Coronavirus Australia live news: isolation fuelling eating disorders
The death of Lisa Curry’s beloved daughter Jaimi Kenny has sparked alarm about a COVID-fuelled eating disorder boom.
- Five rule-breaking households spark fresh spike
- NZ travel bubble back on agenda
- 1500 more returning travellers a week
- Qld opens border to ACT
- Probe to link Covid to heart disease
- Plea to fall in line on borders
- Community ‘motivated to beat this’
Welcome to The Australian’s rolling coverage of the ongoing pandemic. Concerns grow as five linked, rule-breaking households identified as root of new Melbourne cluster. Scott Morrison has outlined how an additional 1500 Australians a week will be able to return home, and put a NZ travel bubble back on the agenda. Queensland borders will open to air travellers from the Australian Capital Territory next Friday. Victoria has reported a further 45 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths over the past 24 hours, the state’s health department has confirmed. And in the UK, researchers are probing the links between Covid and heart disease.
Lisa Mayoh 9.15pm: Isolation fuelling eating disorders
The coronavirus pandemic and isolation are fuelling eating disorders, as anorexia sufferers battle social media messaging about body image and “dangerous’’ memes showing people gaining weight during lockdown.
The recent death of 33-year-old eating-disorder sufferer Jaimi Kenny, daughter of Olympians Lisa Curry and Grant Kenny, has reignited a conversation about the dangers of the illness, which has had a huge spike recently.
Eating Disorders Victoria has reported a 30 per cent increase in calls to its helpline. Chief executive Belinda Caldwell said services had been increased to serve demand, with 10 support groups a month now, up from just three.
She said food hoarding in lockdown was a trigger for many sufferers, while the loneliness of isolation, reliance on social media, change in routines and lack of structure during lockdown only compounded negative feelings and behaviours.
Read more: Jaimi Kenny dies at 33
“We have seen a massive surge in demand — our public services have reached the same numbers at the end of August they would (normally) have seen for a full year,” Ms Caldwell said.
“I think in normal life you have your job, social life, sport — sometimes you and your eating disorder can co-exist, but this has made people realise they were sicker than they thought they were.
“There is a clear link between social media and body dissatisfaction … memes around people putting on weight during lockdown — for someone with an eating disorder, that really feeds into their fears.”
Read the full story here.
Olivia Caisley, Remy Varga 8.35pm: ADF contradicts Andrews on quarantine security
The Australian Defence Force says Victoria was offered help with hotel quarantine the day before the disastrous program began, directly contradicting repeated claims to the contrary by Daniel Andrews and the state’s top emergency official.
The ADF said state authorities offered support on March 28, rejecting a statement made by Emergency Management Victoria Commissioner Andrew Crisp that has been heavily relied on by the Victorian Premier since he told a parliamentary inquiry it was “fundamentally incorrect” to assert there were “hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no”.
It comes as mounting evidence of the ADF’s willingness to assist the state emerges from the hotel quarantine inquiry, with counsel assisting Rachel Ellyard saying on Friday that Victorian authorities understood there was the potential access to ADF help.
In answers provided to a Senate committee scrutinising the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which were tabled on Tuesday, the ADF said Victoria was offered help several times before mandatory hotel quarantine began nationwide on March 29.
Read the full story here.
AFP 8pm: Worldwide infections surge past 30 million
Large parts of Europe are gearing up for broad new restrictions to stop the coronavirus, after infections worldwide topped 30 million and the World Health Organisation warned of “alarming rates of transmission”.
Britain is limiting gatherings and France is set to roll out new curbs for major cities as governments across the continent battle fresh spikes of the disease.
More than 944,000 people have now died from COVID-19 since it first emerged in China late last year, with Europe accounting for more than 200,000.
WHO regional director for Europe Hans Kluge said a surge this month “should serve as a wake-up call” after the continent recorded 54,000 infections in a single day last week, a new record.
“Although the numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region,” Mr Kluge said from Copenhagen.
The Spanish capital, Madrid, said it had been overwhelmed by the virus and called for “decisive” action from the central government, which is set to unveil a raft of new restrictions on Friday.
Read more: Virus caseload surges past 30 million
Amanda Hodge, Chandni Vasandani 7.15pm: Covid protocols enforced in Bali
Indonesian intelligence officers have begun enforcing health protocols across Bali as the island experiences a surge in COVID-19 cases, six weeks after reopening to domestic tourism.
Wawan Purwanto, a spokesman for the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), said officers would work with the provincial government and health units to educate the public and enforce protocols to ensure Bali’s tourism industry did not fail “because that would have large implications on Bali and Indonesia’s reputation”.
“There are some people in Bali who still don’t believe in the existence of this disease, they think this is a conspiracy. This is where we come in, we will explain this to the public. There are many who don’t take this seriously,” Mr Wawan told The Weekend Australian.
“There will be sanctions for violators. It can’t be just a set of rules without anyone overseeing it, making sure it is obeyed.”
The Bali government this week reimposed some COVID restrictions across the island, including studying from home, limitations on religious ceremonies, mass tourist attractions, and a 25 per cent capacity rule for all offices.
Read the full story here.
AFP 6.20pm: White House pulls rank over CDC on testing
Donald Trump’s administration posted controversial recommendations on coronavirus testing to the US health agency’s website against its objections, The New York Times reported on Friday.
The guidelines, which said testing was not necessary for people who were exposed to COVID-19 but not displaying symptoms, were criticised when they were issued last month.
That is because healthcare experts at the time were pushing for more, not less, testing to help track and control the spread of the respiratory disease that has now killed almost 200,000 people in the US.
The newspaper said the recommendation was posted to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s website “despite their serious objections”, citing internal CDC documents and unnamed officials familiar with the issue.
Read the full story here.
Cameron Stewart 5.55pm: Zero atmosphere at Biden’s Covid safe event
I picked up the local paper in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, this week to see the headline: No Tickets for Public to Biden’s Town Hall.
Instead those few who attended the CNN town hall that Biden held on Friday (AEST) were selected by the network. They sat in their cars for the event that was held in a car park near Scranton, giving the event zero atmosphere.
This is the dilemma facing the Democrat nominee as he seeks to become the first candidate since 1992 to defeat an incumbent president. The 77-year-old is being so cautious in his approach to the campaign that he is generating no buzz. Poll after poll shows that while Biden leads Donald Trump, there is little enthusiasm for his candidacy.
Unlike Trump, Biden doesn’t speak to crowds of any size, not even socially distanced ones. This is partly for his own safety with the coronavirus but it is also his campaign strategy of appearing to act like a responsible leader during this pandemic. Set an example: social distance, wash hands, wear a mask etc. Yet Democrats are now wondering if this approach is too virtuous — too boring — for Biden’s own good.
Read Cameron Stewart’s full analysis here.
Matthew Westwood 5.25pm: Outback film festival shines past pandemic
When the movie starts at the Vision Splendid Outback Film Festival in Winton, patrons settle into their canvas deckchairs and gaze up to the canopy of Banjo Paterson’s “everlasting stars”.
That’s the special experience of the outdoor Royal Theatre, which is bringing moviegoers to far-flung Winton, even during the pandemic.
The festival began on Friday night and bookings are up 30 per cent on previous years, organisers say.
The increase is due to Queenslanders setting out to explore what their state has to offer when the border is closed.
“There are people travelling, because they can’t go interstate,” said festival director Mark Melrose. “They’ve hit the road and come out west, and it’s really great to see. People are looking for things to do, so it’s benefited us from that point of view.”
The nine-day program opened with Kriv Stenders’s film Slim & I, about country music legends Slim Dusty and his wife, Joy McKean.
The historic Royal Theatre can seat up to 400 people but capacity has been reduced to 200 in line with social distancing.
Read the full story here.
Kellie Southan 5.05pm: Victoria’s confirmed Covid cases by LGA
Amanda Hodge 3.40pm: Prayuth to pull Covid card at student rally
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has warned a planned Saturday rally by youth protesters demanding reform of the monarchy and military-drafted constitution will delay economic recovery in the tourist-reliant country and potentially spark a fresh wave of COVID-19 cases.
“When you gather in crowds you are creating an enormous risk of new infections. And with that you also create enormous risk to the livelihoods of tens of millions of fellow Thais,” the former junta leader said on Thursday.
“Any major flare-up of infections will lead to terrible consequences and even worse economic destruction, the likes of which we have never seen. Please think about this.”
Mr Prayuth said he had asked police to be “tolerant” of protesters — mostly university and high school students who have staged rallies across the country demanding a return to democracy, but also made clear they would be blamed for any fresh virus outbreak.
Thailand has paid a heavy price for its success in containing the coronavirus pandemic, with GDP down 12.2 per cent, year on year, in the second quarter — the country’s biggest economic contraction since the 1998 Asian financial crisis.
READ the full story here.
Matthew Denholm 2.55pm: Tasmania looks to open border by end of October
Tasmania is reviewing its border closure with the aim of opening up to COVID-safe jurisdictions at the end of October.
Premier Peter Gutwein on Friday said the review would aim to bring forward the date for border easing from December 1 to the end of October.
This would likely mean opening up to arrivals from South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the ACT and “possibly” NSW.
READ MORE: Good news for Aussie renters
Olivia Caisley 2.45pm: States haven’t asked for financial help for quarantine: PM
Scott Morrison says the Commonwealth has not been asked to financially contribute to improving state hotel quarantine systems as the states and territories prepare for an influx of Australian residents returning home.
The Prime Minister on Friday said the provision of Australian Defence Force troops was his government’s contribution to quarantine arrangements and that returning travellers were still required to pay for two weeks in a hotel themselves.
“The Commonwealth can be accused of many things but in this COVID-19 pandemic, not stumping up when it comes to costs — I mean, JobKeeper alone is over $100 billion. If you add up every single thing that the states are doing, in their COVID-19 response, you won’t even get to the cost of JobKeeper.”
Mr Morrison confirmed no state had asked for quarantine funding.
“We were providing that in-kind support from the ADF. That’s all that’s been suggested from us from the states and territories,” he said.
“The Queensland Government or the WA Government … they didn’t ask for that. They weren’t asking for money. They were asking for ADF support and the answer is yes.”
Olivia Caisley 2.30pm: Contact details mandatory to fly from October 1
Scott Morrison has said that people travelling on domestic flights in Australia will be required to hand over their contact details so that they can be contacted by health authorities in case they come into contact with someone who is COVID-19 positive.
The Prime Minister said the National Cabinet had agreed to the mandatory provision of key details such as phone number, name and state of residence, to help tracing efforts as domestic borders begin to reopen.
“From 1 October, part of the mandatory manifest information will be name, email address, a mobile contact number, and a state of residence,” the Prime Minister said on Friday following a “There’s still some work to be done there that will be arranged with the major airlines, with the Department of Infrastructure, and those arrangements are being put in place now.”
READ MORE: Is your job at risk? Or gone for good?
Olivia Caisley 2.10pm: Trans-Tasman travel bubble back on the agenda
Scott Morrison says that Australia is again exploring a trans-Tasman travel bubble with New Zealand, where travellers can enter each other’s countries without quarantine.
The Prime Minister said that those travelling from COVID-free zones should not have to quarantine.
“We’re working to ensure that New Zealanders can come to Australia, and Australians can return to Australia from New Zealand without the need to go through quarantine if they’re not coming from an area where there is an outbreak of COVID-19,” Mr Morrison said.
“For example, the whole of the South Island — that’s an area where there is no COVID and so if we can get to the situation soon where those coming home from New Zealand are able to enter Australia without going into a 14-day quarantine in a hotel, or in the worst-case scenario only having to do that in their home, then what that does is that frees up places in our hotel quarantine system.”
READ MORE: NZ recession ‘traumatic’ for all
Olivia Caisley 2.05pm: PM details new arrival caps: 1500 more a week
PM Scott Morrison has confirmed arrival caps will be lifted in NSW, Queensland and WA, meaning an additional 1500 Australians a week will be able to return home.
The Prime Minister on Friday said that the ADF would be used to oversee hotel quarantine after Victoria’s bungled program sparked a second wave.
“All of that will be done on the express guarantee of support, which I’ve always been happy to provide, which was ADF assistance in that task,” Mr Morrison said.
“So, we’ll be focusing much more of our ADF support on that quarantine assistance in those jurisdictions and this is gonna help get more Australians home.”
NSW and South Australia will increase their current international passenger arrival caps by 500 and 100 respectively by September 28.
Queensland and Western Australia will adopt a two-stage increase in their arrival caps over the next three weeks, which will see an additional 500 Australians returning through each state each week.
Queensland will start with welcoming an additional 200 passengers by September 28 and a further 300 passengers by October 5.
Western Australia will start with an additional 200 passengers by September 28 and a further 300 passengers by October 12.
“Now, New South Wales has been carrying the majority share and will continue to do that,” Mr Morrison said.
READ MORE: Time for all to get back to work: Morrison
Olivia Caisley 1.55pm: National move to connect contact tracing data
Scott Morrison says his government will lead an effort to connect the state’s contact tracing systems ahead of an expected influx of Australians returning home from overseas.
The Prime Minister said the nation’s chief scientist Alan Finkel and Commodore Mark Hill had compared Victoria’s system with that used in NSW to see what parts of the Victorian tracing regime could be improved.
“Under the Commonwealth lead we’ll be taking the lessons out of that NSW/Victorian exchange and applying that to each of the states and territories,” Mr Morrison said on Friday. “So, that will provide a reckoner against a benchmark to ensure that we keep our tracing systems up to standard and up to being match-fit over time as well.”
Mr Morrison said that the Commonwealth would also lead an initiative to connect all the digital systems used by the states and territories so they can interact with each other.
“That doesn’t mean they need to be all on the same system, reproducing that effort would take considerable time, and unnecessary cost,” he said. “But we can design and develop a digital overlay across all those systems, which will mean that if there were to be an outbreak in a particular place, what that means is that we would be able to swarm, harness the tracing capabilities of more states and territories, to plug in to the tracing work that is being done in that particular jurisdiction.”
READ MORE: State’s stubborn contact tracing fail
Olivia Caisley 1.50pm: National cabinet working, despite disagreements: PM
Scott Morrison has praised the National Cabinet process, declaring that despite disagreements between the Commonwealth and state and territory leaders from time to time the body is working well together during the coronavirus crisis.
The Prime Minister on Friday said Australians should be confident that the National Cabinet process was working as it should.
“We haven’t always agreed. There’s been the odd exchange of words from time to time but I want to reassure Australians that, when we get in that room, we solve things,” he said. “We make the compromises that are needed from time to time to get to a yes and to get to going forward.”
He also welcomed the relaxation of restrictions in parts of regional Victoria, as well as news that ACT residents would be able to travel to Queensland.
“We are hopeful that the road map that has been outlined by the Victorian Premier continues to be achieved, and we hope it continues to be accelerated in response to the case numbers that we’re seeing there and that was refreshing news,” he said. “It’s good news that ACT is being opened up to Queensland.”
It comes a week after Mr Morrison made an unsuccessful appeal to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to allow Canberra resident Sarah Caisip to attend the funeral of her father in Brisbane.
READ MORE: Qld, WA border closures ‘un-Australian’
Rebecca Urban 12.47pm: Five households linked to Casey outbreak
Contact tracing has identified five linked households in Melbourne’s south-east that are at the root of the latest coronavirus outbreak in the area.
Of 90 active cases in the Casey and Dandenong areas, a cluster of 34 cases have spread across five households where members were found to have travelled further than the five-kilometre limit and visited each others’ homes.
Jeroen Weimar, the head of the state’s coronavirus transport strategy, said a “painstaking contact tracing exercise” had identified five households in Hallam, Clyde, Narrewarren South and Cranbourne.
Mr Weimar said investigations had discovered members of those households had travelled for essential reasons, such as for shopping, including to the Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, largely within five kilometres from their homes.
“But we’ve also seen within this cluster [the] visiting of houses beyond five kilometres radius …. so these five houses that have had unfortunately some members visiting other households
“Relatively infrequent contact … has now meant we have 34 people in five houses exposed to or living with a very real threat of the coronavirus.”
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said the revelation was “disappointing”.
“But what’s happened has happened and were concentrating on stopping the further spread of this.”
As The Australian reported on Friday urgent meetings have been held with multicultural community leaders and local councils in Melbourne‘s outer southeast in the wake of the outbreak.
The cluster, which is understood to be linked to multiple households and have links to the local Afghan community, includes unknown source cases.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the outbreak had been complex but had been managed “very well”.
He said there could be some more cases emerge but “we believe we’ve got our arms around this”.
“We have a high degree of confidence we have contained this.”
Mr Andrews also said the cluster spoke to how rapidly the virus spreads and that people visiting others’ homes without a valid reason were risking undermining the state’s recovery strategy.
He said it wasn’t a reflection on an individual community or postcode.
“If you go visiting and you’ve got this you will take it with you,” Mr Andrews said.
READ MORE: Community motivated to beat this, says Brett Sutton
David Ross 12.30pm: Albanese: PM dumps border responsibility on states
Labor Leader Anthony Albanese has targeted the federal government for the continued border closures and quarantine cap restrictions that have left more than 25,000 Australians overseas unable to return.
“Some people may think it’s acceptable for the national leader of this country to pass off that responsibility to the states as if it’s nothing to do with him,” he said.
“We have a prime minister who is chairing the so-called national cabinet today, that’s not national and not a cabinet, and he’ll probably hold a press conference saying anything that’s positive arising out of it, and saying any issues that are difficult are the responsibilities of the states. If a Federal Government is not responsible for a national border, I don’t know what it’s responsible for.”
He also criticised the federal government’s attacks on Queensland Premier Anastasia Palazcuk as ideological while ignoring similar closures from Tasmania.
“South Australia and Tasmania – try and fly to Tasmania this afternoon and see how you go. That’s the Liberal Party’s rhetoric, that it is only Labor states, not Liberal states.”
“The media have a responsibility to report fairly what is actually happening here, which is that the national prime minister has responsibility for our international borders.”
READ MORE: New outbreak in hospital
Brent Read 11.55am: Storm’s Welch stood down for breaching Covid rules
Melbourne prop Christian Welch has been stood down for Saturday night’s game against the Wests Tigers after breaching biosecurity protocols.
It is understood Welch is also facing a fine from the NRL over the incident, which happened while the Storm was still under strict biosecurity provisions.
Melbourne were due to have their restrictions loosened overnight but it is understood Welch jumped the gun after inviting a visitor to the team hotel on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, where the club has been based for much of the season.
He will be forced to undergo a COVID test before he is cleared to return, potentially for the club’s final game of the season against St George Illawarra.
“I’m incredibly remorseful and sorry for my actions,” Welch said in a statement.
“I love this game and everything it has given me and I’m shattered that I have let everyone down.
“Calling my parents to let them know about this was the worst phone call I’ve ever made.
“I know it’s a privilege to play in the NRL and I want to apologise to all for any damage I have caused.”
Welch has undergone a COVID test as a matter of priority, with results expected to be known within 24 hours.
He will remain in isolation until the results are known but will continue to be supported by the club’s wellbeing staff.
READ MORE: Hosting rugby championships fool’s gold
David Ross 11.30am: Queensland CHO defends Nathan Turner decisions
Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young has addressed the alarm and subsequent stand down after Nathan Turner, a man from Blackwater in the centre of the state tested positive to COVID-19 after his death.
Mr Turner was reported as the youngest Australian to die from COVID-19, but subsequent investigations found he tested negative.
Ms Young said the false-negative was difficult to address as Mr Turner had died and the following test had been contaminated with blood.
“What was more important for me is the amount of testing we did in that town and we didn’t find a case,” she said.
“We don’t know what it means when someone dies and the virus starts to decompose.”
“You can imagine there I’ve got a positive result that was done on a piece of equipment we trust saying it’s positive and that was the test that was done the quickest after the gentleman died.”
Queensland deputy premier Steven Miles defended the decision to keep Mr Turner’s close contacts in quarantine after his death.
There was a series of tests and the right decision was made to act on the implication of one positive test,” he said.
“Some people got tested who didn’t need to, compare that to an outbreak in a small town. I stand by the decisions that were made in that weekend.”
READ MORE: We won’t fly solo on hotels, PM told
David Ross 11.20am: NSW reports six new cases
NSW has reported six new cases of COVID-19 in the state, but only one case has been locally acquired and is linked to a known cluster.
The new cases take the state’s total to 4007.
Five of the new cases were in travellers in hotel quarantine.
Six new cases of #COVID19 were diagnosed in the 24 hours to 8pm last night. Of the six new cases:
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) September 18, 2020
- 5 are returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine
- 1 is locally acquired and linked to a previous case who attended Liverpool Hospital
The new case has been in isolation. pic.twitter.com/lN5X6LMtJX
Cruise ships still account for the largest single overseas source of infections to NSW, followed by travellers from the United States.
The locally acquired case was a household contact of a previously reported case of someone who had attended Liverpool Hospital.
The Liverpool Hospital cluster has now grown to 21 cases.
The mysterious case reported in the Murrumbidgee area in the border area of NSW reported yesterday remains under investigation.
The case initially tested positive but a subsequent test came back negative.
The affected person is still in isolation awaiting further tests.
Test numbers have declined since the last reporting period, with only 16,843 undertaken.
The day before 20,411 tests were reported.
NSW Health is urging anyone with even the mildest symptoms including runny noses or scratchy throat to come forward for testing as they may indicate a mild form of the virus.
READ MORE: Locals look to UK insurance case
David Ross 11.15am: Sewage tests show Covid in Hervey Bay
Queensland’s deputy premier has announced it has turned up small samples of COVID-19 as part of sewerage testing across the state but said conclusions should not be drawn yet.
Queensland’s Deputy premier Steven Miles said tests had confirmed very low levels of the virus in sewerage testing in the Hervey Bay region.
Queensland chief health officer said the state was taking a “very cautious approach“ to the finding.
“We are testing sewage across the state and we are picking up virus every so often. Not sure at this point in time what that really means,” she said.
“We know you can shed virus for a long, long time but we do not want to talk the fact that perhaps the virus is in the sewage for a recent infection and that is why we’re doing this, just to be careful it is really important that across the state people continued to come forward and get tested.”
Mackenzie Scott 10.56am ‘For Canberrans, Queensland is good to come’: Miles
Queensland will lift its controversial border restrictions to the ACT from next Friday.
State health minister Stephen Miles announced on Friday morning that free travel between the two states will be allowed from 1am, Friday September 25 without the need to quarantine.
The ACT has not had any community transmission of COVID-19 for over a month
“We’ve been saying for some time now that for Queenslanders, Queensland is good to go. Now for Canberrans, Queensland is good to come,” Mr Miles said.
The border to Canberra was closed at the same time NSW was declared a hotspot, after one person used the inland state as a backdoor into QLD to bypass restrictions.
No change has been made to current NSW and Victoria restrictions, with all return travellers expected to enter mandatory hotel quarantine at their own cost upon entry to Queensland.
The restrictions on the inland state drew fierce criticism last week after Canberra nurse Sarah Caisip, 26, was unable to attend her father’s funeral due to mandatory 14 day quarantine restrictions. She was eventually granted an eleventh hour exemption to attend a short private viewing following the service.
READ MORE: Bereaved daughter Sarah Caisip wears full PPE to view father’s body
David Ross 10.37am QLD to drop border restrictions to ACT flights
Queensland has announced no new cases of coronavirus and flagged from next Friday border restrictions for residents of the ACT who fly into the state will be dropped from 1am next Friday 25 September.
The move comes after the ACT recorded no cases of COVID-19 for months and follows South Australia doing the same earlier this week.
BREAKING: Queensland borders will open to the Australian Capital Territory at 1am on Friday, September 25.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 18, 2020
I have spoken with Chief Minister Andrew Barr to confirm the ACT will be removed as a hotspot.#covid19au pic.twitter.com/ynleI65GZt
This is another step towards ensuring Queensland’s economy rebounds, not the virus. #covid19au
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 18, 2020
Queensland’s Deputy premier Steven Miles said the news showed the stark difference in the experience in parts of Australia compared to the outbreak in other parts of the world.
We’ll work with ACT authorities to make sure appropriate checks are in place at Canberra Airport for people flying into Queensland.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) September 18, 2020
Anyone who has been in a declared hotspot in the past 14 days will not be allowed into Queensland.#covid19au
This is time to coincide with the school holidays in the ACT. A great chance to come and visit friends and relatives, go to the reef, go to one of our wonderful tourism hot spots,” he said.”
This is great news for the ACT and recognition for the fact that they have been some time without any cases.”
READ MORE: In Palaszczuk and Andrews, we face a plague of Creons
David Ross 10.22am Telehealth thrown six-month lifeline
Federal Labor shadow health minister Chris Bowen has welcomed the extension to telehealth announced this morning, but said the announcement came “with not a minute to spare”.
“The six-month extension is vital, it’s welcome and it’s supported. I wish it had happened earlier,” he said.
As the national cabinet meets to discuss quarantine arrangements and border restrictions Mr Bowen said he was outraged prime minister Scott Morrison had supported Clive Palmers high court border challenge.
“The states need support, they don’t need carping from Canberra,” he said.
“This should not be this partisan battering ram that Scott Morrison has tried to make it.”
He said the discussion to life quarantine caps was “welcome” but noted it continued to be an issue shifted onto the states.
“If there are sensible arrangements entered into by the states and the commonwealth we will welcome it,” he said.
He warned that moves to walk back JobKeeper support and reimpose job-seeking requirements showed how out of touch senior members of the government were with the situation on the ground.
“If the government thinks everything can return to normal and snapback they are wrong,” he said.
“The change to JobKeeper will have a real and negative impact on the economy. This pandemic is not over there are maintained constraints on what people can do and how they can work. For the government so suggest otherwise shows they’re out of touch.”
READ MORE: Subsidised telehealth to get a $2bn boost
Rebecca Urban 10.17am Spike in Vic cases
Victoria has reported a further 45 new cases of COVID-19 and five deaths over the past 24 hours, the state’s health department has confirmed.
#COVID19VicData: Yesterday there were 45 new cases reported and 5 lives lost. Our thoughts are with all affected. The 14 day rolling average & number of cases with unknown source is down from yesterday as we move toward COVID Normal.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) September 18, 2020
Info: https://t.co/pcll7yB2RZ #COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/6hd8jIeXvg
Although a spike from Thursday’s new cases of 28, the state’s 14-day rolling average and number of mystery cases continues to fall.
READ MORE: Women power rebound
David Charter 10.05am Wearing glasses may curb COVID infection
Wearing glasses may help to protect against coronavirus infection, according to a small Chinese study which has led to calls for further research.
The low rate of spectacle-wearers admitted to hospital with COVID-19 was observed by scientists in Suizhou, near Wuhan, the source of the outbreak.
Only 5.8 per cent of patients with the virus regularly wore glasses, despite 31.5 per cent of the general population wearing them, the researchers found. The study, published in JAMA Ophthalmology, covered 276 patients, 16 of whom wore glasses for at least eight hours a day.
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan in December 2019, we observed that few patients with eyeglasses were admitted in the hospital ward,” the researchers wrote, suggesting that this “could be preliminary evidence that daily wearers of eyeglasses are less susceptible to COVID-19”.
They added: “These findings suggest that the eye may be an important infection route for COVID-19 and more attention should be paid to preventive measures such as frequent handwashing and avoiding touching the eyes.”
Lisa Maragakis, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, called for further research before any conclusions could be drawn. “We must be careful to avoid inferring a causal relationship from a single observational study,” she wrote in an accompanying article.
She said that the authors acknowledged their study’s small size and the uncertainty about the number of those who wore glasses in the city, as well as the possibility that other factors were at play, such as those who could afford glasses living or working in less crowded conditions.
She warned that people who suddenly began wearing eye protection might actually be more at risk from regularly touching their face.
She said that glasses may serve as a partial barrier against the spread from droplets, adding: “More retrospective and prospective studies are needed to confirm the association that was observed in this study and to determine whether there is any incremental benefit to wearing eyeglasses.”
The Times reports
READ MORE: In Palaszczuk and Andrews, we face a plague of Creons
Adeshola Ore 9.30am Flight attendant pivots in economy shift
Ashleigh Louis’s stint with Qantas as a flight attendant was cut short after only three months when she was stood down during the wave of aviation redundancies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Having spent five years living in Dubai working for Emirates, she craved returning to Australia. But the pandemic forced the 26-year-old into a sudden career shift — swapping her airline experience for a return to hospitality.
“I knew I liked hospitality … I love that it’s a social thing as well as work. A lot of my friends work here and I’m friends with the customers here so it’s a very fun environment,” she said.
“I’m also sleeping a lot better because I’m not doing overnight work, which is good.”
Ms Louis is one thousands of Australians finding their way back into the workforce, with official figures showing the nation’s unemployment rate falling faster than expected to 6.8 per cent in August, from 7.5 per cent in July. The figures released on Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that much of the lift in employment came from a 74,800 rise in part-time jobs.
Ms Louis now works as a casual gaming assistant at Bella Vista Hotel, owned by Momento Hospitality Group, in Sydney’s northwest. Having previously worked for one of the group’s other venues allowed her to secure her current role through old contacts.
“I feel quite lucky that I did get the job in the middle of a pandemic,” she said.
“I did see a lot of my colleagues that had a lot to lose, like family to look after, and it was really hard to see so many of my colleagues unable to find employment, so I just feel really lucky.”
READ the full story here
David Ross 8.50am: Melbourne protesters will face riot police
Anti-lockdown protesters in Melbourne are once again threatening to take to the streets of Melbourne and called on Victorian chief health officer Dr Brett Sutton to relax restrictions on protests.
But Victoria Police have said they will not tolerate anti-lockdown protests, although
Deputy Police Commissioner Rick Nugent said he didn’t want to redeploy police to deal with the protesters.
“The moment they congregate, they’re out of their five kilometres and it’s not a permitted purpose,” Mr Nugent said on 3AW radio
“The moment they turn up to protest it’s a criminal offence.”
He added: “Unfortunately we’re going to continue to have to drag police off other functions and other roles to come into the city to police these people that are just continuing to do this,” he said.
“We need to, we don’t want to. We just need to.”
Victoria police busted a protest by the anti-lockdown activists at Melbourne’s iconic Victoria market last weekend, arresting 74 people and issuing 170 fines.
READ MORE: We need all the info we can get
David Ross 8.35am: Frydenberg: Positive signs across economy
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has all but confirmed the bringing forward of tax cuts as part of a suite of economic measures from the federal government aimed at boosting the economic recovery coming out of the coronavirus recession.
Speaking on the Today show Mr Frydenberg said the road ahead would be “pretty bumpy” but that there were “positive signs across the economy and we have the plan to get people back to work”.
But he warned the recovery between the states would be hampered by border restrictions and the Victorian lockdowns.
“Obviously we would like to see the borders open because that will create more jobs too,” he said.
“We supported Victorians to the tune of more than $28 billion. That’s an enormous amount of money. And when it comes to JobKeeper, the expectation is that 60 per cent of people who are on JobKeeper in the December and in the March quarters will be from Victoria. So there will be more people on JobKeeper than from all the other states combined.”
But he confirmed the mutual obligation requirements being imposed on job seekers around Australia would not apply in Victoria.
“We are not putting the same mutual obligation requirements in Victoria, and that’s obviously a reflection of the fact that there is still a curfew in place and stage four restrictions. Outside of Victoria, it is a better economic environment,” he said.
He said the government would make further announcements about its tax cut plans on or before the October six budget.
“In the context of the budget and getting more people money into their pockets so they can spend and help create jobs across the economy we will consider the timing of those tax cuts in the context of this year’s budget,” he said.
READ MORE: Time for all to get back to work
David Ross 8.05am: Carbon moves need financial incentives
Jillian Broadbent chairman of Clean Energy Finance Corporation has said efforts to encourage investment in carbon capture and storage won’t work unless there were financial incentives.
“I can’t see carbon capture and storage passing that initial approval of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, or attracting the additional funds to go with it,” she said.
“In Australia, we don’t have a price on carbon and we don’t have a great incentive to pursue a reduction (in emissions).”
“There’s no government policy to specifically encourage that or finance that so I can’t see how carbon capture and storage is going to be particularly economic.”
She said the gas plan announced this week would be hampered by the swings in prices.
“We can’t have a gas policy that will move around with the gas price,” she said.
“One thing about renewable energy. it might be intermittent but at least we know the price.”
READ MORE: Power reset a shock for investors
David Ross 7.55am: Retain ‘revolutionary’ telehealth after Covid: Hunt
Health Minister Greg Hunt Minister has said the success of telehealth during the coronavirus crisis shows it should be retained into the future.
“This is a goal to have it as a permanent thing going forward,” Mr Hunt told Sunrise on Friday.
“We know that it has provided over 30 million consultations through the pandemic. It was a reform we were able to bring forward in 10 days. We learned a lot from that. It has serviced patients, protected patients, protected doctors and nurses. We are extending it for six months, but our plan and our intention is for this to be an abiding legacy change to the health system.”
Speaking later on ABC News Breakfast Mr Hunt said he rejected criticism from West Australia’s premier Mark McGowan over its moves to boost hotel quarantine.
There’s capacity, massive hotel capacity around the country to bring Australians home, to bring our sons and daughters home, to bring our parents, to bring people who want to return to their own country home,” he said.
“But we’ve been very clear that the advice from one of the toughest public servants ever to work in Australia, one of the finest public servants ever to work in Australia, is there’s a clear capacity that can be increased and that means more Australians coming home before Christmas.”
READ MORE: Telehealth to get $2bn boost
David Ross 7.40am: V’landys welcomes stadium limits relaxation
Australian rugby league chairman Peter V’landys welcomed the relaxation of seating limits in some sporting stadiums in NSW yesterday.
Speaking on Nine’s Today show Mr V’landys called the shift to a checkerboard pattern seating “the news that all the foot fans have been waiting for”.
“I compliment the NSW Government and particularly Kerrie Chant the Chief Medical Officer who has been the superstar in this whole COVID in NSW,” he said.
He said he supported the move as it was “based on data”.
“The data at the moment shows that the community infections are low, and by the time the finals come hopefully they will be zero. So the risk is minimal,” he said.
“We want to accommodate as many fans as possible. There have been so loyal to the game, they have been season ticket holders who haven’t asked for refunds and members. So we want to repay that loyalty because our fans are our number one priority.”
Chairman Peter V’landys poked fun at the AFL after its move to play the grand final at the Gabba, branding it “like people going to an ABBA concert when they’re AC/DC fans”.
“They’ll like the rhythm for a while but they’ll go back to the real heavy stuff; the rugby league,” he said.
It comes after V’landys earlier this month mocked the AFLs move, jokingly suggesting the NRL grand final would be played in Cairns.
READ MORE: Hosting rugby championship is fools gold
David Ross 7.35am: Job seeking requirements boosted by jobs numbers
Simon Birmingham has said the reintroduction of job seeking requirements for unemployed Australians will go ahead, although Victorians will remain unaffected for the moment.
The Trade Tourism and Investment minister said the move was encouraged by Thursday’s news of an unexpected drop in unemployment.
“It won’t all be plain sailing. We acknowledge that but it is important we drive and encourage that whenever we can, that’s why our plan for the budget handed down next month is all about jobs,” Senator Birmingham told Nine’s Today program.
“We recognise it’s a horses for courses situation, so there is no extra obligation on JobSeekers in Victoria. But around the rest of the country, we are moving it slowly.”
But Deputy Leader of the Opposition Richard Marles said it was unrealistic to place job seeking requirements onto so many, given the extent of unemployment and the numbers of open jobs.
“In Australia right now there are 13 people unemployed for every job that is available. In regional Australia here in Geelong that’s much worse, it is 23 people to every job that’s available. So I think there has got to be some sense of practicality about mutual obligation works for people looking for jobs,” he said.
“Simon talks about a jobs plan at the budget, well that will be good news because we are seeing precious little in the way of a jobs plan from in government so far. And ultimately what we need to be hearing from the government about is what is their plan to reconstruct this economy out of COVID, in a way which generates permanent long term jobs.”
Mr Marles also savaged the government over the international and national border “mess” which he laid at the feet of the government.
“If you are an Australian overseas right now, you are faced with a bill of thousands, north of 10,000 in some cases to just get home. And that is unquestionably the responsibility of the Federal Government,” he said.
“When it comes to our internal borders, the prime minister has completely vacated the field here. It is genuinely astonishing. John Howard wouldn’t have done that. We have a complete lack of leadership when it coming from our Federal Government about both the management of our internal borders but also the management of our national borders.”
READ MORE: Many stood down will never get jobs back
David Ross 7.15am: Global cases set to top 30m by day’s end
Global cases of COVID-19 are all but certain to top 30m by the end of the day, with real figures likely far higher already. Global deaths as a result of the virus stand at 942,896.
The pandemic is gathering pace in Europe where the World Health Organization has warned of ‘alarming rates of transmission’ of COVID-19.
WHO’s Europe Head Dr Hans Kluge said there was now in a “very serious situation” after more than 300,000 cases were confirmed across the region last week.
“Weekly cases have now exceeded those reported when the pandemic first peaked in Europe in March,” Dr Kluge said.
“This pandemic has taken so much from us in Europe: 4,893,614 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded and 226,524 deaths and that tells only part of the story.”
The warning from the WHO comes after France registered 10,593 new cases of COVID-19 amid a worsening of the outbreak in Nice and Lyon, where additional government anti-viral measures have been put in place.
France recently relaxed its quarantine requirements for people who test positive or come into contact with confirmed cases from 14 days down to 7.
Austria’s government has now confirmed the country was going through a second wave, with new social restrictions put in place to combat infections that have rapidly been rising into the high hundreds.
From midnight on Monday next week all parties, private events and indoor meetings will be limited to 10 people.
Funerals will be exempt from the new rules and outdoor meetings are capped at 100.
Cafe and restaurant customers will have to wear a mask when not at tables.
About 1.5m people in north-east England will be placed under increased lockdowns from midnight Friday as cases of COVID-19 have rocketed.
Earlier this week England reimposed social restrictions, limiting gatherings to six people.
Canada’s chief public health officer has warned the country risked losing control of its infection control after a recent surge in new cases
Canada has recorded 140,539 cases but had stamped down earlier rates of infection before the recent resurgence.
There are warnings the country may enter a second lockdown if it is unable to control new infections.
But South and Central America are proving to be the new epicentres of the virus, with four of the ten worst-hit countries in the regions.
Peru, Colombia, Mexico and Argentina have recorded at least 2.75m cases between them since the start of the pandemic.
Peru was an early achiever in the fight against the virus, imposing one of the earlier lockdowns in the world.
READ MORE: Supply chains remain resilient
Anne Barrowclough 7.00am: Researchers probe Covid link to heart problems
British researchers are to investigate whether COVID-19 causes heart damage after an increasing number of doctors reported seeing previously healthy people experiencing myocarditis-induced heart failure after they caught coronavirus.
How the virus might damage heart muscle is just one question researchers are now probing. Other studies are following people during and after acute illness to learn how common heart inflammation is after COVID-19, how long it lingers, and whether it responds to specific treatments, the journal Nature reports.
Researchers also want to know whether patients fare similarly to those with myocarditis from other causes, which can include chemotherapy and other viruses. In more than half of virus-induced cases, the inflammation resolves without incident.
Echocardiogram studies after some influenza outbreaks also suggest up to ten per cent of flu patients have transient heart abnormalities
Valentina Püntmann, a cardiologist at University Hospital Frankfurt., used MRI to scan the hearts of 100 COVID-19 patients an average of 71 days after they had tested positive. The scans showed cardiac abnormalities in 78 people, with 60 appearing to have active inflammation. Most also described lingering symptoms, such as fatigue and mild shortness of breath, leading Dr Püntmann to wonder whether heart inflammation might be responsible.
READ MORE: Magic number for borders to reopen
Chris Merritt 6.30am: Andrews at risk from class action fees creation
Last November, when the Victorian government introduced contingency fees for class actions, few would have guessed that within a year Premier Dan Andrews and his government would be at risk of being eaten alive by their own creation.
Thanks to the ineptitude that has been revealed at the Coate inquiry into Melbourne’s failed hotel quarantine arrangements, class actions alleging government negligence are off to a flying start.
Quinn Emanuel’s claim seeks to compensate businesses while employees and others who have been unable to earn an income are covered by a separate class action filed this week by Carbone Lawyers. Testimony at the Coate inquiry has strengthened both cases, which could be worth billions of dollars when losses are eventually quantified.
That money is needed by those whose livelihoods have suffered a massive hit. But don’t forget the lawyers.
Class action lawyers in Victoria now have the option of asking a judge to issue a “group costs order”, giving them a percentage of the payout. The question facing a judge is not whether that percentage is reasonable, but whether is it “necessary to ensure that justice is done”.
A modest contingency fee, of say 5 per cent, could result in one of the nation’s biggest paydays for lawyers. At that rate, a relatively modest payout of $1bn would hand $50m to the lawyers.
READ the full article here
David Penberthy 6.00am: Plea to fall in line on opening borders
Every state and territory should fall in line behind the commonwealth on reopening the borders, according to Steven Marshall, with the South Australian Premier declaring it “implausible” for current arrangements to continue.
Mr Marshall, backing Scott Morrison’s push for a consistent national approach to borders, said South Australia had shown borders could be reopened without any threat of an explosion in coronavirus cases.
South Australia lifted its border restrictions with the ACT on Wednesday, and had already opened borders to Western Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. While health officials continue to have concerns over community transmissions in NSW, the state is set to reopen that border as early as next week.
Mr Marshall said even while a hard border with Victoria remained in place, authorities were more relaxed as cases eased and had let 3000 Victorians enter on emergency business and family grounds on Tuesday, up from just 400 a day one month ago.
“From our perspective, it’s pretty simple — we want to open up our borders as soon as it is safe to do so,” he said.
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Rachel Baxendale 5.45am: Community motivated to beat this: Sutton
Health authorities in Victoria have been holding urgent meetings with multicultural community leaders and local councils in Melbourne‘s outer southeast, amid a coronavirus cluster in the Casey local government area which has been linked to 34 cases since Sunday.
The cluster, which is understood to be linked to multiple households and have links to the local Afghan community, includes unknown source cases.
It comes as Melbourne’s number of unknown source cases increased from 81 to 83 on Thursday — an undesirable trend given the city needs to record fewer than five unknown source cases in the fortnight to October 26 to be released from stay-at-home and curfew restrictions under the Andrews government’s reopening road map.
It also occurs as case numbers elsewhere are decreasing, with Thursday’s 28 new cases the lowest daily increase since June 24.
Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said the Department of Health and Human Services had held a community meeting on Wednesday night, with three new pop-up testing clinics established in the area in the suburbs of Clyde, Hallam and Noble Park.
Professor Cheng said a localised contact tracing approach, which had been deployed in regional Victoria, was not yet up and running in suburban Melbourne, but some of the principles were being applied to the Casey cluster.
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Rosanne Barrett 5.30am: Gateways to growth
Maintaining efficiency and productivity through Australia’s ports will allow the nation’s trade to continue to flow as it emerges from the COVID-19 recession.
More than 98 per cent of Australia’s international trade products pass through the nation’s ports — worth more than $1.2bn each day — making the infrastructure a critical element in the economy and its future recovery.
Ports Australia chief executive Mike Gallacher says the importance of ports achieved wider recognition during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the supply chain allowed continued trade despite peak demand.
“We saw ourselves as the enablers,” he says. “The supply chain had the country’s back. We had access to the resources that we needed, we had access to imports and we were committed to getting the job done.
“From the stevedore unpacking the ship to the store worker packing the shelves at Coles or Woolworths in Kempsey and Taree and everywhere else around the country, we got the job done.”
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