Coronavirus Australia live news: Fears iron ore is next on China’s hitlist
Rumblings from China suggest Australia’s most crucial export could become embroiled in rising trade tensions.
- Australia ‘won’t retaliate with iron ore levy’
- China’s ‘dumb economics’ drive iron ore boom
- Refinery deal safeguards fuel stocks
- Italy overtakes UK in virus death tally
- Complacency, winter loom as virus threat
Welcome to live coverage of the latest Australian political headlines, as well as our nation’s response to the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
Chinese trade aggression will provide a multi-billion dollar boost to the government’s budget bottom line, as the threat of trade sanctions against Australian exports helps drive the iron ore price to seven-year highs and enrich government coffers.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt has ruled out retaliatory iron ore tariffs against China, but Beijing has been reminded it’s unlikely to be able to replace Australia as a source.
And Australia’s last oil refineries are set to receive $83.5m under a six-month rescue package to safeguard national fuel security.
Jamie Walker 9.15pm: Archbishop slams right-to-die politics
Brisbane Catholic Archbishop Mark Coleridge has slammed the “politicisation” of voluntary euthanasia after the state government roped in a leader of the right-to-die lobby to announce it was delaying its legislation.
As revealed by The Australian, the government walked away from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s election pledge to put a bill before state parliament in February to legalise voluntary assisted dying.
But with Ms Palaszczuk on Christmas leave, it was left to her deputy, Steven Miles, and Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman to explain why the legislation was being delayed until May.
Yoni Bashan 8.30pm: Coalition rift puts drug laws on ice
The NSW government will delay landmark reforms to the policing of illicit drug use until next year because of a Coalition rift over the way offenders will be diverted from the criminal justice system.
The Attorney-General, Mark Speakman, issued a statement on Monday saying the reforms, delivered in response to a special commission of inquiry into the effects of crystal methamphetamine, would be delayed as efforts continued to fine-tune the policy.
The government had committed to announcing its response to the inquiry by the end of 2020 but a cabinet split over a proposal to issue warnings and infringements to users, instead of criminal charges, forced a rethink of the response.
John McCormick 7.45pm: How US Electoral College votes and who they are
A few famous names are among the 538 Americans about to cast the votes that matter most when electing US presidents. But many are people like Mary Arnold, a retired social worker and a first-time member of the Electoral College.
Ms Arnold, a Democrat from Columbus, Wisconsin, will cast one of her state’s 10 electoral votes for President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday (AEDT), when electors nationwide meet in their states.
“I was blown away to be asked,” she said. “It never occurred to me that I might be an elector.”
AFP 7pm: At least 26 Nigerian generals infected at conference
At least 26 Nigerian generals have tested positive for the novel coronavirus after they attended a conference in the nation’s capital and one has died, the army said.
Testing was ordered following the death of major-general John Irefin during the 2020 Chief of Army staff Annual conference in Abuja last week.
“The Chief of Army Staff directed the immediate suspension of the conference and all participants were directed to move into self-isolation,” an army statement said on Monday.
“Comprehensive testing of all participants commenced immediately,” it added.
A total of 417 personnel have been tested, with 26 confirmed positive cases.
All who attended the conference had gone into self-isolation, while those who tested positive started medical treatment.
Nigeria has reported a spike in virus infections in recent weeks, sparking fears of a second wave of the pandemic.
Africa’s most populous nation recorded 3820 fresh COVID-19 cases last week. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, such a high figure was last reported between July 19-25 when 3870 new cases were tallied.
Lask week’s figure represents a 142 per cent increase from the previous week’s 1607 cases.
READ MORE: Kiwis agree to travel bubble by early 2021
Rebecca Le May 6.15pm: China rumblings fuel fears for iron ore
Concerns are mounting that iron ore could become the next battleground between China and Australia amid rising trade tensions, especially as the price of the steel making commodity keeps surging.
The iron ore price has been strong this year as high demand from the Asian superpower combined with supply disruptions, with the world’s biggest producer, Brazil’s Vale, last week lowering its production forecasts.
The price is at its best levels in years, about $US160 ($212) per tonne.
The China Iron and Steel Association is unhappy, saying the pricing system has “failed” and calling on regulators to crack down on any wrongdoing.
West Australian Treasurer Ben Wyatt, however, says there have always been rumblings from China about the system, which used to be based on 12-month contracts but iron ore is now increasingly sold on the spot market.
“The price of iron ore, when it gets to these levels unsurprisingly you get some pushback out of China whether it’s based on transparency issues or whatever it happens to be,” Mr Wyatt said on Monday in handing down the state’s mid-year economic review.
The review upgraded WA’s 2020-21 operating surplus by $1bn — in no small part due to the iron ore price rally.
“Pushing back on how the price is struck is not a new thing,” Mr Wyatt said.
“I suspect it has an elevated interest at the moment because of what else has been happening.
“I’m still reasonably confident that the demand for our iron ore will stay just because of the quality of the product, how close we are to market, we’re a reliable supplier … but we have to continue to work on this (relationship with China).
“BHP, FMG and Rio will need to satisfy their customers that there is transparency around how the spot price is working.”
Mr Wyatt said he “always” worried about such matters.
He was dismissive of former resources minister Matt Canavan’s call for the federal government to make Beijing to “pay a price” for its trade bans on other Australian exports by imposing a levy on iron ore.
Senator Canavan said in a column in The Australian that a 1 per cent levy would raise more than $800m a year, which could be used to support sectors hit by the bans and tariffs.
“This sort of madness now where you effectively seek to punish a successful industry to make up for other industries just highlights the point where some of my federal colleagues, God bless them, have gotten to,” Mr Wyatt said.
“I suspect that will be quickly dismissed by the more rational people in the Commonwealth.”
He says the WA Treasury is rightly conservative with its iron ore price forecasts and expects it will return to a long-run average price of $US64/t.
“At the moment it is high but can rapidly turn around based on a range of issues,” Mr Wyatt said.
“Where you have rapid increase in price you also have rapid decreases.
“No one really knows what it’s going to do beyond a 12-month cycle.”
Also on Monday, S&P Global Ratings said almost all Australian states and territories would suffer record deficits in 2020-21 and sharp spikes in debt as they responded to COVID-19, but WA would be “one of the few shining lights globally, powered by strong iron ore exports and favourable reforms to the goods and services tax”.
READ MORE: China’s Australian coal blacklist now official
John Ferguson 5.45pm: Birmingham backs NZ travel bubble
Simon Birmingham has embraced the looming travel bubble with New Zealand.
“Australia’s tourism industry wants to stand on its own two feet as soon as possible and restarting some two way quarantine-free international travel with New Zealand is a step in the right direction,” the Tourism Minister said on Monday.
“It is also recognition of the comparable success both our countries have had in suppressing and managing COVID-19.
“New Zealand is a huge part of Australian tourism and getting people moving in a COVID-safe way between our countries will provide an economic lift and save thousands of jobs.
“I thank those within the industry, the New Zealand government as well as across the various levels of government here in Australia for the significant preparatory and planning work that has gone into taking this forward.”
READ MORE: NZ-Australian travel bubble by early 2021
WSJ Editorial Board 5.30pm: Trump’s challenge is over and it’s now time to move on
The Electoral College meets Monday to cast its votes for President, officially marking Joe Biden as the election winner. President Trump’s legal challenges have run their course, and he and the rest of the Republican Party can help the country and themselves by acknowledging the result and moving on.
Mr. Trump’s last legal gasp came Friday evening when the Supreme Court declined to hear the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the election results in Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. As we predicted, the Court cited Texas’s lack of legal standing to challenge how another state manages its elections.
AFP 4.45pm: Divided Washington debates relief as deadline looms
Talks on new economic relief for millions of Americans hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic are set to continue in Washington between the White House and US congress, with less than two weeks to go before a previous plan expires.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi spoke on the phone for a half-hour on Monday (AEDT), according to a tweet by the top Democrat’s spokesman Drew Hammill, and planned to speak again.
Democrats and Republicans have been locked in negotiations since July on plans for supplementary financial aid to households, businesses and local communities suffering from the country’s worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
Aid to the unemployed as part of a massive recovery plan of $2.2 trillion ($2.9 trillion) adopted in the northern spring expires on Boxing Day, when millions of Americans will find themselves without income.
Disagreements on a new plan hinge on two key issues.
Democrats want to ensure that a substantial amount of aid is granted to local and state governments, which their opponents fear would represent a politically-targeted bailout of “blue states”.
The White House and Republicans in congress are insisting on legal protection for businesses, universities and schools against potential lawsuits in the event that an employee or student contracts COVID-19.
Ms Pelosi argued that “the need for state and local funding is even more important, especially given the states’ responsibility for distributing and administering the vaccine”, her spokesman tweeted.
“Healthcare workers and first responders... are at the risk of losing their jobs without state and local support,” the top Democrat reportedly told Mr Mnuchin.
On the issue of legal responsibility, she said, “a compromise on the liability issue should be found that does not jeopardise workers’ safety.”
A group of Democratic and Republican lawmakers have proposed a bailout of $US908bn, which has served as the base for negotiations.
The Trump administration proposed an increased bailout of $916bn last week, but it was later rejected by Democrats, who refused to accept its inclusion of a cut to unemployment benefits.
Whatever is agreed on will likely be eclipsed by the massive bailout plan that President-elect Joe Biden has promised to adopt after his inauguration on January 20.
READ MORE: Covid shreds D.C. homeless safety net
Will Glasgow 4pm: Beijing officially blacklists Australian coal
Beijing has formalised its blacklisting of Australia’s $14bn annual coal exports to China at a high-level meeting held over the weekend, deepening a crisis for one of the nation’s biggest export earners.
The National Development Reform and Commission met with major Chinese power companies on Saturday to address a surge in coal prices in the world’s second biggest economy, according to state media reports.
The Commission – China’s top economic planning agency – has not yet commented on the meeting, but reports by state-controlled media singled out the Australian coal industry.
“China’s top economic planner on Saturday gave approval to power plants to import coal without clearance restrictions, except for Australia,” reported the Global Times.
Blacklisting Australian coal into 2021 would be the most costly strike in China’s wide ranging program of trade retaliation put in place after the Morrison government called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus in April.
READ the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 2.30pm: Victoria tracing system ‘unfit’ when virus hit
The use of manual data entry processes until part-way through Victoria‘s second wave of coronavirus “meant that the system for contact tracing and recording of testing was not fit to deal with any escalation of cases and led to significant errors,” a state parliamentary inquiry has found.
The Legislative Council Legal and Social Issues Committee found that “greater transparency” from the Andrews government and ”a willingness to acknowledge and take responsibility for failings” would increase public trust and confidence in Victoria‘s contact tracing and testing regime.
Victoria‘s Department of Health and Human Services had just 57 people working in the state’s public health team when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and less funding in the 2019-20 budget than was provided in 2016-17, prompting public health experts to warn in July that Victoria’s was the worst-resourced health system in Australia.
READ the full story here.
Adeshola Ore 1.40pm: Travel bubble boost for airlines, economy
Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australia’s travel bubble with New Zealand is the “first step on a return to international normality.”
Mr Hunt said the bubble was a boost for Australia’s airlines and economy.
“This is a sign that New Zealand and Australia aren’t just working together, but that families can be back together in both directions. Friends can be back in both directions and flights can be full in both directions.”
Mr Hunt said Australia would implement the deal “as soon as New Zealand is ready.”
“We understand it may take a few more weeks but we’re working constructively and patiently.”
Mr Hunt said the government would continue to monitor the health advice regarding the establishment of quarantine-free travel between the two countries.
“At the moment the medical advice is crystal clear from the Chief Medical Officer of Australia, Professor Paul Kelly, and that is people can come from New Zealand without a vaccination because New Zealand has no community transmission at this point in time.”
READ the full story here.
Angelica Snowden 12.45pm: NZ agrees to early 2021 travel bubble with Australia
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed her cabinet agreed to an in principle travel bubble with Australia.
At her last press conference for the year after a cabinet meeting, Ms Ardern said the bubble would likely start to operate as early as next year.
“Cabinet has agreed in principle to establish a travel bubble with Australia, we anticipate in the first quarter of next year,” she said.
“It is our intention to name a date for quarantine free trans-Tasman travel ... when the details are locked down.”
The travel arrangements would mean Australian residents do not have to quarantine in New Zealand.
READ the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 12.30pm: Quarantine woman in 30s Victoria’s sole new case
Victoria’s latest case of coronavirus has been confirmed as a woman in her 30s in hotel quarantine who has mild symptoms and does not require hospital care.
The woman’s case brings to seven the number of people who have tested positive for coronavirus in Victoria since the state’s hotel quarantine program reopened last week.
It has been 45 days since Victoria had a new locally-acquired case.
The other cases in hotel quarantine include a boy aged under five, a woman in her 20s, a man and a woman in their 30s, and a man and a woman in their 50s.
The boy’s parents are among the six adults to have tested positive in hotel quarantine.
Victoria has now recorded a total of 20,352 confirmed cases, including those diagnosed in
quarantine.
This represents 72.6 per cent of the 28,031 confirmed cases nationwide since the pandemic began.
“Positive results are to be expected, and our quarantine system has been designed on the premise that we would have return travellers test positive,” Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said.
“While we’d all prefer there were no active cases, changes made to strengthen the system will ensure that we manage this in a way that keeps returning travellers, the workers caring for them and the Victorian community as safe as possible.”
Slightly more than one in every 100 returned travellers tested positive for coronavirus during Victoria’s first iteration of hotel quarantine.
There were 1033 returned travellers in Victorian hotel quarantine as of Sunday.
READ MORE: Four serious errors on the way to virus ‘victory’
Adeshola Ore 12.10pm: Australia ‘won’t retaliate with iron ore levy’: Pitt
Resources Minister Keith Pitt has ruled out placing tariffs on iron ore exports to China after his predecessor Matt Canavan called for a retaliatory levy.
Senator Canavan says the government must force Beijing to “pay a price” for its trade bans on Australian products by imposing a levy on Australian iron ore exports to China.
But Mr Pitt said Australia remained committed to following international trade rules.
“Backbenchers are entitled to their views, we work under the rules based trading system and Australia will meet its commitments,” he told the ABC.
Meanwhile, Liberal MP Trent Trent Zimmerman reiterated China’s need for Australian iron ore, saying it would not be able to replace Australia as a source, as well as the need for China to remember the relationship between the two countries must be “mutually respectful”.
“We have some of the best quality and most competitive iron ore and I don’t think China could replace Australia as a source for what is obviously an essential ingredient to their own economic advancement,” he told Sky News.
Mr Zimmerman said Australia’s relationship with China must be on “mutually respectful terms.”
“I think that’s what’s been missing this year,” he said.
“China needs to understand that trying to order us to clamp down on the rights of MPs to speak out on our journalists and so on are inconsistent with our own values.”
Australia exports almost 900 million tonnes of iron ore to China a year — about 60 per cent of its annual needs — reaping about $85bn in 2019-20.
It came after Mr Canavan, writing in The Australian, said a 1 per cent levy rise would raise more than $800 million a year, which could be used to support sectors hit by Chinese trade bans..“Iron ore is the one product that China has not slapped tariffs or restrictions on in its increasing trade war with Australia because it cannot easily replace our supply,” he writes. “China’s trade action has already caused massive economic harm to our beef, barley, seafood and wine industries … To avoid further harm we need to make the Chinese Communist Party pay a price because that will be the only thing that will stop further trade restrictions.”
He says the proposed levy should be raised every time China takes further action against Australian producers.
“We could signal that the levy would be removed if China ended its unjustified trade restrictions,” Senator Canavan wrote.
China’s dependence on Australian iron ore and other key resources is a “nightmare” for its strategic and defence planners, according to Australia’s former China ambassador, Geoff Raby.
READ MORE: Making waves as mining sector booms
Angelica Snowden 12.05pm: Vic travel vouchers back online, with 30,000 more on offer
An extra 30,000 regional travel vouchers will be available to Victorians today after the website crashed on Friday due to overwhelming demand.
Victorians can register for the vouchers from midday after an initial 40,000 were claimed on Friday despite massive technological issues.
Another round of 40,000 vouchers will be on offer on January 20, and any “remaining” or “unused” vouchers from previous rounds will be available on March 30.
All up, there will be about 120,000 vouchers up for grabs in a bid to entice travel to regional Victoria amid the state’s second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday the Business Victoria site crashed two hours after it launched registrations for the scheme as Victorians attempted to claim their tourism vouchers.
READ MORE: Big bungle with Dan’s freebie plan
Angelica Snowden 11.20am: NSW eyes fortnight with no locally-acquired virus cases
NSW has achieved almost two weeks without reporting a locally-acquired COVID-19 case.
NSW Health reported no new community transmission for the 11th day in a row, out of 6173 tests overnight. Three infections were reported in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The last locally-acquired case of COVID-19 was reported in a hotel quarantine worker on December 3. Before that, NSW had gone almost one month without an infection due to community transmission.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) December 14, 2020
The authority also confirmed the COVID-19 health direction which prevented residents from South Australia from entering NSW has been dropped.
“People entering NSW from SA no longer have any border restrictions or requirements, including the need to fill out a declaration on arrival,” a statement read.
READ MORE: Trump backers undone by US virus crisis, election fail
Adeshola Ore 11.10am: Don’t take fuel security for granted: Taylor
Energy Minister Angus Taylor says the Morrison government’s oil refinery funding will help protect the country’s fuel security after they face a closure risk during the pandemic.
The Morrison government has today announced the country’s three remaining oil refineries will get immediate support to keep operating under an $83.5m, six-month rescue package to safeguard the nation’s fuel security.
Speaking in Geelong, Mr Taylor said Australia should not take for granted the importance of fuel security.
“For years our refineries have played a special role in our energy system in this country. They provide the liquid fuels we need with a very secure source of supply for those essential industries,” he said.
“At the end of the day we’d like more crude oil produced in this country. The only way to solve that problem is to have more crude oil produced in Australia.”
READ MORE: Refinery rescue deal to safeguard fuel stocks
Adeshola Ore 10.45am: Fletcher looks forward to Ita’s ‘detailed, substantive’ answers
Communication Minister Paul Fletcher says he looks forward to a detailed response from ABC chair Ita Buttrose after he demanded the public broadcaster’s board explain a recent Four Corners episode.
Ms Buttrose has accused Mr Fletcher of “disrespect” for his use of Twitter to make public the highly critical letter about the Four Corners episode which broadcasted allegations of affairs between ministers and staff in the Liberal Party.
“The duty, which under the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act, sits squarely with the board that the ABC is required to produce journalism which is accurate and impartial,” Mr Fletcher said in Hobart on Monday.
“The questions that I’ve asked of the ABC board go to whether they are satisfied that they have met their duty.”
“I look forward to a detailed and substantive answer.”
READ MORE: ‘I feel disrespected’: Ita strikes back
Adeshola Ore 10.10am: Labor climate differences ‘debate, not division’
Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler says Labor’s differences over its climate change policy is “debate and not division”.
Labor’s dispute over its climate and energy policy have plagued the party since the last election and culminated with rogue MP Joel Fitzgibbon quitting the frontbench last month.
“In all policies we’ve got to have a clear message as a party of alternative government to the Australian people. That’s a process that Anthony has been leading very strongly since we lost the last election,” Mr Butler told the ABC.
“I wouldn’t mistake debate for division. There is strong debate about some of these really important policies within the Labor Party. We’ve got a tradition of doing that going back many, many decades.”
“I’m not scared of debate within the Labor Party about what our policy offerings should be.”
READ MORE: Revealed: Names, positions of CCP operatives
Adeshola Ore 9.50am: Sharma: CCP infiltration unsurprising
Liberal MP Dave Sharma says the Chinese Communist Party’s infiltration of the Australian, British and US consulates in Shanghai is worrying but not surprising.
The Australian has reported that a Chinese government-run recruitment agency has placed advisers into Western embassies for more than a decade.
“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Mr Sharma told Sky News.
“I think it’s an important reminder that in a political system such as China that the individual exists to serve the state.
“Of course we’ve got to worry about people who have Communist Party members working in big offices.”
Mr Sharma said Australian consulates had measures in place to deal with various security risks.
“All the diplomatic missions have highly compartmentalised streams of information and certainly the information that locally engaged staff as they call have access to is of a vastly different to that information than Australian base staff have access to.”
READ MORE: CCP infiltrates Western consulates
Adeshola Ore 9.10am: Retaliatory iron ore levy ‘not serious proposition’
Opposition climate change spokesman Mark Butler says Nationals Senator Matt Canavan’s calls for a retaliatory levy on iron ore exports to China is not a serious proposition.
The former resources minister says the government must force Beijing to “pay a price” for its trade bans on Australian products by imposing a levy on Australian iron ore exports to China.
“I don’t think, frankly, it’s a serious proposition,” Mr Butler told the ABC.
“Ramping up a trade war around our most valuable and successful export seems ultimately to be pretty self-defeating.”
“But I do agree with Senator Canavan that Australia should be doing more, the government should be doing more, to help our exporters diversify their markets. We’ve been urging the government to do that for many months now as the Chinese position on various exports has become clearer.”
READ MORE: Canavan calls for retaliatory levy on China
Rachel Baxendale 9.00am: Victoria returned traveller tests positive
One more return traveller in Victoria has tested positive for coronavirus, bringing to seven the total number with COVID-19 since the state reopened its hotel quarantine program a week ago.
Monday marks 45 days since Victoria had a new locally acquired case, with 5,024 tests processed in the 24 hours to Monday.
Yesterday there were 0 new local cases, 0 lost lives, and 1 internationally acquired & in quarantine case. There are now 7 active cases. 5,024 results were received. More info: https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco⦠#COVID19VicData #EveryTestHelps #StaySafeStayOpen pic.twitter.com/qDie4zTsS7
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) December 13, 2020
Angelica Snowden 8.55am: ‘More nuanced approach’ needed for returning Aussies
An infectious diseases expert is warning Australia needs a “more nuanced” approach to managing the risk of returning overseas travellers, as the global coronavirus pandemic will last for years ahead.
Authorities should consider which overseas countries Australians return from, as some suffer the devastating impacts of COVID-19 more than others, The Australian National University’s Peter Collignon said.
“I think we need a more nuanced approach …(at) who may need seven days of quarantine because they are coming from a low risk area,” Professor Collignon told the Nine network’s Today show.
“(We need) rapid tests so we can assess them and reassess them,” he said.
“We may be able to do it with a better approach now which is one size fits all and limits our ability to get people back into the country.”
Professor Collignon said Australia was one of the few countries – including New Zealand and Taiwan – which currently have no community transmission.
He warned while the country was in a good position now during summer, “when winter comes we may be in a different position”.
Angelica Snowden 8.45am: Germany goes into lockdown for Christmas
Germany will go into a partial lockdown from Wednesday with non-essential shops and schools to close, as Europe’s biggest economy battles an “exponential growth” in coronavirus infections.
The new curbs will apply until January 10, with companies also urged to allow employees to work from home or offer extended company holidays, under the new measures agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel with regional leaders of Germany’s 16 states on Sunday.
Germans are urged to limit their social contacts to another household, with a maximum of five people excluding children under 14 meeting at each time.
From Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, gatherings with another four people excluding children would be allowed but who should be limited to close relatives or partners.
Germany in November closed leisure and cultural facilities and banned indoor dining in restaurants.
The measures had helped to halt rapid growth of infections after the autumn school holidays, but numbers had plateaued at a high rate.
Ms Merkel had repeatedly pushed for tougher curbs to break the chain of contagion, but implementation of the rules is in the hands of individual states and some were reluctant to impose more curbs.
Germany has imposed far less stringent shutdown rules than other major European nations after coming through the first wave of the pandemic relatively unscathed.
But Europe’s biggest economy has been severely hit by a second wave with daily new infections more than three times that of the peak in the spring.
Germany recorded another 20,200 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, reaching a total of 1,320,716 cases, according to RKI data published Sunday.
Another 321 patients died from the disease a day earlier, bringing the total death toll to 21,787.
Italy meanwhile overtook Britain as the European nation with the highest coronavirus death toll.
Nearly 65,000 deaths have been reported in the country since the start of the pandemic, after a second wave took hold from early October.
“I am worried about the two weeks of Christmas holidays. We are up against a dramatic pandemic which is ongoing – the battle still has not been won,” Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza warned.
Regional affairs minister Francesco Boccia said that unless people adopted a careful approach, “the risk of a third wave is almost certain.”
With AFP
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Angelica Snowden 8.10am: Hope as US vaccine shipments begin
Trucks on Sunday began shipping millions of doses of the COVID-19 across the US as part of an enormous logistics operation that would see some vulnerable people being vaccinated as early as Tuesday (AEDT) in the nation worst hit by the coronavirus.
Health care workers and nursing home residents will be among the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech shots, though it will likely be months before all those who want it can be vaccinated, officials said.
“My hope, again, is that this happens very expeditiously. Hopefully, (starting) tomorrow,” US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Stephen Hahn said Sunday on CNN.
The breakthrough came after more than 1.1 million new coronavirus cases were confirmed in the past week and the death toll is close to 298,000 in the US, which has reported the highest absolute death toll and number of cases in the world.
More than 30 million Americans have now contracted the virus since it emerged from Wuhan, China in December.
A record 243,209 new infections were reported on December 13 according to the World Health Health Organisation. The death toll continued to mount, with 2996 reported on the same day.
Amid a surge in infections and deaths, the imminent rollout of a vaccine is considered one of the only ways the country will be able to control the spread of the virus.
But health experts cautioned Americans not to grow lax and urged them to continue to practice social distancing.
“The next number of weeks are going to be hell, I fear,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told ABC’s This Week.
“So we’re begging people to please, please, please don’t let your guard down.”
Health officials have mounted an education campaign to persuade large numbers of sceptics that the vaccine is safe.
“The way we see light at the end of the tunnel, the way we get through this, is to achieve herd immunity, and that means we need to vaccinate a significant number of people,” Mr Hahn said.
On the weekend, the US became the latest country to green-light the Pfizer vaccine, following nations like Britain and Canada.
As trucks rolled out of a Pfizer facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, they were escorted to a local airport by armed US officers, in a sign of how precious the cargo is considered.
Two major package delivery services — UPS and FedEx — will then ship the supplies to 636 sites around the country by Wednesday.
Some 2.9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine – enough to vaccinate half that many people in the two-shot regimen – are being shipped in boxes containing dry ice that can keep supplies at -70C, the frigid temperature needed to preserve the drug.
The vaccine is being allocated based on each state’s adult population. They then decide the specifics of how to distribute the drug, but are expected to follow the federal guidance to place healthcare workers and nursing home residents at the front of the line.
More than one-third of US deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities. Over the past two weeks, the US has repeatedly exceeded 2,000 Covid-related deaths per day, rivalling tolls from the early days of the pandemic.
With AFP
READ MORE: Labor pushes for Medicare reform
Agencies 7.05am: Canada set to begin Pfizer vaccinations
Canada will take delivery today (AEDT) of about 30,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and partner BioNTech SE, with plans to aggressively ramp up sites where the elderly and healthcare workers can initially get the shot.
Canada authorised on Wednesday the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with expectations to receive 249,000 doses this month. The initial instalment left Belgium on Friday, with stops in Germany and Kentucky before arrival in Canada.
“The delivery schedule is unfolding exactly as planned,” Maj. Gen. Dany Fortin, the military commander in charge of the national vaccine rollout, told Canadian Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday. “Some flights will arrive tonight. Some flights will arrive tomorrow. Some trucks will cross the border tomorrow.” Canada will acquire a minimum of 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, with an option for 56 million more.
Initially, there will be 14 inoculation sites across Canada, the bulk concentrated in the most populous provinces. Maj. Gen. Fortin said test runs were conducted last week, and he is confident authorities in the province — which will actually run the immunisation program — are ready at the initial sites.
He said additional sites, on top of the first 14, could be up and running later this week. Canada wants to move meticulously, he said, because of the vaccine’s unique characteristics — most notably, it has to be kept at ultracold temperatures. “When we are at full speed, we’re probably going to have a couple of hundred sites for the Pfizer-BioNTech product.” Inoculation in Ontario, Canada’s biggest province by population, is scheduled to begin Tuesday, Ontario officials say.
Overall, Canada expects to administer six million doses, covering three million Canadians, by the end of the first quarter, and a majority of its 38 million residents by September. Maj. Gen Fortin said he expects Canadian regulators to authorise use of a Moderna Inc. vaccine “reasonably soon,” with delivery scheduled in early January.
READ MORE: How COVID stole Christmas tradition
Patrick Commins 5.10am: China’s ‘dumb economics’ drive Australia’s iron ore boon
Chinese trade aggression will provide a multi-billion dollar boost to the government’s budget bottom line, as the threat of trade sanctions against Australian exports helps drive the iron ore price to seven-year highs and enrich government coffers.
Deloitte Access Economics partner Chris Richardson branded China’s trade aggression as “smart politics” but “dumb economics”, and that its trade war “had delivered (Australian) taxpayers a handy – and hefty – windfall”.
Mr Richardson said the “fear factor” of possible Chinese trade action on our biggest commodity export had contributed to a $US18 a tonne surge in the iron ore price in this month alone, which had pushed our biggest export commodity to a seven-year high of approaching $US160/ tonne.
Booming mining profits have boosted the government’s tax take, setting up this week’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook to reveal what Mr Richardson estimated would be a $3bn improvement budget bottom line for 2020-21.
“The bottom line is that China’s trade war with Australia is making us money rather than losing it. To be clear, we’ve lost money on everything from lobsters to wine. But we’ve more than made that up in overall terms thanks to iron ore – and the taxman will be a considerable beneficiary of that.”
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Ben Packham 4.30am: Refinery rescue deal to safeguard fuel stocks
Australia’s three remaining oil refineries will get immediate support to keep operating under an $83.5m, six-month rescue package to safeguard the nation’s fuel security.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor will unveil the measure on Monday, bringing forward support announced in the September budget that was scheduled to flow from July 2021.
The move follows weeks of talks with refinery operators and unions, who had warned that plants could be forced to shut amid mounting losses.
The refineries will receive at least 1 cent a litre for petrol, diesel and jet fuel they produce from January 1.
The grant funding will help carry the refineries through until the middle of next year, when a legislated, long-term market mechanism will be put in place to supply the subsidy.
“The production payments will help the industry withstand the economic shock of this crisis, protecting local jobs and industry, bolstering our fuel security and shielding motorists from higher prices,” Mr Taylor said.
He will announce the support, which will be included in this week’s Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook, at Geelong‘s Viva plant on Monday.
Ampol’s Lytton facility in Brisbane and ExxonMobil’s Altona refinery in Melbourne will also receive the production payments.
All three were facing potential closure amid a plunge in global fuel demand during the COVID crisis.
BP announced in October it would close its Kwinana refinery in Western Australia, leaving the entire west coast to rely on imported fuel and raising fears over the future of its east-coast counterparts.
The payment is based on calculations that show if all refineries left the market, wholesale prices would jump by 1c a litre for Australian fuel users.
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Agencies 4.15am: Italy overtakes Britain in rising Covid death tally
Italy has overtaken Britain as the worst European country for COVID-19 deaths, as its government faces criticism over its “amateurish” policies aimed at preventing a crippling second wave.
Deaths in Italy reached 63,387 on Friday, according to a tally by the Italian government, 305 more than the British toll and ending months of the UK’s leading position in Europe for deaths. Others, such as the World Health Organisation, use different statistical methods to assess the toll.
The figures were grim reading for Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who chose to avoid a full lockdown during the second wave.
The Times
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Rachel Baxendale 4am: Complacency and winter loom as big virus threats
Epidemiologists have warned against complacency regarding coronavirus — particularly in state hotel quarantine programs — as Australia marks nine days without a case of community transmission.
ANU professor Peter Collignon said that while Australia was in a “very good position” equalled only by Taiwan and New Zealand, we would be dealing with the reality of the rest of the world having the virus for the next “two to three years”.
“Until we get a vaccine that’s 90 per cent effective or even better than that rolled out around the world, there’s still a risk you can pick it up or bring it back,” Professor Collignon said. He warned Australia needed to be especially wary going into next winter, citing recent incidents which saw the virus escape quarantine in South Australia and spread from an air crew to a cleaner in NSW.
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