Coronavirus Australia live news: PM unveils map to Covid-normal Christmas
A police horse has been hit and officers punched after an anti-lockdown protest turned violent in Melbourne; PM unveils roadmap to Covid-normal Christmas.
- Protest descends into chaos in Melbourne
- PM unveils map to Covid-normal Christmas
- ‘Significant’ reopening plan for Victoria
- Qld border call to be made in days
- States brawl over Covid costs
- Victoria has just one new case
- Push for open borders by Christmas
Welcome to rolling coverage of the continuing coronavirus pandemic. A police horse has been hit and officers punched after an anti-lockdown protest turned violent in Melbourne . National cabinet has plotted a path to a Christmas with domestic borders open, no restrictions on gatherings, and accommodation venues, retail stores and restaurants and cafes open. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews will on Sunday reveal ‘significant’ reopening plans for Victoria. Qld, NSW and WA are feuding over millions in Covid costs. In Melbourne, hundreds of citizens have been sent into isolation after mixed messages to a quarantining family saw a Grade 5 student attend school in the city’s north for two days before testing positive for coronavirus.
Jared Lynch, Rosie Lewis 7.05pm: AusPost execs’ Cartier watches cost $19,950
The Cartier watches gifted to four senior Australia Post employees cost $19,950 – nearly double the $12,000 price tag suggested by stood aside chief executive Christine Holgate – as the commonwealth investigates her “excessive” credit card use.
While Ms Holgate told a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday the watches were bought in October 2018 for $3000 each, The Weekend Australian understands the Morrison government was informed they were between $3800 and $7500 per item.
Australia Post set the record straight on Friday night, with chairman Lucio Di Bartolomeo saying the board had found it was not asked to approve or note the purchase of the Cartier watches and there was no subsequent reference to the gifts.
The purchase occurred in November 2018, not October.
“(I) wish, as a matter of urgency, to clarify that the purchase was of four items costing $7000, $4750, $4400 and $3800 totalling $19,950 (including GST), and was made in November 2018,” Mr Di Bartolomeo said.
“Australia Post will continue to participate transparently in budget estimates 2020-21 processes, including to review the proof Hansard transcript of evidence when it is made available and to respond to questions on notice, and will – as reflected in my public statement yesterday – also fully co-operate with the recently announced investigation to be conducted by shareholder departments.”
Read the full story here.
Tessa Akerman 4.55pm: ‘Free Victoria’: Lockdown protesters swarm Melbourne
Hundreds of anti-lockdown protesters swarmed Melbourne’s CBD on Friday calling for Premier Daniel Andrews to be sacked and for a “free Victoria”.
Scuffles broke out between the protesters and police with reports one man struck a police horse with a wooden pole.
Protesters carried signs calling COVID-19 a “scam” and one woman told the crowd “There is no such thing as COVID-19” and “They are collecting our DNA”.
“This is a control tactic – the whole thing is a scam,” the woman said before being led away by police.
One man with a microphone said “Daniel Andrews is unworthy to lead our state.”
The protest began at the Shrine of Remembrance before moving to Parliament House and South Melbourne.
The Premier slammed protesters earlier in the day and said protesting was still illegal despite the easing of restrictions.
“Are protests still illegal under the CHO directions? Absolutely they are,” he said.
“Protests are not safe, protests are selfish.
“Protests are potentially very dangerous to the strategy we have in place.
“We want to get the place open and make announcements on Sunday – if people are out protesting, that does not help.”
Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius said on Thursday protesting was no longer unlawful if coronavirus restrictions were followed.
“(Protesting) is a human right and we’re now operating in a context where the chief health officer directions do allow people to leave home for recreation and for socialising, and people can choose if they want to, while they’re doing that, to also voice protest,” he said.
In a press release, the protest organiser – who goes by “Guardian Angel” – said Mr Andrews was the reason for Victoria’s second wave because of the “bitter failure” of hotel quarantine and “under-resourced” contact tracing systems.
‘We are extremely concerned that if Daniel Andrews once again fails to contain future outbreaks, he will once again reinstate blanket lockdowns that do more damage than good,” the statement said.
“Victoria is battered and bruised, we can’t take any further abuse from our so-called premier.
“More than 100 days of lockdown could have been entirely avoided were it not for this man.” — with NewsWire
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Olivia Caisley 3.55pm: Quarantine review recommends exemptions for some
Travellers from countries with low-COVID numbers should be exempted from mandatory quarantine arrangements and the government should rollout a national facility for emergency situations, an inquiry into Australia’s scheme for returned travellers has said.
A review into the nation’s hotel quarantine program by former health department boss Jane Halton found the system “difficult to endure” for vulnerable people and one that requires a highly specialised workforce including clinical, welfare and security services.
Ms Halton handed down six recommendations in the report released on Friday, which include each of the state and territory quarantine systems being continuously monitored and improved.
The commonwealth should also consider a national facility for quarantine to be used for emergency situations, the report said.
It recommends that information on the quarantine system be more easily accessible for returned travellers so they can be better “psychologically prepared” for the experience.
Ms Halton said returned travellers should have access to timely review and appeals mechanisms and that clinical and mental health support be better integrated within the system so not to rely on guests raising issues themselves.
Victoria was the only state or territory excluded from the review due to a second wave sparked by failures in its hotel quarantine program.
The state is now subject to a separate hotel quarantine inquiry.
“National Cabinet should consider exempting low risk cohorts, such as travellers from New Zealand, from mandatory quarantine,” it said.
As at 28 August 2020, 130,000 travellers had undertaken hotel quarantine comprising approximately 96,000 international and 34,000 domestic travellers.
“Despite the significant number of travellers quarantined in Australia since March, the Hotel Quarantine System has low positivity rates,” the report said.
Since implementation of mandatory hotel quarantine, 851 travellers have been diagnosed with COVID-19 during their quarantine period; a positivity rate of 0.66 per cent.
READ MORE: Lockdown inflicts backlog on sick kids
Sarah Elks 3.40pm: Palaszczuk set to lift NSW border ban
Queensland’s borders to NSW could still open on November 1, despite recent cases of community transmission.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, campaigning at a factory in the Brisbane suburb of Murarrie (Labor, Bulimba), said Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young had not delivered health advice on the reopening yet.
“As the Deputy Premier said this morning, those decisions will be made at the end of the month, and we are looking at the community transmission,” she said.
“But they have been able to get on top of a lot of those issues, we’re looking forward to seeing that health advice.”
Asked whether NSW had met the 28 days of no community transmission landmark, Ms Palaszczuk said Dr Young took “into consideration a whole range of issues”.
READ the full story here.
Rosie Lewis 2.50pm: PM rolls out road map to Covid-normal Christmas
National cabinet has committed to a new “COVID-normal” road map by Christmas, in which domestic borders will be removed, there will be no restrictions on gatherings and all accommodation venues, retail stores and restaurants and cafes will be open subject to social distancing rules.
The plan would see Australians avoid public transport in peak hour, universities and technical colleges increasing their face-to-face teaching where possible and entertainment events of more than 500 people requiring approval from the relevant state or territory.
While there would be unrestricted domestic travel, there would also be international arrivals from New Zealand “and other low-risk cohorts” by Christmas Day.
The number of international students and seasonal workers allowed into Australia would be expanded.
Scott Morrison said seven of the eight states and territories – all excluding Western Australia – had agreed to the road map, although he expressed some hope that may change.
“You never know, there might be eight,” he said.
Rosie Lewis 2.20pm: PM’s warning to all agencies amid ASIC, AusPost inquiries
Scott Morrison says he’s open to a wide-ranging investigation into the remuneration and tax and bonus arrangements for all government-appointees, after Australia Post chief executive and ASIC chair James Shipton were forced to stand aside pending inquiries.
“It’ll be important to receive the recommendations of the reports, the inquiries that are being initiated. It may well be that that (an audit of government agencies and their senior staff) comes forward, let’s wait and see. I’m very open to those recommendations,” the Prime Minister said.
“There wouldn’t be a board member of a government agency or a CEO of a government agency that didn’t get my message yesterday. I think they got it with a rocket. My advice to them is to get it.”
READ MORE: PM orders Holgate to take time out for Cartier gifts
Rosie Lewis 2.05pm: Tracking bracelets quarantine idea for returning travellers
Scott Morrison has flagged a new approach to quarantine in which overseas arrivals would be able to spend 14 days at their home, on a farm, at a camp or in a mining campus, with the states and territories hoping to trial options.
Asked if he was open to returning travellers wearing tracking bracelets while quarantining at home, Mr Morrison said he’d leave it to the experts to decide what methods to consider.
He wanted them to be “innovative” and think about new ways of quarantining.
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Rosie Lewis 2.00pm: PM teases Christmas national economy opening
Seven of Australia’s eight states and territories — all excluding Western Australia — have reaffirmed their commitment to reopen their economies by Christmas, with Scott Morrison declaring: “You never know, there might be eight.”
The Prime Minister said the government was “very pleased” with coronavirus case numbers in Victoria, 5.8 cases per day on average, and was keen to see the state opening up further.
While Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was hopeful his state would be able to accept international arrivals soon, Mr Morrison said that day had not come yet.
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Rosie Lewis 1.50pm: Qld, WA lift international arrival caps
Queensland and Western Australia will increase their international arrival caps by an extra 150 and 140 people a month, Scott Morrison has revealed, as he prepares to unveil former senior public servant Jane Halton’s review into hotel quarantine.
The Prime Minister is under pressure to get some 30,000 Australians home from overseas.
Of the 26,200 people who were registered with the government as wanting to come home in the middle of September, nearly 5000 have been able to do so. Less than half of those deemed vulnerable (1278 out of 4100) have been repatriated but Mr Morrison said good progress was being made.
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Ben Wilmot 1.20pm: Bombshell as ASIC chairman stands down
The corporate regulator has dropped a bomb shell in a parliamentary inquiry with ASIC chairman James Shipton saying he will step aside and will repay moving expenses relating to his shift into the job. Read more here
Anthony Piovesan 12.50pm: Hundreds forced into isolation in Melbourne
Nearly 1000 people have been forced into isolation across Melbourne’s northern suburbs after a school student tested positive for coronavirus.
Department of Health and Human Services testing commander Jeroen Weinmar said there were 83 families associated with East Preston Islamic College who were now limited to their homes.
He urged any family who had a child at the school to come forward for testing on Friday.
“That will in turn generate more close contacts and more secondary contacts. At this point in time we continue to have around 400 people who are secondary contacts of the cases at the East Preston Islamic College,” Mr Weinmar told reporters on Friday morning.
“We also have an additional 390 secondary contacts of the ongoing work spread across quite a large number of suburbs in the northern area. That makes around 800 people who we are currently asking to self-isolate as we continue to work through this outbreak.
“What we saw yesterday at Broadmeadows and what we‘ve seen at Shepparton and what we’ve seen at Kilmore is the importance of going wide quickly, of testing as many people as possible and then trying to focus in on any remaining cases that we have.”
Darren Cartwright 12.15pm: Qld border call to be made days before election
A decision on border restrictions will be made just days before Queenslanders head to the polls as two new coronavirus cases were recorded, both linked to a Liberian-flagged container ship off the Sunshine Coast.
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said he expected people to know “sometime next week” whether the state will fully reopen to NSW although Victoria is not on the agenda.
Queenslanders head to the polls on October 31 with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk seeking a third straight term in office.
“We’ll try to give Queenslanders as much notice as we possibly can before that, before that deadline,” Mr Miles told reporters in Rockhampton Friday.
“It’s likely to be sometime next week next week depending on when information comes to hand.”
He said reopening the state to Victoria was not even on their “road map” to recovery.
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Staff Reporters 11.50am: Trump, Biden set to square off in debate
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Staff Reporters 11.20am: No new locally acquired cases in NSW
NSW Health says it has recorded zero new locally acquired coronavirus infections in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday.
There were new cases — seven from returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.
NSW has reported no new cases of locally transmitted COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) October 23, 2020
Seven cases in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine were also reported, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 4,181. pic.twitter.com/XsOFGqlY9n
John Ferguson 11.05am: Andrews deflects questions on Sutton absence
Mr Andrews defended the failure of Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to appear in public in recent days.
He said Professor Sutton would likely appear tomorrow, which is AFL grand final day, and was unsure whether Friday was a day off for the CHO.
Professor Sutton is under heavy pressure over his evidence to the hotel quarantine inquiry.
“I couldn’t tell you. Yesterday certainly was,” Mr Andrews said when asked whether the CHO had a day off.
“He doesn’t work Thursdays. I’m not sure what the plan was today. I know he will be working hard. We are all working hard to be ready to make the announcements on Sunday and I will predict, I can’t be certain, but I will predict he will be here tomorrow.”
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John Ferguson 10.50am: Pen and paper tracing method ‘accurate’
Mr Andrews defended some of the old school, pen and paper practices used for contact tracing purposes.
“Pen and paper is accurate. Look at the Kilmore cafe, that was pen and paper that end they did an extraordinarily good job to keep meticulous records,” he said.
“That is the advice I have received. I think as things unfold you will see more of this tech used to try and support that.
“There are a number of supermarket chains that you don’t have to touch on as you come into the supermarket.
“I don’t see sometimes doing things the old fashioned way doesn’t in any way inhibit things.”
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John Ferguson 10.45am: Travel limits could be axed in a matter of days
Mr Andrews declared: “Everything is on the table.”
He has flagged potential changes to the 25km travel restrictions in Melbourne and potentially removing the ban on regional travel by city dwellers.
However, the changes may be phased in over several weeks.
“I will have more to say about those arrangements on Sunday, 25km, regional /metro border, all of those issues are being looked at very, very closely and we will have those different restrictions in place only for so long as they serve a public health benefit and help us to keep the numbers low so we can keep opening up.
“All of those matters will be things that I will talk about on Sunday.”
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Staff Reporters 10.30am: Melbourne looks at international arrivals
The Premier is asked about the prospect of reopening for international flights by Christmas and replies: “That is certainly our aim. Yes, that is certainly our aim.
“We need to see the report and put in place arrangements that everybody can have confidence in and I think National Cabinet later this morning will talk about some of those issues.
“We know there are a significant number of Aussies who are overseas and want to be home by Christmas and I’d very much like to have them flying direct into Melbourne, those that need to come to our state, flying direct.”
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John Ferguson 10.25am: Premier declares: this is a good number
“We are very well placed to make some significant announcements on Sunday and they will be a testament to the absolute determination of the Victorian community to see this thing off, to do it properly and to make sure we got the numbers to such a low level that we have every reason to expect we can keep them low,” Mr Andrews said.
“This is a good number. This is a very clear sign that the strategy is working and that we are well placed to be able to have more to say about a program to steadily open up those safe and steady steps towards that Covid normal summer, a Covid normal Christmas and a 2021 that is vastly different to 2020.”
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John Ferguson 10.15am: Victoria set for ‘significant’ reopening plan
Victoria has broken the back of the nation’s coronavirus second wave.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Friday declared that restrictions in Victoria would be overhauled on Sunday.
Mr Andrews said there would be a “significant statement on Sunday” about opening up Victoria.
There is one new coronavirus case, which is linked to the East Preston Islamic College. A parent at the school tested positive, the government said. There are 83 families from that school that are in isolation.
A further 400 secondary contacts are in isolation; on top of this, a further 400 people in Melbourne’s north are close contacts.
The crucial 14-day rolling average has fallen to just 5.5 and there were 10 mystery cases up to October 20.
READ MORE: Infected boy sent to school
Gerard Cockburn 9.55am: Business anxiety growing: NAB report
Four in 10 small business owners are highly anxious about future operating conditions, especially due to COVID-19, a NAB Economics wellbeing survey has revealed.
The report, which surveyed 750 businesses across Australia, also found one in three were feeling lonely or isolated, and one in five respondents were not coping well under current operating conditions.
NAB small business executive Ana Marinakovic said the results of the survey had prompted the major bank to implement greater non-financial support measures through its BusinessFit platform to ensure entrepreneurs has access to a slew of resources while pressures continued to mount during the recession.
According to Ms Marinakovic, NAB has had more than 220,000 conversations with small businesses since the start of the pandemic regarding loan and financial restructuring.
Available to any business in Australia, the BusinessFit platform provides insights, workshops and seminars on leadership, wellbeing and strategies to improve efficiencies though the economic recovery.
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Staff Reporters 9.30am: Daniel Andrews to face the media at 10am
It comes as Victoria’s new Covid infections continue to remain low, opening the possibility of further easing of restrictions.
Peter van Onselen 9.20am: Contradictions of politics on display
The Prime Minister demanding that the CEO of Australia Post stand down over the purchase of four $3000 watches for executives as bonuses for a 2018 deal done worth in excess of $60m highlights all the contradictions and hypocrisy in modern political life. Read more here
Robert Gottliebsen 9am: Aus Post top job delivers more headaches
Like Ahmed Fahour before her, Christine Holgate is finding out that politics being what it is, success seldom goes unpunished at Australia Post. Read more here
Stephen Lunn 8.30am: Just one new case reported in Victoria
Victoria has recorded one new case of coronavirus and no new deaths in the past 24 hours.
The rolling 14-day average for metropolitan Melbourne now sits at 5.5.
Regional Victoria’s rolling average sits at 0.3.
There are 10 remaining mystery cases in the state, no change from the day before.
Yesterday there was 1 new case & no loss of life reported. The 14 day rolling average is down in Melb & regional Vic, and cases with unknown source stable. There is more info here and also later today https://t.co/pcll7ySEgz #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/VlVc1EZlpm
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) October 22, 2020
Imogen Reid 8am: Restrictions further ease in NSW
Residents in NSW will wake up to a set of easing coronavirus restrictions today, as more people will be allowed to gather outdoors, book at hospitality venues and attend places of worship.
Under the new rules, 30 people will be permitted to gather outdoors, up from 20, and group bookings at venues will be extended from 10 to 30.
Places of worship will also be able to hold services of up to 300 people and staffing rules at gyms will be relaxed, with a COVID-safety officer only required when there are more than 20 people at the gym.
It comes after the state recorded just one new locally transmitted case on Wednesday.
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Imogen Reid 7.18am: Palaszczuk’s Berejiklian swipe over quarantine cost
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has responded to demands from New South Wales to “cough up” the costs of hotel quarantine.
Yesterday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said Queensland owed New South Wales more than $35 million for “welcoming back their citizens” while they kept their borders closed.
“It’s about time Queensland, in particular, coughed up,” Ms Berejiklian said. “They’ve closed their border to us without reason.”
Ms Berejiklian also claims WA needs to cough up the cost of her state quarantining its returned citizens — “around $7 million or $8 million”.
Ms Palaszczuk said she was “not going to be lectured by the premier of New South Wales.”
“I don’t think Gladys Berejiklian should be criticising anyone. Quite frankly she’s got enough of her own internal problems,” she said.
“What happened to all working together? I mean that’s what we do, we go into the national cabinet and we want to work together.”
Scott Morrison and national cabinet leaders will meet today to discuss the next steps in reopening Australia’s economy, hotel quarantine measures, mental health, aged care, the federal budget and the removal of social restrictions by Christmas.
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Imogen Reid 6.30am: New UK coronavirus cases again top 20,000
Coronavirus cases in the UK have risen by 21,242 — the third day in a row the daily tally has exceeded 20,000.
On Thursday, a further 189 people died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus, taking the UK total to 44,347.
At the daily coronavirus briefing, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I share people’s frustrations and I understand totally why we need to see faster turnaround time and we need to improve it.”
We need to protect jobs, protect livelihoods and put the UK in the strongest position for an economic recovery. pic.twitter.com/cjBVvbB23s
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) October 22, 2020
France has extended its COVID-19 curfew measures to contain the virus that continues to spread rapidly across the country.
Taking effect from midnight on Friday, people in affected areas will have to stay home between 9pm and 6am.
It comes as a further 41,622 cases were reported in the past 24 hours, an all-time high for the country. The number of people who have died in France from coronavirus is also up by 162, taking the country’s tally to 34,210. There have been 999,043 COVID-19 cases in total.
Italy has registered 16,079 new infections, setting a record for the highest daily increase since the start of the country’s latest outbreak.
Another 136 people have died, jumping from 127 the previous day. So far a total of 36,968 deaths have been confirmed in Italy and 465,726 cases of the virus.
Globally, there have been more than 41 million people infected with the virus, while the total number of COVID-19 deaths is 1,134,599.
Daily #COVID19 data trends for October 22, 2020:
— Johns Hopkins University (@JohnsHopkins) October 22, 2020
📈 U.S. new cases: 62,735
🧪 U.S. positivity ratio: 5.63%
🇺🇸 New cases rising: Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin
Learn more at https://t.co/n8n4ubOYaR pic.twitter.com/FXI2vwlTJo
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Dennis Shanahan 6.15am: Pope warned of potential COVID-19 exposure
The Vatican’s ambassador to Australia, Bishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, has tested positive to coronavirus in Canberra less than 14 days after a private, face-to-face meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican.
The meeting, at the Pope’s request, took place within the two-week infectious period for COVID-19 and the Australian government has warned the Holy See of the infection.
The ACT Health Office announced on Thursday that Canberra had recorded its first active COVID-19 case in months but said the infection of a diplomat in his 70s who had returned from overseas was an “acquired infection”, detected while he was in quarantine.
The ACT Health Office also said the diplomat had travelled from Sydney, after his arrival from overseas on October 9, in a private vehicle and had not made any stops “en route to Canberra”.
He tested positive on Monday, his 10th day of quarantine after his arrival in Sydney.
Read the full story here.
Geoff Chambers 5.10am: National Cabinet push for open borders by Christmas
Scott Morrison and national cabinet leaders will unveil the next steps in reopening Australia’s economy, moving towards the removal of COVID-19 border and social restrictions by Christmas.
Under pressure from business leaders, health and industry groups to update the national cabinet COVID-19 road map released in May, state, territory and federal leaders will prioritise discussions on getting the economy back on track.
National cabinet leaders, meeting for the first time in five weeks, will also be briefed on hotel quarantine measures, mental health, the federal budget and progress on aged-care emergency response centres.
Coinciding with the first group of Australians returning home on specially chartered Qantas flights from London on Friday, the national cabinet will discuss quarantine logistics and the use of the Howard Springs facility near Darwin.
The Qantas 787 was due to leave London’s Heathrow Airport on Thursday carrying 175 passengers to Darwin.
Read the full story here.
Remy Varga 5am: Confusion as infected boy sent to Melbourne school
Hundreds of Melburnians have been sent into isolation after mixed messages to a quarantining family saw a Grade 5 student attend school in the city’s north for two days before testing positive for coronavirus.
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Allan Cheng said there had been some understandable confusion between the family and the Department of Health and Human Services. It appeared the boy believed he was allowed to attend East Preston Islamic College.
The number of active cases linked to the northern metro region outbreak rose to 16 on Thursday, with Dallas Brooks Primary School closed for deep-cleaning after a student was identified as a close contact.
Contact tracers have identified 73 close contacts of the outbreak and 400 people are self-isolating, while cases linked to the outbreak have been confirmed at a public housing block in Broadmeadows.
About 120 residents have been asked to isolate for 48 hours and undergo tests for coronavirus.
Read the full story, by Remy Varga and Tessa Akerman, here.
Remy Varga 4.45am: Victorian lockdown inflicts backlog on sick kids
Victorian children suffering congenital heart disease are missing crucial appointments and procedures because measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus are limiting patient numbers.
Fearful parents have warned there is a growing backlog of cases at the Royal Children’s Hospital’s cardiology department, with some being told they will have to wait at least a year before their sick child can get an appointment.
It follows the death of four babies with heart problems in Adelaide last month, with it appearing South Australian health authorities made no effort to fly the infants to Melbourne to receive urgent surgery that could have prevented their deaths.
Kimberley Jaskolski’s daughter Adelina, 5, underwent a heart transplant shortly before her second birthday after being diagnosed with a type of cardiomyopathy. Forced to cancel an appointment earlier in the year because she was told she couldn’t bring her eight-month-old baby, Ms Jaskolski said her daughter was now months overdue for a scheduled four-yearly biopsy.
The family lives in Shepparton, 190km north of Melbourne, where local hospitals cannot perform the paediatric ECG and echocardiogram that Adelina requires.
Read the full story, by Remy Varga and David Penberthy, here.
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