Coronavirus Australia live news: Victoria records 273 cases, one more death; NSW ‘at crossroads’
Four more cases linked to Crossroads pub cluster, as DCMO urges testing, while sharing Gladys’ concerns that NSW could go down Vic path.
- Return to home learning in Victoria
- NSW at crossroads, warns Premier
- 273 cases in Victoria, one more death
- Returned travellers to be charged for hotel quarantine
- Bus driver dies after attack over mask-wearing rules
- Second wave affecting younger demographic
Hello and welcome to The Australian’s rolling coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Victoria has recorded 273 new cases of COVID-19 and one more death, amid an outbreak at a major Melbourne hospital. Meanwhile, NSW will begin charging returned travellers $3000 each for their stay in mandatory quarantine.
Angelica Snowden 10.15pm: Gym closes as Casula outbreak grows
A Sydney gym has closed in Casula after one of its members tested positive to COVID-19.
Planet Fitness, located in the same suburb as the Crossroads Hotel that has been linked with an outbreak of nine coronavirus cases, reported that its temporary closure on Sunday.
A statement on the gym’s Facebook page said the member had not visited the club since Friday.
“Our team members are in self-quarantine as instructed by their doctor as a precaution because of contact with the member,”the statement said.
“We are disinfecting all areas of our club.”
It is unclear whether the case is linked with the cluster at nearby Crossroads Hotel.
Max Maddison 8.40pm: Queensland the top tourism destination
New figures show Queensland is the premier holiday destination choice for interstate travellers, as its struggling $2.5bn tourism sector pitches for business as the Palaszczuk government lifts border restrictions.
Read the full story here
Samantha Bailey 8.15pm: Cashing in: $100 note in demand
Fifty and hundred-dollar notes are emerging as the denominations of choice in the coronavirus economy with the number on issue surging to record highs.
Read the full story here
AFP 7.45pm: Outbreak at Indonesian military academy infects 1300
Nearly 1300 people at a military academy in Indonesia have tested positive for the coronavirus, an official said, as the country struggles to contain the epidemic.
The Indonesian Army Officer Candidate School in the country’s most populated province of West Java has been quarantined and 30 people were initially hospitalised with mild symptoms, the army’s chief of staff, General Andika Perkasa, said late Saturday.
Of the 1,280 confirmed infections, 991 were cadets and the rest were staff and their family members, he said. Most had no symptoms.
Seventeen were still in hospital on Saturday.
The outbreak was first detected when two cadets went to a medical facility after complaining of fever and back pain.
READ MORE: Labor backs COVID inquiry
Peter Conradi 7.15pm: WHO probe won’t visit Wuhan lab
The World Health Organisation is under fire from scientists over indications that its planned mission to China to investigate the origins of COVID-19 will not visit a secretive laboratory that researches coronaviruses in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak.
Read the full story here
Angelica Snowden 6.40pm: Queensland alert over Sydney pub
A public health alert has been issued to Queenslanders who visited the Crossroads Hotel in Sydney amid fears a COVID-19 cluster linked with the pub could spread beyond NSW.
The Queensland government urged anyone from the state who visited the hotel in Casula between July 3 and last Friday to “get COVID-19 tested and isolate immediately”.
Deputy Premier and Minister for Health and Ambulance Services Steven Miles said the outbreak was “concerning”.
“The hotel is a busy stopover for many travellers, so it is very likely that there are a number of Queenslanders who have been there during this period,” Mr Miles said in a statement.
Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young said the “growing cluster” in NSW is a reminder that the “pandemic is far from over”.
“We have seen cases increase exponentially in the greater-Melbourne area and now there is a growing cluster in South West Sydney,” Dr Young said.
“Critically we have also seen community transmission rapidly grow within just a few weeks.
“We need to rapidly respond to outbreaks like this by testing and self-isolating.”
Queensland state borders opened to all interstate travellers except Victorians on July 10.
No new cases of coronavirus were diagnosed in the state overnight.
READ MORE: Morrison shows his true colours at footy
Steve Jackson 6.10pm: Morrison shows his true colours at footy
The Prime Minister was supporting his team and his community by spending an afternoon at the footy during a tough time for both. Leadership and loyalty is not inappropriate.
Read the full story here
Rachel Baxendale 5.40pm: Fears over infected health workers
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he was concerned by a raft of COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers in Victoria, including a cluster of at least eight at Melbourne’s major trauma hospital The Alfred.
There have been infections in workers at 10 other Melbourne hospitals this month alone.
“Of course it’s a concern. As the last line of defence, we know that they’re a critical workforce,” Professor Sutton said.
“They have the personal protective equipment available to them, but it’s a high risk setting in managing all of the cases that we know will be cared for in healthcare settings.
“The workforces know what to do, but it is a risk that can’t be mitigated down to zero, and my thoughts go to those frontline workers.
“I’ve been an emergency department doctor for years, and they are brave and they are brilliant in responding to the challenges of positive cases.”
Angelica Snowden 5.00pm: Four more COVID cases linked to Crossroads cluster
Four more COVID-19 cases have been linked with a cluster at a pub in Sydney’s southwest, renewing fears a second wave of the pandemic could soon impact NSW.
There are now a total of nine cases that have been linked with the Crossroads Hotel, NSW Health has confirmed.
PUBLIC HEALTH ALERT
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 12, 2020
Anyone who attended the Crossroads Hotel Casula between Friday 3 - 10 July should immediately self-isolate until 14 days after they were last there, get tested even if they have no symptoms and stay in isolation for 14 days even if your test is negative. pic.twitter.com/vzLguInzy6
The new cases include:
A teenager from south west Sydney who worked at the hotel on several days including 3 July
A close contact of this worker, a woman in her 50s also from south west Sydney
A woman in her 40s from south west Sydney who had dinner at the hotel on July 3
A Victorian man in his 20s who had dinner at the hotel on July 3
These cases are in addition to the five previously reported that included a woman in her 30s from south west Sydney and a man in his 50s from the Blue Mountains who had dinner at the hotel on 3 July. Three household contacts of the Blue Mountains man have also been confirmed as positive for COVID-19.
None of the cases appear to be the cause of infection at the hotel.
READ MORE: Tales from the small business workplace during COVID-19
Rachel Baxendale 4.45pm: Data paints a grim picture of city-wide spike
Local government area COVID-19 case data for Sunday paints a grim picture of significant increases spread right across Melbourne.
The City of Melbourne, home to public housing tower hotspots, has the highest number of active cases of any LGA, with 229, including a net increase of 26 on Sunday.
Hume in the outer north is second, with 209 cases including a net increase of 33, while Wyndham in the outer southwest takes out third place with 196 active cases including a net increase of 21.
There has also been a significant increase in inner northwestern Moonee Valley, which also contains some of the Flemington public housing towers, with 163 active cases and a net increase of 41 on Sunday.
There are 20 LGAs across the Melbourne and Mitchell Shire lockdown area with more than 10 active cases.
Case numbers also continue to rise in regional Victoria, with a total of 23 active cases outside the locked down Melbourne metropolitan and Mitchell Shire areas, up from 15 on Saturday.
Concerningly, the regional cases are spread across the state, with five cases in Geelong, three in Greater Bendigo, three in Baw Baw, two each on the Bass Coast and in Greater Shepparton, and one each in Campaspe, Macedon Ranges, Moorabool, Swan Hill, Warrnambool, South Gippsland, Surf Coast and East Gippsland.
Active confirmed cases of COVID-19 by LGA as of Sunday, with net increase since Saturday in brackets:
City of Melbourne: 229 (+26)
Hume (outer north): 209 (+33)
Wyndham (outer southwest): 196 (+21)
Moonee Valley (northwest): 163 (+41)
Brimbank (outer west): 116 (+19)
Moreland (north): 75 (+8)
Whittlesea (outer north): 52 (+8)
Maribyrnong (inner west): 46 (+11)
Banyule (northeast): 38 (+10)
Darebin (north): 38 (+8)
Yarra (inner northeast): 36 (+10)
Melton (outer northwest): 34 (+6)
Whitehorse (east): 23 (+6)
Hobsons Bay (inner southwest): 23 (+5)
Casey (outer southeast): 22 (+1)
Monash (southeast): 21 (+2)
Boroondara (east): 17 (+5)
Port Phillip (inner south): 16 (+6)
Manningham (east): 16 (+2)
Stonnington (inner southeast): 15 (+1)
Mitchell (central regional Vic, north of Melb): 11 (-1)
Maroondah (outer east): 7 (+2)
Knox (outer east): 6 (+1)
Kingston (southeast): 5 (+1)
*Greater Geelong (southwest regional Vic): 5
Bayside (southeast): 4 (+1)
Cardinia (outer southeast): 4 (+1)
Greater Dandenong: (outer southeast): 4
Yarra Ranges (outer east) 4 (-1)
*Baw Baw (eastern regional Vic): 3 (+1)
Nillumbik (outer northeast): 3 (+1)
Frankston (outer southeast): 3
Glen Eira (east): 3
*Greater Bendigo (central regional Vic): 3
*Bass Coast (southeast regional Vic): 2 (+2)
*Greater Shepparton (northern regional Vic): 2 (+1)
*Campaspe (northern regional Vic): 1 (+1)
*Macedon Ranges (central regional Vic): 1 (+1)
*Moorabool (western regional Vic): 1 (+1)
*Swan Hill (northwest regional Vic): 1 (+1)
*Warrnambool (southwest regional Vic): 1 (+1)
*South Gippsland (eastern regional Vic): 1
*Surf Coast (southwest regional Vic): 1
*East Gippsland (east regional Vic): 1
Mornington Peninsula (inner regional, southeast): 0
Interstate: 3 (+1)
Unknown: 21 (-6)
TOTAL: 1249 (+235)
*Denotes LGAs outside the Melbourne metropolitan/Mitchell Shire lockdown
READ MORE: Melbourne auction clearance rates surge, despite coronavirus lockdown
Rachel Baxendale 4.00pm: Two public housing outbreaks linked to more than 250 cases
Victoria now has 1,253 more confirmed active cases of coronavirus than it did a fortnight ago, with the total reaching 1,484 on Sunday.
The number of cases from an unknown source has increased by almost 300 in that time, from 265 on June 28 to 562 on Sunday.
Of the total cases, 3415 cases have been in metropolitan Melbourne, while 288 were in regional Victoria, while 2017 have been in men and 1772 in women.
Victoria has recorded 273 new cases of #coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 3799. More information: https://t.co/QmsnsHRTDe#COVID19Vic pic.twitter.com/T4chHxo1G3
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) July 12, 2020
Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services says the number of COVID-19 cases linked to residents of public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington, in Melbourne’s inner northwest, has now risen to 237.
A separate outbreak in public housing in Carlton, in the inner north, has been linked to 28 cases.
The news on Sunday afternoon comes just hours after Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said on Sunday morning that there had so far been 145 cases linked to the North Melbourne and Flemington towers and 22 linked to Carlton.
READ MORE: Melbourne’s towering inferno of despair … for all
Angelica Snowden 3.40pm: DCMO shares Gladys’ fears over a NSW outbreak
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth says it is “critically important” that anyone who visited Sydney’s Crossroads Hotel between 3 and 10 July must get tested for COVID-19.
Dr Coats said authorities decided to use the afternoon press conference to send the message because it was a “national” platform and that anyone who attended the pub, even if they left NSW, should get tested for COVID-19 as a small cluster was linked with the venue.
“Anyone who is at the crossroads hotel in Casula in south-west Sydney between the dates of the 3 July and the 10 July … you are required to self isolate until 14 days after your visit,” Dr Coatsworth.
“You are strongly encouraged to get tested regardless of your symptoms,” he said.
Dr Coatsworth said he “shared the concern” of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian that the state could see an outbreak of coronavirus like that in Victoria.
“We are meeting on a daily basis to assist the Chief health officers of both states in developing their strategies and making sure that the small spot fires that have occurred in south west Sydney are put out as quickly as possible,” he said.
Broader testing of asymptomatic people outside hotspots is not worthwhile, Dr Coatsworth said.
“Your biggest bang for your buck is still to focus your testing on symptomatic individuals,” he said.
“That is still going to be the way that you detect most of the cases of Covid-19 and that is still going to be the way that you get control as quickly as possible.
“The asymptomatic test has a role in places where there is local small clusters, so the Casula case is a very good example.”
Residents in Melbourne hotspots who cannot socially distance should wear facemasks, but Dr Coatsworth said use of the personal protective equipment in south west sydney was not yet required.
“The New South Wales health department has recommended an increase in personal protective equipment for the hospitals in both local health districts around Casula, so that is a good example of where we are increasing personal protective equipment,” he said.
He also said Scott Morrison’s decision to attend the NRL in Sydney was not a mistake and that he was “demonstrating quite clearly to Australians that we can gather in a COVID safe way”.
READ MORE: Australia’s fatality rate one of lowest, but that’s not whole story
Rachel Baxendale 3.30pm: “The public health challenge of our lifetime”: Sutton
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he was making “tough decisions” every day, and the decision to subject families to more home schooling was no exception.
“I know families will absolutely be pained to have kids at home and needing to juggle all of their responsibilities,” Professor Sutton said.
“My household will have a little bit of pain in that regard, because there are many households where there are professional workers who are trying to work at the same time as those kids are home doing remote learning.
“It is a really significant challenge. Some kids thrive. Some kids can struggle with remote learning. We have to manage that.
“We haven’t even gotten to a peak with this epidemic. We have to throw absolutely everything at it.
“It’s the public health challenge of our lifetime, the biggest for 100 years since the Spanish flu, and it would have been irresponsible of me to have gone into a phase where we might even have increasing numbers day on day to have kids going back to school, as we’ve said, 700,000 plus moving about the state.”
Asked when he expected the current wave of infections to peak and how big it might be, Professor Sutton said he did not know what to expect.
“We have to reinforce that it is in everyone’s hands, so there is no magic forecast that I can give because I don’t know if everyone is going to do the right thing,” he said.
“I do know if we do do the right thing, we can absolutely turn this around and beat it, we must, and I would expect that if we are doing that, and testing appropriately, and isolating appropriately and doing all of the things that the key messages have tried to reinforce right through this, then we can see a turnaround in the next week, but there is no guarantee there.”
READ MORE: Tower and school link in Melbourne mega-cluster
Rachel Baxendale 3.20pm: People should still go to hospitals if they need to: Sutton
Amid numerous clusters of COVID-19 cases at Victorian hospitals, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said people should still go to hospital if they are unwell.
“People absolutely need to access the care that’s required, but they should wear a mask,” Professor Sutton said.
“That is doing the healthcare workers a good service in terms of protecting everyone.
“They should absolutely notify the triage nurse at arrival, with a mask on, if they’ve got any symptoms that are respiratory symptoms or symptoms that might be coronavirus symptoms, because they will be isolated immediately.
“But as a visitor, you must not visit if you’re unwell. You should not visit and you’re not allowed to visit if you’re unwell.”
Victoria’s recent hospital clusters include eight cases linked to The Alfred hospital, 11 linked to Brunswick Private Hospital and two linked to Box Hill hospital - all with new cases on Sunday.
There have also been recent clusters at the Northern Hospital emergency department in Epping, with at least nine staff and two household contacts infected, as well as smaller clusters or single cases at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, St Vincent’s, the Royal Women’s, the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the Epworth this month alone.
READ MORE: Hard lessons to learn from Melbourne’s Covid clusters
3.00pm Deputy CMO provides COVID update
Watch the live stream as Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, provides an update.
Angelica Snowden 2.50pm WA records only one new case
Western Australia has recorded just one new case of COVID-19 overnight, bringing the state’s total to 635.
The newest case in Western Australia is a returned overseas traveller who is isolated in hotel quarantine. The state’s 22 active cases are also in lockdown at hotels.
The good news in Western Australia came as the coronavirus crisis in Victoria deepened, with another 273 diagnoses confirmed in the 24-hours to Sunday.
In NSW, Premier Gladys Berejiklian feared that southwest Sydney could become a hotspot after an 18-year-old employee at the Crossroads Hotel tested positive to coronavirus.
Authorities confirmed that more than 400 people had volunteered to be tested at the pop-up clinic outside the hotel in Casula.
Five cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in NSW in the 24-hours to 8pm on Sunday.
Queensland recorded two new COVID-19 cases that were diagnosed in returned overseas travellers.
READ MORE: Clive Palmer challenge to WA border closure delayed
Rachel Baxendale 2.20pm: ‘We are all on the front line’: Andrews
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said that while healthcare workers were the “last line of defence” in the battle against coronavirus, it was ordinary Victorians who were on the front line.
Mr Andrews said he was heartened to see a lot less traffic driving in to the city from his home in Mulgrave, in Melbourne’s southeast, on Sunday morning.
“We’ve all seen lots of footage, lots of reports about very few people moving around retail centres, very few people moving around the city,” he said.
“I want to thank every single Victorian for taking these rules seriously, for taking the circumstances that we face seriously.
“This is a dangerous time. This is a very challenging time, and I know we’re asking a lot of Victorians, but we simply have no choice but to acknowledge the reality we face, and to do what must be done, and that is to follow those rules, to only go out when you need to and only go out for the purposes that are lawful.”
Mr Andrews said everyone had to play their part in the strategy to drive down cases of COVID-19.
There’s a lot said about frontline workers, there’s a lot said about nurses, doctors paramedics, all sorts of people who are often termed frontline workers,” he said.
“I just want to make it really clear, they’re not the front line. They are our last line of defence in our fight against this virus.
“The people who are truly on the front line are individuals and families right across metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire, and indeed right across our state.
“If every one of those (on the) front line do the right thing, then we will get past this.
“The opposite is true, of course. If we don’t follow the rules, if we don’t play our part, then we will simply see this virus continue to spread, and it will be a longer second wave, a more pronounced, a more tragic second wave than it ought be.
“This is not an ordinary Sunday. These next six weeks are not an ordinary winter. We all have to play our part.”
READ MORE: Second virus wave hitting younger Australians
Rachel Baxendale 1.50pm: Premier ‘doesn’t begrudge PM taking footy break’
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he “wouldn’t begrudge anybody taking time with their family”, and has “better things to worry about than who went to the footy in NSW”, following Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision to take a break with his wife and daughters this week, and after he was spotted watching his Cronulla Sharks NRL team play the Penrith Panthers on Saturday night.
Asked whether it was inappropriate for Mr Morrison to be having a holiday while more than five million Victorians are enduring their second coronavirus lockdown and the prospect of home schooling, Mr Andrews said he had been asked similar questions over summer, when Mr Morrson went to Hawaii for a holiday amid the Black Summer bushfires.
“I wouldn’t begrudge anybody taking time with their family. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable thing, and I have to tell you, before you give me the footy question, I’ve got better things to worry about than who went to the footy in NSW,” Mr Andrews said.
“I’m not going to chip a bloke for spending some time with his family.”
READ MORE: Caroline Overington — Scotty from Marketing fails to read the room with footy display
Rachel Baxendale 1.20pm: 145 cases now linked to Melbourne towers
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says there are now 145 COVID-19 cases linked to seven public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne in the city’s inner northwest.
There are also 22 new cases linked to public housing towers in the inner northern suburb of Carlton.
Professor Sutton said the lockdown and subsequent management of the cases in the inner northwest had been “very challenging”, but that he was continuing to meet with community members, praising them for their role.
“I’m seeing them again today, they are the glue that has actually held this operation together,” Professor Sutton said.
“There have been really committed responses by multiple agencies, but the communities in these towers have the wisdom and intelligence, and they know the needs of their own community members, their families, their extended networks, and they’ve been really critical in identifying the needs more broadly across those towers and have been instrumental in making this work.
“They want the same outcome as we all want, to be protected from coronavirus and to have their loved ones protected.”
Professor Sutton said the Carlton cases, also in high rise public housing, represented another challenge.
“These are challenging settings for the structural issues that are at play there, and the fact that they are hotspot areas in terms of transmission, but again, they’re being supported in much the same way in terms of having that hand hygiene, the cleaning, the testing, and then the support to isolation and quarantine as is required, and I think they will also get under control over time,” he said.
READ MORE: Arabic language barrier ‘must be broken down’
Peter Conradi 12.40pm: WHO inquiry won’t visit Wuhan lab
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is under fire from scientists over indications that its planned mission to China to investigate the origins of Covid-19 will not visit a secretive laboratory that researches coronaviruses in Wuhan, the city at the centre of the outbreak.
Questions about the activities of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a renowned centre of coronavirus expertise, were raised by an Insight investigation in The Sunday Times last week.
It revealed that a potentially deadly coronavirus that is the world’s closest known relative to Covid-19 was analysed by scientists from the institute after traces of it were found in an abandoned copper mine in 2013 in southern China. The alarm was raised after six workers called in to clear bat faeces from the mine fell ill with a mysterious respiratory disease; three of them died.
Yet to the dismay of some scientists the WHO indicated that its mission, being prepared by two of its experts who flew to Beijing last week, would look only at “the zoonotic source” of the outbreak. This was an implicit acceptance of China’s preferred theory that the virus jumped naturally from animals to humans from part of a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.
The Times
READ MORE: ‘Enormous evidence’ linking virus to Wuhan lab
Kieran Gair 11.45am: NSW at a crossroads, warns Premier
People who visited the Crossroads Hotel in southwest Sydney over the past week are being urged to get tested for coronavirus after health officials confirmed on Sunday that the venue’s cluster had grown to four.
As NSW on Sunday reported five new cases, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant reported that an18-year-old employee at the hotel had tested positive to coronavirus.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said authorities were racing to track down and test about 600 people who visited the pub on the evening of July 3 when there was a crossover with two other confirmed cases.
“Southwest Sydney could become a hotspot,” Ms Berejiklian said. “We are just hanging on. If you’ve been at the Crossroads hotel from July 3 to July 10, stay home for 14 days and self-isolate otherwise we will go down the path of Victoria.”
The staff member who tested positive on Sunday is not believed to be the source of the cluster, but he was working on July 3 as well as on subsequent days.
Ms Berejiklian said the virus NSW was at a “crossroads” and that the virus could already be “bubbling under the surface”.
A coronavirus cluster emerged at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula last week after a man in his 20s tested positive in the Sutherland area after driving a caravan for 14 hours from Melbourne.
Meanwhile, NSW reported five new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to 8pm Saturday, bringing the total to 3289 after one previously reported case was excluded.
Of them, two are returned travellers and three are close contacts associated with a case from the Blue Mountains who are self-isolating.
READ MORE: Top quarantine tips from a 14-day survivor
Kieran Gair 11.40am: Adelaide hostel fined for quarantine fail
An Adelaide hostel has been fined $5060 for breaching COVID-19 guidelines after police accused the facility of being ill-equipped to quarantine four travellers from Victoria.
Police conducted a surprise compliance check at Tequila Sunrise backpackers hostel on Waymouth Street on Friday night and discovered that four people who had travelled from Victoria were unable to isolate from other guests.
SA Police said the business had failed to implement a “COVID Safe Plan”, was allowing people to prepare food in a communal area, and there was not enough space for physical distancing.
Police identified four people who had recently arrived from Victoria and who were self-quarantining at the hostel.
Officers had concerns over the group’s ability to quarantine from other guests and engaged SA Health who moved the three men and one woman to a hotel on North Terrace to complete their self-quarantine.
The four have been tested for COVID-19 but the results are yet unknown.
SA Health has urged guests at the hostel to self-quarantine and seek a COVID-19 test if they develop flu-like symptoms.
READ MORE: Victorians want answers over hotel quarantine bungle
Rachel Baxendale 11.28am: Childcare, kindy centres to remain open
Early childhood education will continue in line with advice from the Victorian Chief Health Officer and Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
Victorian authorities are providing an update on the latest situation in the state this morning.
Eligible not-for-profit sessional kindergarten services in metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will be offered extra funding to enable them to provide free kindergarten to children during Term 3.
The Andrews government will offer funding of $460 for each eligible child enrolled in a funded kindergarten program within metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire.
For all eligible not-for-profit sessional kindergarten services outside of these areas, funding of $230 per eligible child will be offered.
READ MORE: Expert strategies to survive homeschooling
Rachel Baxendale 11.18am: Home schooling returns for Victorian students
Home schooling is coming back for Victorian students from Prep to Year 10 when extended school holidays end in just over a week.
Remote learning will apply for all students in government schools in the metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire Stage Three lockdown areas, from Monday 20 July until at least August 19, following the five pupil free days already scheduled for the coming week.
Onsite supervision will be available for students when they are not able to be supervised at home and no other arrangements can be made - including for children whose parents cannot work from home, vulnerable children, and children with a disability.
Year 11 and 12 students across the state will return to classroom learning on Monday, as will those at specialist schools.
There is no change to schooling across the rest of regional Victoria, where classroom learning will continue from Monday as normal.
Schools will continue to provide multiple entry points and staggered drop-offs and pick-ups where necessary to reduce the number of adults around school grounds at any one time.
Physical distancing and cleaning measures will also continue for the safety of staff.
Mr Andrews said the government had already invested “up to $45m” in enhanced daily cleaning in government schools, which is set to continue throughout Term Three.
Teachers not involved in onsite teaching next week will spend the week preparing for a return to remote learning and teaching, and provide a program of care and supervision for students whose parents and carers cannot work from home, and vulnerable students.
Education Minister James Merlino said a range of wellbeing resources were being made available to assist with mental health challenges for students, including tips on wellbeing activities and a video developed in partnership with the Melbourne Football Club, as well as resources prepared by the Smiling Mind organisation for senior secondary students.
Secondary students will also continue to have access to counselling via voice call or video conference through the Headspace counselling partnership or via their school-based mental health practitioner.
READ MORE: Why Tom Hanks should don the captain’s hat for real
Rachel Baxendale 11.06am: Victoria records 273 new cases, one more death
Victoria has confirmed 273 new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours to Sunday, bringing the state’s number of active cases to 1484, and its total number of cases to 3799.
A man in his 70s has died in hospital, bringing the state’s coronavirus death toll to 24.
There are 57 people in Victoria’s hospitals with COVID-19, including 16 in intensive care.
There were 30,195 coronavirus tests conducted on Saturday, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 1484.
Today’s figure is up from 216 on Saturday, when a man in his 90s died.
“This is a dangerous time, this is a challenging time,” Premier Daniel Andrews said.
More to come...
Kieran Gair 10.44am: Melbourne hospital grappling with second outbreak
The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne is grappling with a second outbreak of coronavirus after eight employees tested positive this weekend.
The hospital said at least five people contracted the virus through community transmission.
The Australian understands a pharmacy assistant, a pharmacy student, and a respiratory intern who may have had contact with intensive care patients are among the group that tested positive.
The outbreak means potentially hundreds of staff will now be forced to self-isolate as health officials begin the daunting task of working out how many people have been infected.
The Alfred Hospital experience a similar outbreak in March when 10 staff members tested positive for the virus.
The hospital has moved to restrict access to its COVID-19 ward and has placed a concierge at the entrance to the infectious diseases unit to monitor the movements of all staff.
The hospital said it would provide hotel rooms to staff members who need to isolate but cannot do so at home.
READ MORE: Katrina Grace Kelly — Victoria treated as socialist leper colony
Rachel Baxendale 10.15am: Seventeen Victorian schools shut down
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Deputy Premier James Merlino are due to address the media at 11am
It is expected they will provide a coronavirus update, and that Mr Merlino will be speaking in his capacity as Education Minister.
Year 11 and 12 students are due to return to the classroom on Monday, but no decision has yet been made about other year levels, with school holidays extended for a week for them while a decision is made about whether they will return to remote learning.
Seventeen schools are currently completely closed due to COVID-19 cases in staff and/or students.
They are:
Albanvale Primary School, ALBANVALE
Al Taqwa College, TRUGANINA
Debney Meadows Primary School, FLEMINGTON
Emmanuel College, St Paul’s Campus, ALTONA NORTH
Flemington Primary School, FLEMINGTON
Kingsville Primary School, YARRAVILLE
Lakeview Senior College, CAROLINE SPRINGS
Melton Specialist School, MELTON
North Melbourne Primary School, NORTH MELBOURNE
Aitken Creek Primary School, CRAIGIEBURN
Ilim College Glenroy Campus, GLENROY
Kolbe Catholic Collge, GREENVALE
Mount Ridley P-12, CRAIGIEBURN
Newlands Primary School, COBURG
Westbreen Primary School, PASCOE VALE
Camberwell Grammar School, CAMBERWELL
Lakeview Senior College, CAROLINE SPRINGS.
Rachel Baxendale 9.35am: Melbourne tower cluster swells to 138 cases
Here’s a quick recap of the size of Victoria’s COVID-19 clusters which had cases added to them on late on Saturday.
The cluster linked to the North Melbourne and Flemington public housing towers in Melbourne’s inner northwest now accounts for 138 COVID-19 cases — 20 fewer than the 158 confirmed by the Andrews government on Thursday when it was announced the full lockdown would be relaxed at eight of nine towers.
It appears this may be due to some cases having been reclassified due to duplication.
Victoria’s second-largest cluster is at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina, in Melbourne’s outer west, with 134 cases — up from 113 on Thursday.
Previously the state’s largest cluster was at western suburbs abattoir Cedar Meats, with 111 cases in May.
Concerningly, a cluster is emerging at another abattoir in the same suburb as Cedar Meats.
Two cases have so far been linked to the JBS Australia abattoir in Brooklyn.
There have also been three cases linked to Somerville Meats retail services in neighbouring Tottenham.
Other clusters with new cases on Saturday include:
- Four cases linked to Cenvic Construction Riverina Apartments in Footscray, in Melbourne’s inner west;
- Seven cases linked to the Catch.com distribution centre in Truganina;
- Three cases linked to the PM Fresh food services facility in Broadmeadows, in Melbourne’s outer west;
- 10 cases linked to Menarock Aged Care in Essendon, in Melbourne’s northwest;
- Seven cases linked to the Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee, in Melbourne’s outer southwest, including that of 90-year-old great-grandfather Alf Jordan, who died of COVID-19 this week;
- Five cases linked to Debney Meadows Primary School in Flemington.
- Three cases linked to Ilim Islamic College in Dallas in Melbourne’s outer north.
READ MORE: Albanese backs national COVID inquiry
Greg Brown 9am: ALP backs inquiry into government’s handling of COVID
Anthony Albanese has backed a wide-ranging national inquiry into the way state and federal authorities have handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Opposition Leader said an inquiry was needed to ensure “mistakes won’t happen again”.
“I would be very surprised when all of this is over and life is returned to normal, if we don’t have a very comprehensive inquiry into the handling of this. Not just as a matter of academic exercise but so that we learn lessons to ensure that mistakes won’t happen again,” Mr Albanese told Sky News this morning.
“We know the expectation from the World Health Organisation that this might not be the biggest pandemic of our lifetime.”
Mr Albanese also hit back at Scott Morrison’s claims Labor was engaging in “disgraceful fear mongering” over JobKeeper’s phasing out.
READ MORE: PM accuses Labor of ‘disgraceful fearmongering’ with JobKeeper site
Christine Kellett 8am: Trump dons mask for public appearance
It’s an uncommon sight, but US President Donald Trump has appeared in public wearing a face mask.
Mr Trump covered up for a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, a short time ago.
The President has previously resisted US health advice to wear a mask in public, but he said it was appropriate as he met with wounded soldiers at the hospital.
“I think when you’re in a hospital, in that particular setting, I think it’s a great thing to wear a mask, “ he said.
“I’ve never been against masks.”
The World Health Organisation is acknowledging the possibility that COVID-19 might be spread in the air under certain conditions — after more than 200 scientists urged the agency to do so.
In an open letter published this week in a journal, two scientists from Australia and the US wrote that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.”
READ MORE: Mask wearing gains ground in second wave
David Charter 7.30am: Hidin’ Biden’s COVID campaign has worked before
Running for the US presidency while staying at home has earned the probable Democratic candidate the nickname of “Hidin’ Biden” from his opponents but Republicans should beware - history is on his side.
Amid the contonavirus pandemic, Joe Biden has rarely appeared outside of his family house in Delaware, where he set up a TV studio in the basement because of coronavirus fears, and is running a modern version of a “front porch campaign”, the name given to the stay-at-home approach of the late 19th and early 20th century. Four of the seven Republican presidents between 1880 and 1920, from James Garfield to Warren Harding, won the presidency after an adage dating back to the founding fathers: “The office seeks the man, not the other way around.”
Travelling the US soliciting votes was long viewed as too aggressive and eager, as well as prone to mishap. Instead, candidates began to hold court from their porch, receiving delegations from other states or groups representing different sectors, in a pre-digital version of Mr Biden’s online “townhalls” with invited worthies or groups of young, black, Hispanic or women voters.
“The idea behind front porch campaigning is that the candidate is not touring and visiting people, he’s inviting the voters to his town and to his home, and what it does is it makes it really personable,” said Jeffrey Bourdon, a professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi and author of FromGarfield to Harding: The Success of Midwestern Front Porch Campaigns.
The Times
READ MORE: Greg Sheridan — It’s not Trump but America the left hates
Christine Kellett 6.15am: Travellers to pay $3000 for hotel quarantine
From next week, travellers forced into hotel quarantine in NSW will have to pick up the bill.
From July 18, the Berejiklian government will charge a minimum of $3000 for a mandatory hotel quarantine stay, and up to $5000 for a family of four, The Sunday Telegraph reports.
The costs will cover meals and accommodation for the 14-day duration, with returned travellers to be given an invoice at the end of their stay and 30 days to pay.
Hotel quarantine has cost the NSW taxpayers $65 million, with 35,000 returning from overseas since March 29. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said it was time for returned travellers to start contributing tot he cost
“Australian residents have been given plenty of time to return home — and we feel it is only fair that they cover some of the costs of their hotel accommodation, Ms Berejiklian said.
Australian travellers who bought tickets before midnight tonight will be exempt, the Telegraph reports.
READ MORE: The 11 safest countries to holiday overseas right now
Agencies 6am: Coronavirus deaths take a turn for the worse
A long-expected upturn in US coronavirus deaths has begun, driven by fatalities in states in the South and West, according to data on the pandemic.
The number of deaths per day from the virus had been falling for months, and even remained down as states like Florida and Texas saw explosions in cases and hospitalisations — and reported daily US infections broke records several times in recent days.
Scientists warned it wouldn’t last. A coronavirus death, when it occurs, typically comes several weeks after a person is first infected. And experts predicted states that saw increases in cases and hospitalizations would, at some point, see deaths rise too. Now that’s happening.
“It’s consistently picking up. And it’s picking up at the time you’d expect it to,” said William Hanage, a Harvard University infectious diseases researcher.
According to an Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day rolling average for daily reported deaths in the US has increased from 578 two weeks ago to 664 on July 10 — still well below the heights hit in April. Daily reported deaths increased in 27 states over that time period, but the majority of those states are averaging under 15 new deaths per day. A smaller group of states has been driving the nationwide increase in deaths.
READ MORE: Lockdown works or 500 cases a day
Agencies 5.15am: Bus driver dies after attack over mask-wearing rules
A French bus driver who was badly beaten by passengers after asking them to wear face masks in line with coronavirus rules has died, his family said, sparking tributes from political leaders who condemned his “cowardly” attackers.
Philippe Monguillot, 59, was left brain dead by the attack in the southwestern town of Bayonne last weekend and died in hospital on Friday, his daughter Marie said, after his family decided to switch off his life-support system.
“We decided to let him go. The doctors were in favour and we were as well,” she told AFP.
Two men have been charged with attempted murder over the attack and prosecutor Jerome Bourrier told AFP that he would ask for the charges to be upgraded following Monguillot’s death.
France’s prime minister Jean Castex led tributes to Monguillot. “The Republic recognises him as an exemplary citizen and will not forget him. The law will punish the perpetrators of this despicable crime,” he tweeted, describing the attack as “cowardly”.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who was due to meet some of Bayonne’s bus drivers on Saturday and discuss the security situation, labelled it an “abhorrent act”.
AFP
READ MORE: Australia’s leaders must look overseas now
Christine Kellett 5am: Second wave hitting younger Australians
A second wave of coronavirus sweeping Victoria is affecting a younger demographic than the first, the nation’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer says.
Australia recorded 229 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to Saturday, 216 of those cases detected in Melbourne.
Fifty-five people are being treated in hospital, 16 of them in intensive care.
However, Dr Nick Coatsworth said hospitalisation rates had actually dropped compared to the first wave of coronavirus that hit Australia at the beginning of the year, along with the age of those infected.
“The demographic of the second wave has dropped. They are younger,” Dr Coatsworth told reporters on Saturday.
“Given there are only 16 Australians currently in intensive care, we are well within our (hospital) capacity.”
The Herald Sun has reported a quarter of Victoria’s cases are school-aged children.
Dr Coatsworth said health authorities were on “high alert” for a second wave in other states.
However, he said the pursuit of an elimination strategy was not realistic in Australia, given global infection rates were rising by the million on a daily basis and a vaccine could still be 18 to 24 months away.
“Until a vaccine is developed, we have to be able to live with COVID-19,” he said.
Australia’s death toll stands at 23, after a man in his 90s died from coronavirus in Victoria on Saturday.
READ MORE: Gideon Haigh — Victoria a towering inferno of despair for all
Rachel Baxendale 4.30am: Data confrms Victoria’s growing outbreak fears
With a few exceptions in major hotspots, Saturday’s COVID-19 local government area data tells a tale of small but significant increases in active cases across a large number of different areas of Melbourne – indicating just how widespread the virus is in the city.
Oddly there has been a net decrease of 23 cases in the City of Melbourne, after a net increase of 98 on Friday, possibly due to the reclassification of cases, largely due to duplication.
Wyndham, in Melbourne’s outer southwest and home to a cluster of at least 113 cases linked to Islamic school Al-Taqwa College recorded the largest net increase in active cases, with 24, taking the LGA’s total number of active cases to 175.
READ MORE: Angela Shanahan — Victoria the biggest loser in crisis prevention
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