Coronavirus Australia live news: Victoria records 303 cases, four deaths; Hope as Vic numbers ‘start to stabilise’
Melburnians were out in droves in sunny weather as authorities saw reason to hope the virus lockdown is working.
- Firefighters go into battle for Andrews
- South Korea tightens curbs in capital
- NZ investigates link to Melbourne exports
- Nine new cases in NSW
- Victoria records for deaths, 303 new cases
- Melbourne’s mystery case hotspot revealed
- New rapid response teams for aged-care
Welcome to Saturday’s live coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. Victoria has recorded 303 cases of coronavirus and four deaths in 24 hours. Meanwhile, new data reveals inner Melbourne local government areas with average coronavirus caseloads have the highest percentages of mystery cases in the state.
Herald Sun 11.30pm: City takes a break as third lockdown week nears
Melburnians left home in droves on Saturday to take advantage of sunny weather despite stage-four coronavirus restrictions across the city after almost two weeks of a scheduled six weeks of lockdown.
The Premier, meanwhile, wondered aloud if rain better suited the situation. “It’s not over,’’ Dan Andrews said. “The signs are encouraging, but it’s not over.”
Cyclists, runners and walkers were a common sight on footpaths and bike tracks across Melbourne.
While most wore mandatory masks, some runners and riders were spotted with uncovered faces, despite the inability to social distance.
Many exercised shoulder-to-shoulder, mixing with other pairs on the footpath in the process.
In the eastern suburb of Brighton, sunbathers could be seen sitting on the sand at the beach, despite strict rules on exercise.
Victorians also flocked to local shopping strips and supermarkets, taking time to socialise in the warm weather — being a Melbourne winter, in the mid-teens — before forecast showers return for the next week.
Victoria had recorded 303 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, according to new figures on Saturday. Another four people have died from the virus, the state Department of Health and Human Services said on Saturday morning.
Two of the latest deaths are connected to aged-care outbreaks.
A coronavirus outbreak has been reported at a supported residential service in suburban Albert Park.
FULL STORY: Beleaguered city’s citizens venture outdoors
Agencies 6.35pm: South Korea tightens curbs in capital to control surge
South Korea tightened coronavirus measures on Saturday in Seoul and its surrounding areas as the country reported the highest number of new daily infections in more than five months.
The stricter social-distancing guidelines include restrictions on gatherings and activities including professional sports, which will be played behind closed doors in the capital area again.
The move came as South Korea reported 166 new cases on Saturday, the highest daily figure since early March, bringing the country’s total infections to 15,039 with 305 deaths.
South Korea stood at a “critical juncture” in the battle to control the coronavirus surge, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said at a government response meeting.
“Our top priority is to contain the spread of the virus in the greater Seoul area.”
A majority of the new cases came from the greater Seoul region — home to half of the country’s 51 million people — raising fears about a major spike with a three-day weekend starting in South Korea from Saturday.
Despite the outbreak and calls to avoid large gatherings, thousands of right-wing protesters rallied against President Moon Jae-in’s centre-left government in the heart of Seoul on Saturday. About 20,000 participated, according to the Yonhap news agency.
READ ALSO: ABF escapes blame for cruise fiasco
Christine Kellett 6pm: Premier applauds Covid survivor’s honesty
A Melbourne woman has been lauded for her honesty after revealing the shocking repercussions of her mother’s decision to continue going to work despite confirmed cases of coronavirus.
Tina Dinh, 26, spent time in intensive care and her father is still fighting for his life a month after Ms Dinh begged her mother not to go to work at Bertocchi Smallgoods, where colleagues had tested positive. Ms Dinh’s mother felt she had not choice because she was casually employed, the Herald Sun reports. The entire family quickly fell ill.
“This isn’t normal sickness. You suddenly lose your sense of smell, you lose your sense of taste and you get this constant 24/7 headache,” Ms Dinh told the Herald Sun.
“I can’t even describe it. It is the most terrifying feeling because you don’t understand why.
“You are trying to do everything you can with your mouth and your nose, you are trying to gasp in the air, but nothing is going in. It is like suffocating.”
At a press conference today, Premier Daniel Andrews thanked the Dinh family for sharing their story and warning other Victorians of the consequences of working while sick.
“It is not often that I would single out one family but on behalf of all Victorians can I thank the Dinh family for their honesty,” Mr Andrews said.
“It is a very moving piece today to tell their story, and if that does not motivate all of us to do the right thing I don’t know what would. That family has been through a lot and
one of their number is still in intensive care and we wish them well.
“I think there is a broader point here, insecure work is toxic. There is nothing good about insecure work, and when this is done, when this virus has been beaten, we will need to commit ourselves to do something really significant about it.”
Read Tina Dinh’s story here.
Remy Varga 5.45pm: Firefighters go into battle for Daniel Andrews
Victoria’s firefighters union is enlisting thousands of members to lobby the community to support the Andrews Labor government.
The militant union has launched its campaign backing the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic amid increased scrutiny over the failures of hotel quarantine, believed responsible for the state’s deadly second wave.
The powerful United Firefighters Union sent letter templates authorised by the union’s firebrand secretary, Peter Marshall, to its members this week.
Comparing the decisions of well paid government frontbenchers to firefighters battling to save their communities from incineration, the letter pledges to reject reporting of the government’s handling of the pandemic.
Read the full story here.
Ellen Ransley 5.35pm: How Covid has changed Australia’s dating scene
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a two-fold impact on Australians romantic relationships, prompting a rise in deeper, more emotional connections as well creating more opportunity for “ghosting”, with potentially harmful impacts.
Dating and relationships expert Samantha Jayne, who has worked in the field for over 15 years, said the global pandemic had resulted in a host of interesting patterns, revealing the way single Aussies have found, or struggled to find, love in lockdown.
With a science and psychology background, Ms Jayne works with men and women to ensure they have the tools to form meaningful relationships.
Among Australian millennials, she said the COVID-19 pandemic has actually changed the way dating apps are used. Lockdowns and social distancing measures has all but put hook up culture to bed, paving the way for more meaningful emotional connections to form.
Read the full story here.
Louise Goldsbury 5.15pm: Can the cruise industry recover? It’s trying
After a dramatic shutdown across the globe in March, cruising is slowly resuming in Europe. A tentative revival started as soon as June, when river cruise lines tested the waters, before a few ocean ships dipped back in, but with mixed results.
The first river vessel to return was Nicko Cruises’ NickoVision, with itineraries along the Rhine and Danube in Germany. Sailing at reduced capacity to enable social distancing — but also because only 40 people booked the 200-passenger ship — it set the trend for single-country cruises for locals only. Among other new procedures were pre-boarding “infection protection” questionnaires (including consent to a SARS-CoV-2 antibodies test), daily temperature checks, no self-service buffet, no access to the pool, spa or gym, and compulsory mask-wearing in corridors and on tour buses.
Fewer than a dozen small ocean-going ships have returned to the seas, with additional preventative measures to ensure health and hygiene. In most cases, crew are required to undergo a period of isolation and COVID-19 testing, capacity has been halved, passenger numbers limited in public venues, and dining times staggered, with tables spaced far apart. Read the full story here.
The Times 4.30pm: UK travellers scramble to avoid quarantine rules
British holidaymakers returning from France will have to go into quarantine from tomorrow after a surge in the number of coronavirus cases across the Channel.
Boris Johnson and senior cabinet ministers signed off the restrictions after the number of new French coronavirus cases reached a post- lockdown record.
Holidaymakers will be given until 4am tomorrow to return before the restrictions are implemented, prompting a scramble to book trains, ferries and flights home.
Travel analysts said that an estimated half a million Britons were on holiday in France. A further 450,000 have booked to go out this month.
The scale of demand from those seeking to travel back is likely to mean that many people will be left with no choice but to stay on their holidays and go into quarantine when they return. It means that children in families who continue their breaks could miss the first week of the school term.
READ MORE: Britain ‘close to herd immunity’
Christine Kellett 4pm: Victoria’s R rate has dropped below one, says CHO
As Victoria’s Premier and Chief Health Officer suggest the state may be past the peak of its second wave, attention has turned to the state’s virus reproduction number.
Professor Brett Sutton has told a press conference the state’s effective R rate — or the average number of people one Covid-positive person infects — has fallen.
“Our effective reproduction number — the average number of people that one person infects, is almost certainly below one now,” he said.
“It can get to 0.4, 0.5, if everyone can do the right thing.
“That is where it was probably headed to in April when we were in another very substantial lockdown and we saw numbers drop very dramatically.
“If we can get to an effective reproduction number at a similar level we should see a similar reduction over time so that is encouraging.”
When the virus was first discovered in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019, the R rate was above two.
Meanwhile, Premier Andrews would not be drawn on whether the state was on track to lift stage four restrictions within the six-week deadline, but said Victorians had reason to hope the situation was improving.
Victoria recorded 303 new cases of coronavirus and four deaths overnight, and Professor Sutton said infection numbers appeared to be stabilising.
READ MORE: Gerard Henderson — Livelihoods ruined in misplaced response
Courtney Walsh 3.30pm AFL boss confirms Grand Final bidding war
The AFL released its next phase of the fixture on Friday as league chief executive Gillon McLachlan confirmed an effective bidding war between states for the 2020 grand final.
States are preparing packages worth millions of dollars to entice the AFL to host the grand final on either October 17 or 24.
There are logistics for the AFL to consider, with quarantine regulations a significant factor, as state governments jostle for an opportunity to host a jewel of Australian sport.
“Obviously there’s arguments for all of them,” McLachlan said.
“Whether it is the … incredible stadium that Perth (has), or what Queensland’s partnership is, or the size of (Sydney’s Olympic Stadium) or the history of South Australia.”
Read the full story here.
Ellen Ransley 3pm: Queensland records two-week virus streak
Queensland has recorded its 14th consecutive day without any COVID-19 community transmission, as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed there had been no new cases in the 24 hours to Saturday.
It comes after two sailors on board a cargo ship off Townsville tested positive for the virus on Friday, sparking fears the virus could ripple through the ship.
However, all remaining crew have tested negative.
Ms Palaszczuk said the infected pair were now in hospital, where they were being treated and quarantined.
“I want to reassure Queenslanders that both Maritime Safety and Queensland Health are working collaboratively to make sure the ship is being monitored and two people have been removed directly to hospital,” she said.
There were more than 5600 coronavirus tests conducted in the 24 hours to Saturday.
Queensland has just nine active cases.
READ MORE: Queensland cases linked to sailors
Shae McDonald 2.30pm: Victorians will still get Grand Final holiday
Victorians will still get a public holiday on the Friday before the AFL Grand Final even if it is not played in Melbourne.
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed the day off after he was asked the question at his daily COVID-19 press conference on Saturday.
“I reckon Victorians may well have earnt that,” he said.
“This has been a really difficult year and what October looks like none of us can say, but I am pretty certain that if we don’t see this through then it will be worse in October.”
Mr Andrews said while he was hopeful the coronavirus second wave sweeping the state was starting to improve, he and his government would honour the public holiday they introduced no matter where the grand final is held.
“If some in the business community want to have a crack at me today, if that makes them feel better then fine,” he said.
“But it is about working to live, not living to work.
“It is a special day and we should try as best we can in this year of challenges to make it the most special day possible.”
Queensland, South Australia or Western Australia could host the AFL Grand Final, if it’s not held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
READ MORE: SOS call amid injury crisis
Lane Sainty 2.05pm: New NSW virus cases linked to RSL
There have been nine new cases of COVID-19 in NSW, including two connected to an outbreak at Smithfield RSL that has no known source.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Jeremy McAnulty confirmed one of the new cases was a staff member at Chopstix Asian Cuisine, which is located inside the club.
Dr McAnulty said a second worker had also tested positive for the virus, but it was thought to be a secondary infection from their colleague.
The other cases all have known sources: a Tangara School for Girls student, one person who attended the Mounties Club at Mount Pritchard and five close contacts of confirmed cases.
People who dined at Chopstix Asian Cuisine restaurant between July 31 and August 9 must monitor for symptoms and immediately get tested and self-isolate if any present.
One of the most recent people who tested positive for coronavirus also dined at the Rick Stein at Bannisters restaurant at Mollymook on the NSW south coast.
People who were there on August 1 between 8pm and 10.30pm for at least one hour must get tested right away and self isolate until midnight on Saturday.
Dr McAnulty said maintaining a high level of testing was “vital” as the virus continued to circulate throughout the state.
Over the 24-hour period to Friday night in which the nine cases were detected, 27,389 tests were conducted.
There are 129 people being treated for the virus in hospital, seven are in intensive care and five of those are on ventilators.
The state’s death toll remains at 53.
READ MORE: Ruby Princess fiasco ‘inexcusable’
Christine Kellett 1.40pm: NZ authorities investigating possible Melbourne link
Health authorities in New Zealand are investigating whether the country’s first coronavirus outbreak in more than 100 days came from chilled products shipped from a Melbourne coldstore, local media reports.
An Americold storage facility in Mt Wellington, Auckland, was shut down this week when a worker, as well as three of his family members, tested positive.
Stuff.co.nz reports there have also been two confirmed COVID-19 cases at Americold’s Melbourne facility in the past fortnight, and health authorities are now investigating whether the virus could have spread via chilled products shipped between the two.
Americold’s Mt Wellington outbreak has now risen to three, according to local reports.
New Zealand’s director general of heal said genomic testing was now being done in Australia to see whether there was a link between the outbreaks at both Americold facilities.
“It’s part of the overall puzzle, and we’re leaving no stone unturned,” Mr Bloomfield said during a press conference on Saturday.
After claiming it had eliminated coronavirus through strict stage-four lockdowns, New Zealand is now dealing with an outbreak that has blown out to 56 active cases in a week.
READ MORE: How did coronavirus surface in New Zealand?
Will Pavia 12.45pm: Second surge drives cases in US state to 600,000
California is close to recording 600,000 cases of coronavirus as it grapples with a second surge blamed on an overly hasty reopening of its economy.
The state was one of the first to shut shops, restaurants and schools, seemingly saving it from the far bigger outbreak in New York in the early months of the pandemic.
However, its reopening in May is being blamed for causing a rise in the number of infections that has outstripped every other state. The death toll stands at nearly 11,000.
READ MORE: South still stands with Trump
Christine Kellett 12.15pm: New Zealand outbreak continues to grow
New Zealand has recorded seven new cases of coronavirus, as the country deals with a fresh outbreak of infections.
Six of the new cases have been linked to the Auckland cluster, and the seventh is from an as-yet unknown source, the country’s director general of health Ashley Bloomfield has revealed.
After previously claiming to have eliminated the virus, there are now 56 active cases in New Zealand, 37 of them from the community and 19 imported from outside.
The government is working with officials from Japan and Belgium over two Covid-positive people who had been in New Zealand, The NZ Herald reports.
Officials are concerned over a “disappointing and dangerous” rise in online abuse directed at those who have tested positive in the country, saying it was hampering efforts to get symptomatic people to come forward.
READ MORE: NZ lockdown extended as cases spiral
Christine Kellett 12pm: Premier takes worrying aged care reports to PM
Daniel Andrews says he has raised with Prime Minister Scott Morrison worrying reports of people unable to get in contact with loved ones in aged care in Victoria.
The Premier, who has clearly stated the regulation of aged care rests with the commonwealth, said nurses sent in to aged care homes were under extreme pressure at the moment, and having to juggle critical clinical work without the support of clerical staff, who had been furloughed.
“These are hospital nurses who normally would be on a medical surgical ward doing all sorts of other things, nothing to do with aged care,” the Premier has told a press conference.
“They then go into places of total crisis … But they are not just doing clinical care they are for instance taking iPads to people’s bedside so they can Zoom to their loved ones. They are running phones to people. That is not their job but they are doing it because that is the people they are. So we are doing our very best — us and the feds.
“It is a very challenging environment anything I can do to speak to the commonwealth about getting families information and clarity, I will follow it up personally.”
The Premier labelled reports of the standard of care at at least one Victorian facility — where a sick resident was allegedly left with insects crawling into their bandages — as distressing and shameful.
“I have not seen the footage but I have been briefed on it, that is just shameful and would be very distressing for everybody concerned. I want to be careful not to be critical of any provider but I think, I think that footage relates to a particular facility which we have now taken over, so I would hope, I would hope that any of those issues would be dealt with quickly.”
READ MORE: Home alone and in aged care hell
Christine Kellett 11.25am: Second wave stabilising in Victoria, says CHO
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer says coronavirus infections in the state are beginning to stabilise.
A cautiously optimistic Professor Brett Sutton said the impact of tough stage four restrictions of the past fortnight was becoming clear.
“Certainly we are seeing some stabilisation in numbers overall,” he said.
“The number of active cases now in Victoria seems to have stabilised. The number of new cases, as I’ve said, is trending down.
“As we always reinforce, there is no room for complacency, but I do think it’s important that people understand that the actions they have taken — especially in recent weeks — are showing up in our numbers now and so people should have hope and confidence that the things that we know work are now manifesting in our daily counts.”
Professor Sutton said new community outbreaks had dropped to single figures.
“At one point in time there were 20 or 30 new outbreaks every day. We are at four or five now each day, which is another positive sign. The number of active cases in aged care is beginning to stabilise. The number of active cases among healthcare workers is stabilising.
“We are seeing the benefits of what everyone is doing in the community in wearing masks and getting tested and isolating.”
READ MORE: Katrina Grace Kelly — Victorians are not chumps, we’re just surviving
Christine Kellett 1 1.20am: Premier congratulates Victorians as deaths drop to four
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has congratulated Victorians for following strict stage four lockdown rules, as the state records four deaths in 24 hours.
The Premier, who is providing an update on Victoria’s 303 new cases, says of the 41 people currently in intensive care in the state, 28 have been put on ventilators.
Half of the four new deaths overnight are connected to aged care outbreaks.
“Those four individuals include one female in her 80s, two males in their 80s and one female in her 90s,” Mr Andrews said.
The death toll linked to aged care in Victoria is now 184.
“Our health workers are getting this virus and one of the ways that we can have more healthcare workers healthy and less getting this virus is to make sure that we all follow the rules. And I’m very, very proud and they want to congratulate all those Victorians.
I think a growing number of Victorians doing the right thing.”
There are 7875 active cases across state and 293 people have died.
READ MORE: Peter van Onselen — Blame game borders on futile
Christine Kellett 11.05am: Nine new cases diagnosed in NSW overnight
NSW has recorded nine new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours to Saturday.
9 new cases of #COVID19 have been diagnosed in NSW between 8pm on 13 August and 8pm on 14 August.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) August 15, 2020
For the latest list of COVID-19 locations, visit: https://t.co/pqkRdfh3cR pic.twitter.com/ZwTwRBPbKI
READ MORE: Toddler the face of closed-border harm
David Murray 11am: ‘My life is finished,’ says Covid survivor
“I’m still angry. And I think I’ll be angry for a long time.”
Graeme Lake took his wife Karla on the Ruby Princess for her 75th birthday. Within 24 hours of disembarking in Sydney, Mrs Lake was in a Queensland hospital struggling to breathe with COVID-19.
Mr Lake fell ill days later and joined her in isolation in the same room. When she died on the bed beside him, life as he knew it ended.
“I’ve got no one to sit down to talk to. I can’t make plans. I’ve got no one to cook for so I don’t eat properly. I don’t go places,” he said from his retirement village north of Brisbane on Friday.
“My life’s finished, I’m just stuck here now. And there’s a lot of families out there in the same predicament as me.”
Mr Lake, 72, spoke to the Ruby Princess inquiry via video link for 45 minutes. The Vietnam veteran had experienced first-hand the ineptitude of NSW Health.
Read the full story here.
James Kirby 10.23am: Can iron ore save us again?
The iron ore industry led Australia out of the GFC and there is every chance it might do it again as we crawl from the COVID crisis.
As if they’ve just had a collective light bulb moment, global brokers are now upgrading iron ore forecasts and it is shaping as a win for Australian stocks, the federal budget and even regional property markets.
Until very recently the consensus has been that iron ore is overpriced. Hovering close to $100 a tonne, analysts suggest it has been buoyed by fleeting factors such as production problems in Brazil.
In Canberra, the federal government assumes the price in the future will be $55 a tonne. Local investment funds say it’s not quite that bad, but it should be closer to $86 a tonne.
Read the full story here.
John Ferguson 9.40am: Labor’s heartland takes coronavirus hit
The coronavirus has hit Anthony Albanese’s people hardest.
In nine electorates across mainly Melbourne’s outer north and west, Labor voters have fallen in their thousands. In just six local government areas that take in Labor heartland territory, well over 7000 people have contracted the virus.
Now the Labor and Liberal parties are battling to find a balance between fighting the disease and fighting the politics of the virus.
The longer term question for the Liberal Party nationally is whether it can finally smash Labor’s domination in Melbourne’s outer north, northwest and west, using the economic fallout from the pandemic as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a southern version of western Sydney.
Read the full story here.
Christine Kellett 9.05am: Victoria records 303 cases, four deaths
Coronavirus deaths in Victoria have dropped to just four in the past 24 hours to Saturday, with 303 new cases recorded.
That compares to 14 deaths and 372 cases in the 24 hours to Friday.
Melbourne is in it’s second week of stage four lockdowns. Modelling obtained by the Herald Sun shows the measures appear to be working, and the state is on track for an easing of restrictions by the government’s own six-week deadline.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to announce the figures later today.
– with NCA NewWire
More to come …
Ben Wilmott 9am: Rents to fall up to 40 per cent in city towers
Investment banks believe office rents could fall up to 40 per cent in Sydney and Melbourne amid the COVID-19 exodus, but developers are working on a solution.
The economic impact on companies is intense, but JLL director Sonya Alexander is convinced that in the longer-term corporate Australia will take a more complex approach to using space — not just in the centre but in locations beyond CBDs. She says companies will partner with landlords, seeking innovative ways to keep up with customers and attract talent, as well as investing in emerging technologies.
“Not every organisation will respond in the same way and nor should they,” she says. “The level of readiness to take up agile ways of working has been fast-tracked (but) many organisations will require detailed reviews of their worker profiles and office needs to finalise future strategy.”
Alexander’s cautious optimism is shared by other developers and property managers but the major investment houses are far more bearish about what will happen to city real estate.
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 7.56am: State’s private guards decision made early
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has confirmed the decision to engage private security guards in his state’s bungled hotel quarantine program had already been made ahead of what was described by one of his government’s most senior public servants this week as a “very pivotal meeting”.
Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions Secretary Simon Phemister told the Victorian Parliamentary Accounts and Estimates Committee’s COVID-19 inquiry on Wednesday that the decision to use the guards was made at the meeting, which began at 4.30pm on March 27.
However, The Australian revealed on Friday that Mr Andrews had mentioned the use of “private security” to “monitor compliance” at the 3pm press conference at which he announced the hotel quarantine scheme, earlier that same day.
The 4:30pm meeting was attended by multiple agencies, including two DJPR staff members, but The Weekend Australian understands no Andrews government ministers nor their staff were present.
Asked on Friday whether the decision to engage security guards had been made prior to the meeting, Mr Andrews said: “Well I certainly wouldn’t have talked about something that hadn’t happened or wasn’t talked about.”
Read the full story here.
Richard Gluyas 7.30am: Wealthy suburbs hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic
The coronavirus is inflicting disproportionate financial pain on the nation’s wealthier suburbs, and the psychological toll on Melbourne from its strict stage four lockdown currently exceeds the financial cost, National Australia Bank chief executive Ross McEwan says.
The impact of COVID-19 was very different to other crises he had experienced, the NAB chief said. For example, borrowers with home loans of more than $1m accounted for 21 per cent of the bank’s deferred loans but only 14 per cent of the total book.
Also, NAB’s business and private banking division, which has wealthier clients, had 38 per cent of home-loan deferrals compared to 28 per cent of the book.
The NAB quarterly result was released as Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe told the House economics committee that the Victorian outbreak was likely to shrink national GDP in the September quarter.
Read the full story here.
Nicola Berkovic 7am: Border Force escapes blame for cruise ship fiasco
The Australian Border Force and its officers have been cleared of any responsibility for the Ruby Princess debacle that led to sick passengers leaving the cruise ship in Sydney and spreading COVID-19 onshore.
The incident on March 19, linked to more than 20 deaths in Australia and 700 infections, sparked a blame game between the state and federal governments, with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian telling colleagues at the time that ABF officials had erroneously advised NSW Health that the ship was low-risk.
However, the special commission of inquiry led by Bret Walker SC found that Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s department did not have any role in the “Ruby Princess mishap”.
Read the full story here.
Steve Waterson 6.15am: Why the focus on daily coronavirus case numbers?
Australians have handed control of their lives “to a clown car packed with idiots who have wasted billions trying to defeat this virus,” writes Steve Waterson for Inquirer in The Australian today.
“The ultimate showcase of political innumeracy is the quasi-religious ritual of The Reading of the Cases. Witnessed and recorded by the faithful in the media (who love to have their work handed to them on a plate), it has become a farce within this bigger farce,” Waterson says.
“Cases, as a moment’s reflection reveals, do not equal sickness, much less hospitalisations. Until we are entrusted with the knowledge of how many are the results of tests on people who show no symptoms, they serve only to strike terror into the innumerate.
“Indeed, why do we need to hear these figures at all? Their primary purpose seems to be to post-rationalise our leaders’ devastating, simple-minded lockdowns and border closures, and to panic people into sporting their masks of obedience should they be sufficiently reckless as to leave their homes.”
#Covid19VicData for 14 August 2020.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 13, 2020
372 new cases of #coronavirus (#COVID19) detected in Victoria in the last 24 hours. We are sad to report that there have been 14 deaths.
More detail will be provided this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/orkOby2h3i
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 5.20am: Melbourne’s coronavirus mystery case hotspot revealed
Inner Melbourne local government areas with average coronavirus caseloads have the highest percentages of mystery cases in Victoria.
There have now been 3119 cases in Victoria for which contact tracers have been unable to identify a source, working out to about one in five of the 16,234 cases since the pandemic began. This does not include 1818 cases that remained under investigation on Friday.
The Victorian local government area with the highest percentage of mystery cases is the City of Yarra, immediately east and northeast of the CBD, taking in the suburbs of Richmond and Fitzroy. Of 379 cases, 129, or 34 per cent, have not been linked to another known case.
In the City of Melbourne, 259 of 786 cases, or 33 per cent, were mysteries, while in Moonee Valley, in the inner northwest, 213 of 668 cases, or 32 per cent, had an unknown source.
Other LGAs with unknown source rates of 20 to 25 per cent were Boroondara, in the inner east, Maribyrnong in the inner west, Glen Eira in the east, Port Phillip in the south, Nillumbik in the northeast, Hume in the north, Darebin in the northeast, Knox in the east, Cardinia in the southeast, and Banyule in the northeast.
READ MORE: Bernard Salt — Postcodes point to COVID-19 pain
Stephen Lunn 5.15am: Aged-care rapid response teams to be created
National cabinet will agree to the urgent creation of aged-care rapid response centres in all states and territories in a bid to get ahead of potential COVID-19 outbreaks in nursing homes around the nation.
The new co-ordination bodies will be similar to the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre, which brings together federal and state emergency management, the Australian Defence Force, clinical support, infection control specialists and medical experts, including geriatricians and specialist aged-care nurses.
They hope to ensure nursing homes are adequately resourced to prevent outbreaks and, if a positive case is found, to quickly co-ordinate the deployment of resources to stop further infection, including a surge workforce to cover staff required to isolate.
Read the full story, by Stephen Lunn and Olivia Caisley, here.
Yoni Bashan 5am: Litany of failures over Ruby Princess debacle
Health officials committed a litany of “inexplicable and inexcusable” failures before the arrival of the Ruby Princess cruise ship in Sydney Harbour, ultimately leading to a public health emergency that could have been avoided.
A NSW Special Commission of Inquiry into the cruise ship fiasco has concluded that members of the NSW Health expert panel were largely to blame for the deadly consequence of allowing 2647 passengers to disembark from the vessel and disperse into the community without adequate checks for COVID-19.
In a raft of blunt and sometimes blistering conclusions, commissioner Bret Walker SC found the expert panel did not thoroughly analyse an acute respiratory disease log provided by the ship and did not apply the correct “suspect case” definition to unwell patients arriving at the ship’s medical centre.
Read the full story here.
Smartphone ban brings calm to classrooms
Smartphone and vaping bans in schools have been hailed for making students ‘better behaved’ and classrooms calmer.
NDIS to notch up $600m in savings
More than $600m has been shaved off the projected budget forecast for NDIS in the first seven months of the financial year despite almost 20,000 new participants joining the scheme in the past quarter alone.