 cases.
The first case linked to Keilor Downs College was in a teacher who tested positive on May 22, days before Year 11 and 12 students returned to classes on May 26.
At the time, Education Minister James Merlino said the teacher had not been at the school and close contacts had not been identified at the school, so the school would open as normal.
On May 29, a Keilor Downs College student tested positive, with six students from Taylor Lakes Secondary College and one student from St Albans Secondary College who had attended a class at Keilor Downs among close contacts sent into isolation.
At the time, the health department said there was no link between the two Keilor Downs College cases, as the teacher had not been infectious while on-campus.
The student was confirmed as a member of the cluster linked to the Keilor Downs family, and the school was closed for cleaning.
The following day the Keilor Downs student’s sibling, a student at Holy Eucharist Primary School in St Albans, tested positive.
Students from that school who had been in close contact were quarantined for a fortnight.
On Saturday, the health department confirmed the Keilor Downs family cluster had grown to 11 cases across nine households.
On Tuesday, the department confirmed a student from Keilor View Primary School had been linked to the cluster.
On Wednesday, the department confirmed a second Keilor Downs College student had tested positive along with two other people linked to the Keilor Downs family cluster, taking the number of cases in the outbreak to 15.
“As a matter of trying to find any students who might have picked up illness from community transmission … or their family members … we are encouraging them (to come forward for testing),” Professor Sutton said on Wednesday.
“Keilor Downs is clearly a hotspot in Melbourne at the moment.”
Asked whether there was evidence that the virus had spread from student to student at Keilor Downs College or other schools, Professor Sutton said: “Not clearly”.
“Whether that’s multiple cases linked to community transmission or transmission between students is yet to be determined, but we’re looking into it.”
READ MORE: Johnson eases pandemic shackles
Ben McKay 1pm: New Zealand quarantine regime under fire
Jacinda Ardern’s government has been accused of risking the health of New Zealanders after revelations most people allowed to leave COVID-19 quarantine in June did so without tests.
Of the 55 Kiwis granted compassionate exemptions to leave isolation between June 9 and 16, all but four did so without a coronavirus test.
The Ministry of Health admitted the failing in an after-hours press release after its Director General of Health spent a week unable to answer questions on its testing regime.
Opposition leader Todd Muller seized on the declaration, calling it a “national disgrace” and asking besieged health minister David Clark to resign. “The minister of health ultimately has been accountable (and) must step down. The prime minister seems simply incapable of showing leadership that New Zealand would expect at a time like this,” Mr Muller told Radio NZ.
“If the net effect of all of those lapsed protocols is that we avoid community transmission, we are indeed a lucky country.” Mr Clark previously offered to resign after being caught making multiple lockdown breaches, only for Ms Ardern to decline it, saying disruption in the portfolio was undesirable during the crisis. — AAP
READ THE FULL STORY here.
Max Maddison 12.45pm: Hunt offers Victoria full military support
Health Minister Greg Hunt has offered military support to help Victoria control the fresh outbreak of coronavirus.
Despite a quarantine breach at a Melbourne hotel, Mr Hunt reiterated that Victoria had done an “extraordinary job” in managing the outbreak, however, he said that military resources were available “when somebody needs help”.
“It is a fact, so what we have to do is ensure that those standards in a hotel quarantine are absolutely at the highest level. So we have offered support, and it is entirely a matter for each state and territory to determine their particular needs at that particular time,” Mr Hunt said at a press conference.
“ … when somebody needs the help, we are here to help and they will accept and ask for what it is that they need, and I will leave it to them to determine that.”
Mr Hunt pointed to the outbreak in north-west Tasmania, in which the 7 AUSMAT medical assistance team — which he described as the “SAS of infection control” — aided by military logistic support, helped the state government deal with clusters of coronavirus.
In April, 50 members of the Australian Defence Force were deployed to Burnie in Tasmania to ensure critical medical services were maintained.
READ MORE: Comment — Happy to hop away from these bounders
Rebecca Gredley 12.35pm: Most Aussie virus fatalities had existing conditions
Nearly 70 per cent of people who died from coronavirus in Australia had pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, dementia and diabetes. The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday released data looking at coronavirus deaths until the end of May, when 89 people had died. The statistics show there were more male than female deaths, in line with international data.
However, among those aged over 85, more females died from the virus. Most COVID-19 deaths occurred in people aged between 75 to 84. Of the 89 deaths, 68.5 per cent already had medical conditions, with hypertension the most common.
This was followed by dementia, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer.
Most deaths also had acute respiratory symptoms, such as viral pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome, listed as a consequence of the virus. There have now been 103 deaths from coronavirus in Australia after a Victorian man in his 80s died.
It’s the first virus death in Australia in a month. — AAP
READ MORE: Van Onselen — Why Victoria has failed to tame COVID unlike other states
Nick Evans 12.20pm: Nev Power says cheap gas is achievable
National COVID-19 Coordination Commission chairman Nev Power has pushed back on energy industry criticism of his $4 target for domestic gas prices, admitting the low price is a “stretch target” but saying it’s an achievable goal in the long term.
Mr Power said on Wednesday Australia’s success in combating the coronavirus could allow a reinvigorated manufacturing sector — focused on downstream processing of Australia’s minerals and energy resources — to take advantage of global supply chain issues caused as COVID-19 advances through South and North America, and Asia.
He told the Mines and Money Virtual Connect conference Australian industry should look to push down the processing chain in nickel, lithium, fertilisers and petrochemicals to break the processing “oligopoly” held by major manufacturing nations in Asia – and cheap gas and energy prices were the key to success.
“We’ve put out there some target of around $6 in the short term and $4 in the long term as a direct comparison with the Henry Hub price in the US. Now I’m the first to admit there are a lot of differences between our gas supply here in Australia and the Henry Hub,” he said.
“But as many of you would know from my history it’s about setting those big stretch targets and then looking at all of the factors – in productivity, in supply right through the supply chain – to work out how we can get there.
“If we can provide competitively-priced gas into the manufacturing sector we can develop fertiliser manufacturing and petrochemical manufacturing – these are products we already have scale in.”
READ THE FULL STORY here.
Max Maddison 11.50am: BLM rally should not have happened: Hunt
It was “never okay” for the Black Lives Matter rally to go ahead, as the “double standards” contributed to a “significant relaxation” in the public’s vigilance, says Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Despite a reproduction rate of 2.5, Mr Hunt said it was important to remember that the spread in Melbourne was among a “very, very small community”, including a series of families with close physical proximity. However, he believed the protests had contributed to the public believing the pandemic was over.
“ … the message is, it was never okay for that protest to have gone ahead, not because of the subject matter. Noble, powerful, important, but because of the fact that two and a half weeks later, we have had an outbreak in Victoria, in part, we know that there are four cases directly linked with that protest,” Mr Hunt said.
“But we also believe that there has been a significant relaxation in parts of the public as a consequence of the double standard, so the message is, please, keep your distance.”
In addition, the federal government had offered “all support” to the Victorian government in a bid to quell the fresh outbreak.
Despite multiple outbreaks in hotels, Mr Hunt didn’t believe any states were struggling with quarantine measures.
“There’s been an outbreak. Somebody has either not known, or not done the right thing, so we need to be honest about that, but we need to keep in perspective that Australia, by global standards, is doing extraordinarily well,” he said.
READ MORE: Aussies back PM’s pushback against China
Ben McKay 11.30am: Financial lifeline for NZ bungee pioneers
Bungee jumping pioneers AJ Hackett has been gifted $NZ5.1 million ($A4.8 million) as the New Zealand government puts a safety net around tourism operations.
Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis made the announcement on Wednesday, saying the same amount was available as a loan if needed.
“By supporting AJ Hackett Bungy, we’re protecting a world-famous tourism asset as well as the flow-on benefits that an iconic tourism attraction brings to a local community,” Mr Davis said.
If you can do this, you can do anything. This is Bungy. #LiveMoreFearLess
— AJ Hackett Bungy New Zealand (@AJHackettBungy) May 8, 2018
Watch the full video here >>> https://t.co/AEa2EFWPya pic.twitter.com/LDTKygmE9Y
The NZ government has set aside $NZ400 million (A$374 million) of funding towards tourism operators hit hard by COVID-19.
Hundreds of applicants have applied for the pool of money, with AJ Hackett joining Whale Watch Kaikoura, Discover Waitomo and 31 regional operators to receive funds to date.
AJ Hackett are known as the first commercial operators of the bungy jump, which has origins in Vanuatu. — AAP
READ MORE: Victorians key to tourism revival
Max Maddison 11.10am: ACCI calls for extension to Job Keeper subsidy
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has called on the federal government to extend the Job Keeper wage subsidy for selected industries.
James Pearson, the ACCI’s chief executive, told a Senate hearing on Wednesday that several sectors, including tourism and events, would suffer once the program expired in September.
“Although the unemployment figures released last week are alarming, they would have been undoubtedly worse without JobKeeper in place,” Mr Pearson said. “People in business are using JobKeeper to stay afloat and keep employees on, even with reduced hours.” — With AAP
READ MORE: Comment — Rush job a keeper, but amendments needed to better support business
Rachel Baxendale 10.35am: Chaos as thousands flock to testing stations
Victorians trying to do what their Premier Daniel Andrews has for weeks told them is “the right thing to do” and get tested for COVID-19 have found themselves locked out of testing centres and subjected to wait times of more than four hours.
The chaos comes after a record 21,000 people got themselves tested on Tuesday, and as Victoria’s health department scrambles to open new testing facilities.
One caller to ABC Melbourne radio on Wednesday morning reported that the drive-through testing facility at Chadstone shopping centre in Melbourne’s southeastern suburbs was closed to new patients for at least two hours from just after 8:30am as staff struggled to deal with the number of people trying to get tested.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton encouraged Victorians to “shop around” for a less busy testing centre.
Professor Sutton acknowledged there had been a “surge” of people putting “a lot of pressure” on Melbourne’s COVID-19 testing centres.
He said the health department had worked to get as many new testing sites up in hotspot areas in the western, northern and southeastern suburbs as possible.
A new facility at Melbourne’s showgrounds will be open to the Keilor Downs College community from 1pm on Wednesday, and to members of the public with symptoms from Thursday.
“We know that the demand on testing has increased significantly,” Professor Sutton said.
“Victoria really does have the highest testing capacity in Australia at the moment, but human behaviour is a strange thing.
“You know, the message hasn’t changed. We’ve always said, get tested with mild symptoms, but obviously there’s a lot of concern around the increase in cases in recent days, and there’s been a huge increase in demand on testing.
“There have been queues for those testing sites. Chadstone, for example, has needed to divert traffic, and really not have people flow through that testing site until the police can manage the traffic appropriately.
“So we do apologise and we ask people to be patient.
“People should go to their GPs in the first instance to see if they can get testing there. That’s obviously going to be much more straightforward for them if they’ve got a booking, but also to look around the website and see what alternative testing sites they might be able to go to where the pressures on numbers aren’t quite so great.”
Professor Sutton said Victoria had the capacity to test more than 20,000 people per day.
“The testing capacity is there, but the demand has spiked incredibly, not unsurprisingly, but I guess we need to be mindful of that ongoing demand,” he said.
“We want to be able to meet it. We are encouraging everyone with mild symptoms or significant symptoms to come in for testing at any of those sites.”
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos apologised to anyone who had been inconvenienced or had experienced long delays.
“Yesterday we had, I think 21,000 tests undertaken, which is probably the highest number that we’ve had all year, lots of people flocking, responding to the messaging from the government about the spike in the cases, and it’s good that people are listening to that message,” Ms Mikakos told ABC radio.
“We want to make sure everyone in the community is listening to that message. So none of the sites were closed yesterday, but we had some traffic issues, and we’ve got obviously big shopping centres involved and we’re very grateful to them for their support in this very important program.”
Ms Mikakos said more testing sites were being opened, including a large-scale site at Melbourne’s showgrounds where students, teachers and parents from cluster-linked Keilor Downs College are being tested today before it opens to the public this afternoon.
Interestingly, Melbourne’s showgrounds are in the inner northwestern Melbourne suburb of Flemington, requiring the Keilor Downs College community from the hotspot local government area of Brimbank to travel into the inner city to get tested, despite advice for them to otherwise not leave their area.
Another testing centre is being reopened at the Footscray Bunnings store in Melbourne’s inner west, and a pop-up facility is being established in Craigieburn, in the outer northern hotspot LGA of Hume.
Meanwhile, another of Victoria’s new cases on Wednesday has been confirmed as a social contact of a staff member at St. Monica’s College Epping, in Melbourne’s north, who had earlier tested positive to the virus.
The Villa Bambini Early Learning Centre in Essendon, in Melbourne’s northwest, was closed on Tuesday after a child whose case is included in the figures reported on Wednesday tested positive.
READ MORE: Sound advice from NSW premier
Sarah Elks 10.30am: Palaszczuk warns; ‘We need to talk about Victoria’
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the rest of Australia needs to help Victoria get its coronavirus outbreak under control “in the spirit of federalism”.
Ms Palaszczuk flagged a “serious discussion” at national cabinet on Friday about the Victorian situation but still left the door open for Queensland’s border to reopen to all states on July 10.
Travelling through western Queensland, Ms Palaszczuk was asked whether it was now impossible for the border to reopen on that date, given the decision had to be made within a week.
Previously, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young and Ms Palaszczuk have said they wanted community transmission to be under control – and preferably four weeks with no new community acquired cases – in other states before the QLD border reopened.
If that criteria was followed, the border would not reopen on July 10, because of the Victorian outbreak, where more than half of new cases are community transmissions.
“We’ve seen NSW get on top of community transmission, and a lot of states have concerns about Victoria …(the border reopening) will be reviewed at the end of the month,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“There needs to be a serious discussion on Friday at national cabinet about the issues in Victoria.”
She said Queensland had sent a team down to Victoria to help.
“Let’s all help Victoria and help to get it under control, in the spirit of federalism,” she said.
READ MORE: National Gallery to cut staff
Max Maddison 10.20am: Mikakos considers lockdown for hot spots
Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos says it’s “very easy for people to criticise” the government, as she considers introducing stay at home orders for hotspot suburbs amid a second wave of infections.
Ms Mikakos rejected the notion that poor government communication was to blame for the outbreak in suburbs with large populations of ethnic minorities, but conceded health authorities needed to work harder to reach those communities.
“We’re redoubling those efforts. Let’s not forget that two weeks ago we had days with zero cases in Victoria, and we’ve had a sudden surge of cases in the last weeks. It’s very easy for people to criticise,” Ms Mikakos told host Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National Breakfast.
With considerable confusion surrounding the decision to identify large local government areas as hot spots, Ms Mikakos said it was “more helpful” in some cases to isolate hot spots to particular suburbs.
“Our government has said that if the public health advice from our experts is to reintroduce stay at home legal directions, in particular locations we will consider doing that, we won’t rule that out,” Ms Mikakos said.
“Clearly some people think the pandemic is over. It’s not over. We want people to remain at a heightened sense of awareness about physical distancing.”
READ MORE: Cultural differences spark ethnic clusters
Rebecca Urban 10.15am: Melbourne families banned from caravan parks
Caravan and camping parks along Victoria’s popular surf coast have cancelled school holiday bookings from families residing in Melbourne’s coronavirus hot spots, as the state’s crisis worsens.
The Lorne, Anglesea and Torquay foreshore caravan parks have brought in new COVID-19 restrictions and will no longer honour or take new bookings from guests who live in the local government areas of Hume, Brimbank, Casey, Moreland, Darebin, in the interest of protecting “the health and safety of our staff, visitors and coast”.
The organisation said it regretted having to make the decision ahead of mid/year school holidays next week.
“We will be contacting guests from these areas with current bookings to cancel their booking in the coming days. This will apply to all bookings up until Monday 13 July and include Twelve Month Permit Holders,” the group said in a statement on its website.
“We will not be lifting these restrictions until the Victorian Government advises that community transmission in these areas is under control.“
Victoria’s surf-coast is a popular holiday spot, with its population swelling significantly during holiday periods.
READ MORE: Victorians key to tourism revival
Peter van Onselen 10.00am: Chronic sickness at heart of Vic health system
Many Australians would be wondering how it came to be that the state that imposed the strictest lockdowns at the beginning of this pandemic is suffering from a second wave of infections on a scale not witnessed elsewhere.
That is Victoria’s fate at present, and the reason it has been forced into localised lockdowns as it attempts to control the spread of the coronavirus.
More than a million Victorians are forced to endure additional restrictions, slowing the speed at which Premier Daniel Andrews can move through the three stages of lifting the lockdown, as agreed by the national cabinet.
Victoria is suffering from a surge in community transmissions other states so far have managed to avoid. But why? Several states had large-scale Black Lives Matter protests a few weeks back, so it can’t simply be a case of saying they are responsible for Victoria’s woes when other states are not also seeing a significant uptick in community transmissions.
Besides, evidence of community transmissions because of the protests is limited at best.
Victoria’s failure comes down to its manifestly inadequate organisational health department structure and the subsequent lack of skills on the ground to manage a second wave.
READ the full article here.
Rachel Baxendale 9.55am: Only quarter of Vic active cases in hotel quarantine
Only 30 of Victoria’s 141 active cases are in people in hotel quarantine.
Of Wednesday’s seven new cases linked to known clusters, three have been linked to a Keilor Downs family in the hotspot local government area of Brimbank, in Melbourne’s northwest.
All three were existing close contacts of known cases in that cluster, which has now been linked to 15 cases.
Another three of today’s new cluster cases are linked to Hampstead Dental.
The remaining known cluster case is in a household contact of a staff member at the H&M clothing store at the Northland shopping centre in Melbourne’s north, bringing the total number of cases in that outbreak to five.
Two of the COVID-19 positive H&M staff members also attended the Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne’s CBD on June 6.
READ MORE: Good advice from NSW premier
Rachel Baxendale 9.40am: Vic man dies of coronavirus, national toll 103
A man in his 80s has died with coronavirus in Victoria, bringing the state’s death toll from the virus to 20 and the national toll to 103.
Victoria has confirmed 20 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday — the eighth straight day of double digit increases — bringing the state’s total number of cases to 1884.
There are currently 141 active cases – 10 more than Tuesday, and more than 1000 close contacts.
Of Wednesday’s new cases, seven are linked to known outbreaks, one is in a recently returned overseas traveller in hotel quarantine, nine were detected through routine testing, and three are under investigation.
Today’s new cases include a new cluster of three staff members at the Hampstead Dental Clinic in Maidstone, in Melbourne’s west.
All staff members are being considered close contacts and being quarantined and tested.
There have now been 241 cases in Victoria where the source is unknown — an increase of eight since yesterday.
READ MORE: Why Victoria has failed to tame COVID
Rachel Baxendale 9.00am: Victoria records 20 new cases
Victoria has recorded 20 new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, the eighth day running that positive cases have been in the double digits, Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has confirmed.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton is due to provide details at 9:30am. Watch live on our COVID live video.
READ MORE: Second lockdown more complicated than first
Max Maddison 8.40am: No community transmission in NSW
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed another day without community transmission, but holds firm against calls for a hard border closure.
Ms Berejiklian said the only cases recorded in the state were returning travellers in hotel quarantine, despite a mammoth testing regime testing around 15,000 people per day. However, she held concerns about a second wave moving into NSW.
“Of course you worry about those things, also it would need to think about communities like Albury-Wodonga which are on the border, they don’t have any cases in the region and technically Wodonga is in Victoria and Albury in NSW but they act as one community and it is a huge imposition,” Ms Berejiklian told morning television program Today on Nine.
“To me, it doesn’t make sense to do hard border closures but what makes sense is give people good warnings.”
With school holidays approaching, Ms Berejiklian reiterated that no one from NSW should be visiting any of the Melbourne coronavirus hot spots.
“So that just stands – that’s just logic. You don’t want to expose your loved ones or yourself. Those hot spots should be no-go zones for everybody including Victorians and that’s what the Victorian Government and Victorian health officials have been saying and definitely reconsider your plans to Melbourne,” she said.
READ MORE: Chronic sickness at heart of Victoria’s health system
Rebecca Urban 8.20am: Second pupil tests positive at Melbourne school
Keilor Downs College in one of Melbourne’s coronavirus hot spots has revealed a second student has tested positive.
The Health department has set up a priority pop-up testing site for students and their families at the Melbourne Showgrounds.
However, students who are considered close contacts of the Year 10 students who were infected have been advised to get tested elsewhere.
A letter from the school to families does not reveal whether the second student was infected at school or elsewhere.
This is the second time the school has been forced to close. A teacher tested positive in May.
Melburnians have been clamouring for COVID-19 testing in recent days, with queues for hours at many sites, as case numbers have spiked.
READ MORE: State’s spike is nation’s problem
Max Maddison 7.50am: Berejiklian warns against Vic family, business visits
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says closing the Victorian border isn’t something she is considering “at this stage”, as she asks people to delay visits from family and friends.
Ms Berejiklian said the outbreak in Victoria was a “good wake-up call”, but said there wasn’t any evidence of contagion to NSW yet.
“If you are someone that is anticipating receiving family or friends from those hot spots, don’t. Please ask them to delay their travel. Similar for businesses, they are mindful that no one from those hot spots turns up unless they have been checked, tested and negative,” Ms Berejiklian told Sunrise on Seven.
“It is important for us to reduce and stop the community spread. All of us in the nation have worked hard for that. We will support Victoria in whatever way we can to control the spread happening down there at the moment. It does show it can happen quickly.”
Ms Berejiklian on Tuesday called for businesses to steer clear of visitors from Melbourne
and urged against travel to the city, particularly its six current COVID-19 hot spots – the local government areas of Hume, Casey, Brimbank, Moreland, Cardinia and Darebin.
Residents of those hot spots should not be moving around the community, the premier said.
“I call on all organisations not to interact with citizens from Melbourne at this stage,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters.
“Have activity elsewhere and I note a number of organisations have already taken on that advice.
“And as for resorts and other locations in NSW, they are at liberty to accept or reject any traveller.”
READ MORE: Just one in 16 tracked down by app
Max Maddison 7.45am: Canavan stands by call to reopen borders
Nationals MP Matt Canavan says he continues to stand by his call to reopen the borders, despite a surge of cases in Victoria and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s warning against travel to the southern state.
Queensland is reconsidering their border re-opening on July 10 and New South Wales has issued a warning not to travel to Melbourne as the state's Coronavirus cases continue rise. #9News pic.twitter.com/0U4csR6VQm
— Nine News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 23, 2020
The former Resource Minister said the lack of community transmission across the country meant reopening the borders wouldn’t present significant dangers.
“I don’t think though we should be overreacting. Back in late March Victoria, Melbourne was recording more than 100 cases a day at one point,” Mr Canavan told Today on Nine.
“They are not those levels at this stage. The government down there is focused on it and we just have to do what we know worked a few months ago to get this under control.”
READ MORE: Spike must not help national bounce back
Michael Warner 7.25am: McKenna cleared two days after positive test
Essendon’s Conor McKenna has been cleared of having coronavirus, two days after recording a positive test and sending the competition into turmoil.
The result raises serious questions over the testing procedures being used by the AFL.
The Irish speedster’s results mysteriously went from negative, to irregular, to positive and back to negative within the space of six days.
Essendon doctors were bewildered when the negative verdict lobbed at 5.30pm on Monday.
A second Bomber, forward James Stewart, remains in isolation but will seek to be cleared to play on the weekend if his own test result comes back negative on Wednesday.
Stewart’s agent, Peter Jess, said: “I’m finding it difficult to accept that somehow Conor McKenna has been able to recover from coronavirus within 48 hours.
“This is something that has not been documented anywhere throughout the world.
“It must be a medical miracle.”
READ MORE: Packed AFL crowds in SA, WA to cover over Vic woes
Max Maddison 7.20am: ‘Don’t want to see battles over state borders’
Josh Frydenberg has put aside his parochial state pride, saying he doesn’t want to see “battles over borders” between NSW and Victoria.
As Premier Gladys Berejiklian tells NSW businesses to avoid working with their Victorian counterparts, the Treasurer said the nation needed to work towards the common goal.
NSW Premier @GladysB has called on organisations to refrain from doing business with Victorians, especially those travelling from the state’s coronavirus ‘hot spots’. https://t.co/Deeir5NzX3
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) June 23, 2020
“As a Victorian, I wear the big V on my chest, but as the treasurer I also wear the big T and I’m focused on the Australian economy as a whole,” Mr Frydenberg told Sky News.
“I don’t want to see battles over borders between states. We’re all Australians and we’re all focused on the same goal, namely suppressing that curve by reducing the number of corona cases while also strengthening the economy.”
Speaking about the energy policy olive branch put forward by Anthony Albanese, Mr Frydenberg said he wasn’t sure what to make of the offer.
“Well it’s always interesting to see a Labor backflip. It’s hard to know how genuine it is. They voted against our big stick a dozen times,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“This reminds me of the Groucho Marx saying: ‘If you don’t like these principles, well hang on, I’ve got some others’ – there’s a lot of Groucho about Albo.”
READ MORE: Victorians key to tourism revival
Max Maddison 6.40am: Global cases near 9.2m, US spike rises
Global confirmed coronavirus cases are approaching 9.2m, while global deaths moved towards 475,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Global confirmed cases are at 9,158,912, while global coronavirus-related fatalities stands at 473,930.
Cases up only because of our big number testing. Mortality rate way down!!! https://t.co/bKFmgOLEGZ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 23, 2020
With several countries battling upticks in infections, the US is seeing daily reported cases approach a record high not seen since April. Confirmed cases and deaths are led by the US, which has 2,329,637 confirmed cases and 120,927 fatalities. Brazil follows with 1.1m infections and 51,271 deaths.
Cases in India continue to climb, as the Narendra Modi government relaxes restrictions, with the country reporting 14,831 cases overnight, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 440,215.
Other countries, including Iraq, Colombia and South Africa, are seeing an exponential rise in confirmed cases.
READ MORE: Sharp spike makes White House nervous
Anne Barrowclough 5.50am: US ‘doing more testing, not less’
The White House’s top infectious-disease expert has said he and colleagues were planning on increasing the rate of testing for coronavirus, despite Donald Trump telling a campaign rally he had asked for testing to slow down.
Dr Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that health officials haven’t “ever been told to slow down on testing”.
Mr. Trump told supporters in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday that he had asked the government to slow testing because higher numbers looked bad. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday claimed Mr Trump was joking and had not directed officials to slow the rate of testing.
Asked about slower rates, Dr. Fauci told the committee: “It’s the opposite. We’re going to be doing more testing, not less.”
Dr Fauci warned over rising rates, saying several states were experiencing “a disturbing surge of infections.” The coming two weeks, he said, will be “critical to our ability to address those surgings” in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona.
READ MORE: No wonder Trump looks haunted
John Ferguson 5.25am: Melbourne faces prospect of second hard lockdown
Melbourne is dangerously close to a second hard lockdown as the virus spreads across more than 20 per cent of the city’s population, writes John Ferguson in The Australian today.
“Behind the scenes, the government is spooked by the challenges, modelling worst case scenarios that are ugly,” he says.
“This is a national problem, not a Victoria-only problem. The double digit growth in infections is striking in complex communities, with ethnic groups attributing most of the new cases to the relaxation of the restrictions that have occurred in recent weeks.
“Health experts are widely acknowledging that there is less than a month for the Victorian government to get on top of the virus’s spread, largely in Melbourne’s outer suburbs to the northwest and to the southeast.”
Read the full story here.
Jacquelin Magnay 5.10am: Johnson eases COVID-19 restrictions across UK
Boris Johnson has “unlocked” Britain, reopening of pubs and restaurants and reducing social distancing restrictions from two metres to “one metre-plus”.
After 15 weeks of coronavirus lockdown, the British prime minister announced the reopening of major parts of the economy from July 4.
Mr Johnson said it had been an incredibly tough time: “After a long period asking you to follow strict and complex rules we can make life easier to see more of friends and family, businesses back on feet and people back into jobs.”
But he warned he would reverse the rules at a local or national level “if it runs out of control”.
Today PM @BorisJohnson has announced that pubs, restaurants and hairdressers can reopen if they are COVID-19 Secure from 4 July in England.
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) June 23, 2020
See more here â¬‡ï¸ pic.twitter.com/kruDivgesq
Read the full story here.
Jared Lynch 5am: Work from home ‘here to stay’: Latitude’s Fahour
Latitude Financial chief executive Ahmed Fahour is betting on the coronavirus pandemic lasting another two years and is restructuring the non-bank lender to adjust to homes becoming the principal place of work.
The realignment comes amid what Mr Fahour says is a significant shift in the world economy as the office workers leave CBDs to work from home, which he will become the new normal.
“We still don’t have a vaccine for SARS and that was 17 years ago. So we are going to have to learn to live with this for a long time to come,” Mr Fahour told The Australian.
“The way we work will include the home. It’s a serious structural shift in the world economy.
“Even ourselves here at Latitude, I’m at the Docklands office and we are using 3 per cent of our space here. We have got 97 per cent all working from home. And we don’t expect that to come back at all over winter.”
Read the full story here.
Courtney Walsh 4.45am: Djokovic apologises over positive COVID-19 tests
Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena have tested positive for coronavirus as the calamitous fallout from an exhibition tour he arranged in Europe worsened.
The eight-time Australian Open champion confirmed he had contracted the virus while defending the now infamous tour played in Serbia and Croatia that has resulted in several positive tests.
— Novak Djokovic (@DjokerNole) June 23, 2020
Grigor Dimitrov and Borna Coric tested positive on Monday, so too Viktor Troicki and his wife, along with other staff who were present on the opening weekend in Belgrade.
Australian Nick Kyrgios was among several tour participants who described the scenes as boneheaded given various tennis authorities are aiming to restart the circuit in August.
As a result, the world No 1’s role as the ATP Players Council president has been called into question by players including American duo Noah Rubin and Mitchell Krueger.
Prayers up to all the players that have contracted Covid - 19. Don’t @ me for anything I’ve done that has been ‘irresponsible’ or classified as ‘stupidity’ - this takes the cake. https://t.co/lVligELgID
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 23, 2020
Read the full story here.
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