Coronavirus Australia live news: Another 73 Vic cases as NSW cracks down, refuses rejected Victoria flights
As Victoria’s Premier says he can’t force people to be tested amid 73 new cases, NSW is refusing to take Melbourne’s diverted international flights.
- NSW refuses Melbourne’s diverted flights
- ‘We can’t force people to be tested’: Andrews
- More than one third of new cases outside hot spots
- Berejiklian ‘relieved’ by lockdowns
- NSW threatens jail, fines for hotspot travellers
- Victoria records 73 new cases
- Airlines steer clear of landing in Melbourne
Welcome to live coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. NSW is refusing Melbourne’s rejected flights, and will slap Victorians from virus-plagued hot spots who try to enter NSW with six months’ jail and an $11,000 fine. As Daniel Andrews concedes he can’t force people to take tests, Victoria’s surge in new cases has accelerated so fast in the past week that its infection rate is now greater than Italy’s on a per-capita basis. And the WHO has warned that globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up and the worst is yet to come.
Henry Zeffman 8.30pm: Is make-up the new normal for men?
They’re not going the full Ziggy Stardust, but lockdown is seeing blokes try bronzer and foundation for video conferences.
Read the full story here
AFP 7.45pm: Greece reopens tourism islands to flights
Greece welcomed tourist flights to its island destinations on Wednesday for the first time in months, as it raced to salvage a tourism season shredded by the coronavirus pandemic.
More than 100 flights from other EU nations and a select group of non-EU countries aarrived at 14 regional airports including Corfu, Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes and Crete, airport operator Fraport said.
Flights from Britain, one of its most lucrative travel markets, are not due to restart until July 15 at the earliest, in line with EU recommendations. The same applies to the US, Russia, Turkey and Sweden.
Greece halted most flights three months ago as part of restrictions aimed at stopping the spread of coronavirus, but the measures have seen the sector’s revenues plummet.
All Greek airports are now receiving international flights and the ports of Patras and Igoumentsa will again receive ferries from Italy.
Fourteen non-EU countries — including Australia, Canada, Japan and Uruguay — have been deemed safe enough for visitors to be allowed back.
But travellers from China, where the virus first emerged late last year, will be allowed to enter only if Beijing reciprocates and opens the door to EU residents.
READ MORE: Swine flu strain could trigger next pandemic
Imogen Reid 7pm: Aged-care home facing class action
A class action could be launched against the operators of an aged-care facility in Sydney’s west where 19 of its elderly residents died after a COVID-19 outbreak in April.
Devastated family members are in the first stages of launching the lawsuit against Anglicare Sydney with a law firm that said the families “deserve justice”.
Shine Lawyers national practice leader Lisa Flynn said the action would allege Anglicare was negligent in its handling of the crisis and had breached its duty of care. She claimed the grieving loved ones demand to know why the residents who tested positive to the disease were not treated in hospital.
“Anglicare was ill-equipped to handle the outbreak of coronavirus at the facility and we will be seeking compensation on behalf of the families deceased,” Ms Flynn said on Wednesday.
“Grieving relatives want to know why their loved ones weren’t immediately taken to hospital… so they could receive the high-level clinical care they needed.”
Anglicare chief executive Grant Millard admitted in May the virus would have been better contained if the infected at the facility had been transferred to hospital rather than treated on-site.
The class action needs seven people to join the claim.
READ MORE: Bungled quarantine ‘clearly a failure’, Andrews says
Kellie Southan 6.40pm: Map of Victoria’s active confirmed cases
At least 27 of Victoria’s 73 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday have been attributed to local government areas outside the hot spot postcodes the Andrews government is locking down in Melbourne’s north and west.
Rachel Baxendale 6.13pm: Retired Family Court judge to conduct Vic hotel inquiry
The Andrews government has appointed retired Family Court judge Jennifer Coate to conduct a judicial inquiry into its bungled hotel quarantine system.
Under pressure to arrest Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 cases, Premier Daniel Andrews announced the inquiry on Tuesday, revealing genomic sequencing had linked a large proportion of the current active cases to infection control breaches in hotel quarantine.
Two of Wednesday’s new cases have been linked to a cluster in security contractors at the Stamford Plaza quarantine hotel, bringing the total in that outbreak to 31. A further 17 cases have previously been linked to an outbreak in security guards at the Rydges on Swanston quarantine hotel.
Admitting there had “clearly” been a “failure” in the operation of the program, Mr Andrews on Tuesday announced all international flights would be diverted away from Melbourne for the next fortnight, Corrections Victoria staff would take over security roles, and an inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine system, led by a former judge, would be established with a report due in 8-10 weeks.
Late on Wednesday the Andrews government confirmed it would appoint Justice Coate to the role.
The appointment comes just three months after the Andrews government appointed Justice Coate as the new chair of its Victims of Crime Consultative Committee.
A former magistrate, Children’s Court president, County Court judge and state coroner, Justice Coate was one of six royal commissioners appointed to run the federal child sexual abuse royal commission.
READ MORE: ‘Clearly a failure’ on bungled quarantine
5.20pm: NSW refuses to take Melbourne’s diverted flights
NSW is refusing to accept international flights diverted from Melbourne, with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian asking other states to take the burden of international arrivals due to come into Melbourne.
She says with NSW currently housing 4800 people in hotel quarantine “we’re looking after on behalf of the nation … I think it’s fair for other states to also accept some of those flights”, the Herald Sun reports.
“Ironically, some of the other states have been able to benefit from saying they’ve got zero cases because we’ve taken care of their people here in New South Wales and counted them as our cases in quarantine,” she said.
“And so all I’m suggesting is perhaps for consideration be given.
Ms Berejiklian said Prime Minister Scott Morrison was “very open to this because New South Wales has borne the overwhelming burden of returning Aussies on behalf of the nation.
“Victoria has as well to some extent. “I only think it’s fair, given those diversions that other states take on those flights from Melbourne,” she said.
READ MORE: Victoria’s shocking 24-hour record
Rachel Baxendale 4.30pm: More than a third of new cases outside hot spots
At least 27 of Victoria’s 73 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday have been attributed to local government areas outside the hot spot postcodes the Andrews government is locking down in Melbourne’s north and west.
The Australian’s analysis of the Victorian health department’s local government area COVID-19 case data for Wednesday shows there have been at least 26 new cases in the local government areas which include lockdown postcodes.
Because the department’s numbers take into account people who have recovered from COVID-19, and therefore reflect the net number of active cases in an LGA, it is not possible to calculate the absolute number of new cases in an LGA each day.
The five LGAs which include lockdown postcodes are Hume, which now has 82 active cases with a net increase of 18 new cases, Brimbank with 40 active cases and a net increase of four, Moreland with 37 active cases and a net increase of 4, Moonee Valley with 28 active cases and a net decrease of three, and Maribyrnong with nine active cases and a net decrease of one.
Despite only three of Wednesday’s new cases being attributed to recently returned travellers in hotel quarantine, the City of Melbourne, which is home to most of the quarantine hotels but not part of the lockdown, recorded a net increase of eight cases on Wednesday and now has a total of 20 active cases.
Also not subject to a lockdown is Wyndham, in Melbourne’s outer southwest, which had a net increase of five cases on Wednesday and has a total of 17 active cases. It is home to the suburb of Truganina, where eight staff members at Al-Taqwa Islamic College have tested positive to COVID-19.
Casey, in Melbourne’s outer southeast, had a net increase of one case on Wednesday and now has a total of 21 active cases, as does Whittlesea in the outer north, which had a net increase of two cases. Neither LGA includes postcodes being locked down.
Other LGAs outside the lockdown which had increases on Wednesday include Melton, in the outer northwest, with a net increase of one on Wednesday and 14 active cases, and Yarra, in the inner northeast, with a net increase of one case and a total of 10 active cases.
Active confirmed cases of COVID-19 by LGA as of Wednesday, with change since Tuesday in brackets:
Hume (outer north): 82 (+18); Brimbank (outer west): 40 (+4); Moreland (north): 37 (+4); Moonee Valley (northwest): 28 (-3); Casey (outer southeast): 21 (+1); Whittlesea (outer north): 21 (+2); City of Melbourne: 20 (+8); Wyndham (outer southwest): 17 (+5); Melton (outer northwest): 14 (+1); Yarra (inner northeast): 10 (+1); Maribyrnong (inner west): 9 (-1); Darebin (north): 7; Glen Eira (southeast): 6 (+1); Mitchell (central regional Vic, north of Melb): 5 (+1); Stonnington (inner southeast): 5 (+1); Hobsons Bay (inner southwest): 4 (+2); Port Phillip (inner south): 4 (+1); Kingston (southeast): 4 (-1); Banyule (northeast): 3 (+1); Greater Dandenong: (outer southeast): 3 (-2); Knox (outer east): 3; Greater Bendigo (central regional Vic): 2 (+1); Boroondara (east): 2 (+1); Greater Geelong (southwest regional Vic): 1
Frankston (outer southeast): 1; Bayside (southeast): 1; Manningham (east): 1; Nillumbik (outer northeast): 1; Whitehorse (east): 1; Latrobe (Gippsland, eastern regional Vic): 1; Swan Hill (northwest regional Vic): 1; Interstate: 2; Unknown: 13 (+4)
TOTAL: 370 (+49)
READ MORE: Air NZ, Emirates, Qatar steer clear of Melbourne
Imogen Reid 4.10pm: Kelly backs Victorian response to worsening crisis
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly has backed Victoria’s response to its worsening COVID-19 crisis, referring to it as an “innovative and proportionate solution” to deal with the outbreak.
Addressing the media on Wednesday, Mr Kelly stressed that the response to the ongoing issue in Melbourne has been dealt with on a national scale and likened the methods applied to controlling the spread to those used during the hospital outbreak in Tasmania earlier in the year.
“We learnt that going hard and going quickly was important. And we looked at the three main weapons we have, really, to fight this virus, in the absence of a vaccine, in the absence of a universally effective treatment,” Mr Kelly said.
He said that testing, tracing and isolating, which was used in north-western Tasmania, continues to be used in Victoria.
“So as happened in north-western Tasmania, a decision was made as to where the main problem was, and to really concentrate the resources on those areas, to look at what needs to be done in retail, in those areas, to look at limiting movement outside of those areas, all of these things were done in north-west Tasmania, now are rolled out in Melbourne,” Mr Kelly said.
“This is the way it has played in many other countries in relation to these local responses to local outbreaks.”
Mr Kelly said there had been obvious failures in hotel quarantine systems in Victoria, and said “we absolutely need to learn the lessons of that.”
“It does demonstrate how infectious this virus is and how easily it can spread when infection control is not adequate. That appears to be the issue,” he said.
“This will be a judicial inquiry announced yesterday by Premier Andrews and I look forward to hearing what the results of that inquiry is.”
He also revealed that 10 per cent of people in hotspot areas had refused tests through door-to-door testing.
“This is a very multicultural area of Melbourne. Many different ethnic groups and language groups and so not only the translation but also the cultural sensitivity is a really important component and Victorians realise that,” Mr Kelly said.
Mr Kelly said there is no evidence linking Melbourne’s outbreak to the Black Lives Matter protests.
“There’s no evidence there has been any spread from the Black Lives Matter protests. That doesn’t preclude the important message, this is not a time to be having mass protests, particularly in Melbourne,” he said.
“The fact we haven’t found any more cases from those protests doesn’t prove the protests are safe.”
READ MORE: Flexibility measures extended for employees
Rachel Baxendale 3.30pm: More Victoria cluster details emerge in latest figures
Victoria now has 370 active cases of COVID-19, up from 141 this time last week.
The state’s overall total of 2231 has increased by 72 since Tuesday, with 73 new cases on Wednesday and one previous duplicate case reclassified.
Of the 73 new cases, three are in returned overseas travellers in hotel quarantine, nine are linked to known outbreaks, 19 have been identified through routine testing and 42 are under investigation.
The state’s death toll remains 20, with no recent deaths.
There have been 301 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Victoria that have been acquired through unknown transmission, up from 241 this time last week.
There are now 15 people in Victorian hospitals with the virus, including two in intensive care, while 1839 people have recovered.
Of the total 2231 cases, there have been 1890 in metropolitan Melbourne and 252 in regional Victoria.
Of nine new cases on Wednesday linked to known outbreaks:
* Five additional staff members have been linked to an outbreak at Al-Taqwa College in the western Melbourne suburb of Truganina, taking the total to eight staff at the school. The cases are linked to previous outbreaks in Sunshine West and Truganina.
* Two new cases are part of the Stamford Plaza hotel quarantine outbreak, taking the total to 31. One is a security guard in quarantine and the other is a household contact of a confirmed case. All cases were close contacts tested while in quarantine.
* One new case has been linked to the North Melbourne family outbreak, which now totals 30. The case was tested while in quarantine. The North Melbourne family outbreak includes several cases detected in staff members at the H&M clothing store at Northland, in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. Two of the affected staff members attended the Black Lives Matter protest in Melbourne’s CBD on June 6, less than a fortnight before testing positive to COVID-19. However, Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has said he believes the protest was not the source of the cluster or two other cases identified in people who attended the protest.
* One new case has been linked to the outbreak at the Coles Chilled Distribution Centre in Laverton, taking the total to six.
In other emerging clusters:
* Three new positive cases are linked to cases associated with Hugo Boss in Collins Street, Melbourne. Previously two staff members and a close contact had been identified as being part of this cluster, taking the total number of cases in the outbreak to six.
* One healthcare worker at the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital in St Albans has tested positive.
* One healthcare worker at the Epworth Hospital has tested positive. The health department has not identified which Epworth campus is affected.
* One staff member at SBS Radio has tested positive. The staff member attended work while infectious. Close contacts will be required to quarantine.
* Students at three new schools have tested positive. The schools are: Hoppers Crossing Secondary School, Creekside College in Caroline Springs and Aitken Creek Primary in Craigieburn.
* One staff member has tested positive at Westbreen Primary School in Pascoe Vale.
* Two positive cases have been identified at the Maple Early Learning Centre in Mernda. The centre will close for cleaning and contact tracing is underway.
READ MORE: NAB shuts two Melbourne offices amid spike
Rachel Baxendale 3.15pm: New cases not just in locked down suburbs: Andrews
Ahead of the release of health department data on the locations of Victoria’s 73 new coronavirus cases expected later on Wednesday afternoon, Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed they were “not exclusively” in the 10 hotspot postcodes being locked down from 11:59pm.
“Not exclusively, but there is still a significant concentration of new cases in those hot spots, so that trend continues,” Mr Andrews said.
“With so many cases still being investigated, I think the public health team’s media release later on today will provide you with some further details on that.
“Every day presents its own challenges and no one can predict what tomorrow’s numbers will be, but it is pleasing that there is some sense of stability to these numbers.
“We are looking in unprecedented ways, we are finding new cases, but there is the beginnings of some consistency, and that is obviously better than other options where we might see doubling and doubling again.”
READ MORE: When can you travel overseas?
Rachel Baxendale 2.55pm: ‘We can’t force people to get tested’: Andrews
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he can’t make COVID-19 testing mandatory, having yesterday revealed that 928 people had refused tests in the hotspot northern and western Melbourne suburbs of Broadmeadows and Keilor Downs alone.
The state’s health department confirmed last week that 30 per cent of people in hotel quarantine had refused to be tested.
Asked why he wouldn’t make testing compulsory, Mr Andrews said it was too difficult to force people to be tested against their will.
“Trying to force people into getting tested, I know it might seem logical … but if you think about the amount of close contact that would be involved in a forced test, you’re into another whole other different world,” Mr Andrews said.
He said fines or forcing people to quarantine if they refused to take a test wouldn’t work either.
“You’ve then got to make some really important judgments about how likely it would be for people to adhere to that mandatory quarantine if they in fact have refused to be tested in the first place,” he said.
“Unless we’re going to have a police officer accompanying every person who’s door-knocking and testing … then you can make all manner of threats, but they won’t necessarily change anybody’s behaviour. “It may well be people simply just don’t answer the door.
“Sometimes what seems to be perfectly logical and a fair and reasonable approach can actually make the problem bigger.”
Mr Andrews said that while he was disappointed that almost 1000 people had refused tests, 94,000 people had been tested since the government began a testing blitz across the state, with a focus on hot spots, last week.
“That’ll be well over 100,000 today. They far outweigh, far outweigh the number of people saying no, but it’s a challenge.”
Mr Andrews said analysis was still being done on why people had refused tests “but it will be very difficult to determine beyond any doubt what the reason was. A lot of people weren’t giving a reason”.
Mr Andrews said all of those who had refused in the two suburbs had been adults, meaning there were children missing out on tests in addition to the 928 adults because their guardians had refused.
He said he hoped a new, less invasive saliva test developed by the Doherty Institute which is being rolled out in hot spots would decrease the test refusal rate.
READ MORE: Andrews ‘clearly a failure’ on bungled quarantine
Agencies 2pm: EU reopens borders but bars visitors from US
The European Union reopened its borders Wednesday to visitors from 15 countries — but not the virus-stricken United States, where a top health official warned the country is headed in the “wrong direction” as cases spike in multiple states.
Also in the US, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden announced he will not hold rallies during the outbreak, a move that is in stark contrast with President Donald Trump, who has already held large campaign gatherings.
The EU finalised the list of countries whose health situation was deemed safe enough to allow residents to enter the bloc starting on Wednesday.
Notably excluded were Russia and Brazil, as well as the United States, whose daily death toll passed 1000 Tuesday for the first time since June 10.
The countries that made it onto the EU’s list are Algeria, Australia, Canada, Japan, Georgia, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.
Travellers from China, where the virus first emerged late last year, will be allowed on the condition that Beijing reciprocates and opens the door to EU residents.
The border relaxation, to be reviewed in two weeks and left to member states to implement, is a bid to help rescue the continent’s battered tourism sector, which has been choked by a ban on non-essential travel in place since mid-March. — AFP
READ MORE: Anti-science US ‘may never overcome virus’
Max Maddison 1.06pm: Berejiklian relieved hot spots are being locked down
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she’s “relieved” Melbourne hot spots are being locked down, but will renew focus on compliance closer to home.
Ms Berejiklian said she didn’t expect residents of Melbourne coronavirus hot spots to travel to NSW, but if they did, they would face “strict penalties”.
“But I don’t expect them to happen, because if the Victorian authorities are doing their jobs … I don’t expect anybody to be breaching them, or actually be getting out those hot spots,” Ms Berejiklian said at a press conference earlier today.
“But if they do happen to make their way into NSW, then of course we’ve also enforced a restriction on Victorians able to purchase tickets to major events, for a few weeks at least.”
However, as restrictions were eased further in NSW, the Premier said with the risk of a spike “always there”, health authorities would be monitoring businesses and individuals to ensure they were following COVIDSafe standards.
“I am concerned about NSW citizens relaxing too much,’’ she said. “Please know, in the next few weeks our focus will be on compliance, that includes businesses, especially hospitality businesses. You cannot let your guard down.
“It only takes a couple of people who are infected to create a spike, which then causes everyone else to suffer as a consequence.”
READ MORE: Lethal capability in PM’s defence plan
Jack the Insider 12.56pm: Palaszczuk shines while Queensland goes low
All the premier has done is consistently follow expert advice, amid jabs from various state and federal types. She deserves credit, writes Jack the Insider. The party she leads is another matter.
Patrick Commins 12.18pm: Apartment plunge drives building slump
A collapse in approvals to build new apartments drove a 16 per cent plunge in overall dwelling approvals in May, new data from the ABS shows.
READ the full apartment slump story here
Lilly Vitorovich 12.06pm: SBS Melbourne shuts after employee positive
SBS’s Melbourne office has been closed today after an employee recently tested positive for COVID-19, which led to the closure and sanitisation of the office on Sunday.
After receiving updated advice from Victorian health authorities late Tuesday evening, SBS said it is “conducting a more comprehensive tracing exercise”.
SBS has closed its Melbourne office and studios in Federation Square after an employee tested positive for COVID-19. https://t.co/FdWhVdGdbt
— SBS News (@SBSNews) June 30, 2020
“Whilst the Melbourne office has enhanced cleaning processes, additional sanitisation will again take place today, and staff are working from home where possible,” SBS said in a statement on its website.
As an additional precautionary measure, a number of staff have been directed to self-quarantine for two weeks on direction of Victorian health authorities.
The diagnosed employee was last in SBS’s Melbourne office last Thursday, and is doing well.
READ MORE: ATO website crashes
Rachel Baxendale 11.48am: Victoria records 73 new cases
Victoria has confirmed 73 new cases of coronavirus in the 24 hours to Wednesday, ahead of a lockdown on Wednesday night of 10 hotspot postcodes.
Wednesday’s daily caseload represents the fifth straight day of more than 40 new cases, and the fifteenth of double digit daily case numbers.
Of the 73 new cases on Wednesday, three have been detected in hotel quarantine, 9 are connects with known clusters, 19 were detected through routine testing, and 42 are under investigation.
More detail on today’s cases is expected to be included in a press release being issued this afternoon by the health department.
Victoria has now had 2231 cases of COVID-19.
Premier Daniel Andrews said 20,682 COVID-19 tests had been conducted on Tuesday, with a total of 830,271 conducted since the pandemic began.
Of those, 113,000 tests have been conducted since the Andrews government began its hotspot testing blitz last week.
As part of that blitz, 54,000 doors have been knocked in high risk suburbs.
Further doorknocking is underway and will continue in coming days, with a focus on the suburbs of Maidstone, Broadmeadows and Albanvale on Wednesday, and Brunswick West on Thursday.
The government is also bringing more testing sites online, with 12 new sites set to open in locked down postcodes before the end of the week.
“This is not over. It won’t be over for a long time, and the best and most important thing that we can all do, whether we’re in one of these hotspot postcodes or not, is to follow the rules,” Mr Andrews said.
READ MORE: Swine flu could trigger next pandemic
Sarah Elks 11.44am: ‘Don’t lie to us’: Palaszczuk warns Vic travellers
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has warned interstate travellers not to lie to get into Queensland, or risk being slapped with a $4000 fine.
The state’s borders will be reopened to everyone bar Victorians. Victorians will be subject to a 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine.
From July 10, any person from all other Australian states and territories will be able to enter Queensland, as long as they complete a border declaration.
Ms Palaszczuk said: “We have large concerns about Victoria … there will be very few exemptions”.
Here's Queensland's latest roadmap with July 3 changes. https://t.co/dcVGcHukiN #covid19 #uniteandrecover #qldjobs pic.twitter.com/zFSouW8cpF
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) June 30, 2020
Asked how police will determine whether people had come from Victoria, particularly by road, Ms Palaszczuk said there were serious consequences for not telling the truth.
If it’s found out they are lying, it’s a very serious offence, it’s $4000.”
Queensland recorded zero new cases overnight and has just two active cases. There are 1067 total confirmed cases, and 1054 people have recovered. 370,973 tests have been conducted.
Max Maddison 11.38am: 14 new cases in NSW, all from quarantine
NSW has recorded 14 new cases of coronavirus, all returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
In figures released by NSW Health, the additional cases took the state’s total confirmed cases to 3,203. There are 63 active cases being treated by health authorities, with one patient in intensive care.
14 new cases of #COVID19 were diagnosed between 8pm on 29 June and 8pm on 30 June.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 1, 2020
All of today’s new cases are returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
There are currently 63 COVID-19 cases being treated by NSW Health, with one in intensive care. pic.twitter.com/FNoIXsUfZ0
Health authorities also continued their significant testing regime, with a total of 16,243 tests carried out in the reporting period, taking the total in NSW to more than 870,000.
NCA Newswire 11.25am: NSW cracks down on Victorians from hot spots
Victorians from virus-plagued hot spots who try to enter NSW could be slapped with six months’ jail and an $11,000 fine under tough new rules announced today.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said the new penalties were designed to stop Victorians from affected suburbs from crossing the border.
“Victorians living in virus hot spots have to take the Victorian and NSW health orders seriously and should be very aware that NSW will impose penalties if they seek to leave hot spot suburbs to enter NSW,” he said in a statement.
The order will prevent travel from Melbourne hot spots to NSW unless it is a NSW resident returning home or in special circumstances, such as to obtain urgent medical care or for compassionate reasons.
“The Victorian situation should be taken very, very seriously by NSW residents,” Mr Hazzard told reporters this morning.
“It’s a reminder to us all that this virus is among us and we can have an outbreak at any stage.
“The particular suburbs that have been identified yesterday by the Victorian Government must be avoided by NSW residents. If you go to any of these hot spots that have been identified by the Victorian Government, you will be liable to the same penalties as any Victorian and that should be enough warning for you.
“But if you actually … choose to go there when you really shouldn’t be going there and you come back to NSW, you’ll be required to go into isolation here for 14 days, and if you breach that order, then you’ll be liable to a penalty if you’re required by the police to go to court.
“So the message to NSW residents is don’t go to Victorian hot spots, just don’t go.”
READ MORE: ‘Deep concern’ at China moves
Robyn Ironside 10.53am: Airlines steer clear of landing in Melbourne
Air New Zealand has become the first overseas carrier to announce it will halt any passenger flights into Melbourne for the next two weeks due to Australian government restrictions.
It follows a plea from Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews for overseas flights to Melbourne to be diverted elsewhere to help the state contain the spread of COVID-19.
And an Emirates spokesman said they had suspended their Dubai-Melbourne service for the next two weeks, in response to the Australian government’s directive.
READ the full story about airlines avoiding Melbourne here
Rosie Lewis 10.39am: ‘Don’t punish whole of Vic for careless Melburnians’
Queensland and South Australia have been blasted for opening their borders to every state except Victoria, with business leaders and politicians warning the entire state should not be punished “for the careless behaviour of a few Melburnians”.
Businesses desperate to see the economy reopening hailed Queensland’s and South Australia’s easing of border restrictions but Nationals Victorian MPs Bridget McKenzie and Darren Chester said punishing the state’s regional areas with more travel bans was “shortsighted” and only going to make a tough situation worse.
Victorian businesses dependent on tourism will have to rely largely on intrastate travel for the foreseeable future.
“It is the appropriate response to have a localised lockdown of these hot spots in Melbourne but similarly a proportionate response from other jurisdictions would be to prohibit people from those hot spots and not actually blame all Victorians for the careless behaviour of a few Melburnians,” Senator McKenzie said.
Mr Chester, the member for Gippsland, said throughout the pandemic regional Victorians copped restrictions imposed by the state government that could have been “better focused on highly populated city areas”.
“Bans on vehicle licence testing, fishing, golf and hospitality businesses in regions with no active cases have added to the social and economic hardship in country areas where physical distancing is much easier to achieve,” he said.
“Regions like Gippsland which have suffered the combined impacts of drought, bushfires and the coronavirus will take longer to recover economically. Many businesses could’ve continued operating with a ‘locals only’ clause in regions with zero community transmission but state-wide bans were enforced.
“Punishing regional Victoria with more advisory notices and travel bans is only going to make a tough situation even worse.”
Australian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Simon Westaway said a ban on all Victorians was not smart when the country faced a difficult recovery.
“We are ultimately one country and at some point we’ve got to have a reality check around how we reopen our economy and manage the virus,” he said.
Australian Federation of Travel Agents chief executive Darren Rudd said reopening Queensland borders was a “step in the right direction which strikes the right balance between the necessary caution and getting the economy restarted”.
Fresh divisions in national cabinet over border closures, which have never been recommended by the country’s top health officials, came as Victorian premier Daniel Andrews ordered a four-week lockdown of 36 suburbs and diverted flights away from Melbourne to shield the nation from a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks.
Victoria accounts for nearly 25 per cent of the country’s economic activity and its residents are the biggest spending domestic tourists in five of Australia’s states and territories.
READ MORE: Strewth – Gotta cut loose? Stay away from Qld
Gerard Cockburn 10.33am: Half a million wipe out super nest eggs
Industry Super Australia says nearly half a million Australians have reduced their retirement balances to zero through early access to superannuation.
Latest figures by ISA estimate more than 480,000 workers have wiped their super balances clean in the first round of the government’s COVID-19 support measure, which has allowed people to dip into their retirement savings early.
Of those, 395,000 are aged under 35.
READ the full superannuation story here
Max Maddison 10.26am: Albanese accuses PM of playing politics
Anthony Albanese has accused Scott Morrison of playing politics with state border reopening, saying that any advice needs to be based upon “medical and health advice, not based upon politics”.
Speaking at a press conference, the Opposition Leader said it was appropriate that state governments took advice from their chief medical officers.
“That’s what is seeing us through this. This should not be the subject of political argy-bargy,” Mr Albanese said at a press conference in Eden-Monaro.
Mr Albanese accused Ms Berejiklian of double standards, after the NSW Premier repeatedly called on Queensland to open its borders, before saying to Victorians that “they’re not welcome here”.
“So what I think is appropriate is that this not be two messages which is what for a while we got from this government, including from the state government of Gladys Berejiklian who was critical of Queensland is now saying exactly the same message with regard to Victoria,” he said.
“I think that this needs to be based upon medical and health advice, not based upon politics.”
Max Maddison 10.15am: Melbourne Mayor “devastated”
The Mayor of a Melbourne suburb in lockdown says she’s “devastated” for her community, with businesses staring down the barrel and residents “right back to square one”.
Carly Moore, Mayor of Hume in Melbourne’s north-west, said she’d already seen enormous economic impacts from the economic shutdown and that was only “going to get worse”.
“There were lots of people who felt the psychological impacts of being locked down and I think those people really are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and now we can’t see that light anymore,” Councillor Moore said at a press conference.
“Four weeks, another four weeks, is a really long period of time for those people who were already feeling impacted.”
Despite the significant hardship her community was facing, Ms Moore said the state government had “absolutely” done the right thing.
However, while saying anything would help, Ms Moore conceded the $5,000 grants offered wasn’t a “whole lot of money” for struggling small businesses.
“It will have an enormous impact. I think those businesses won’t truly know what that impact will be for some time, but those businesses are really going to have to make some tough decisions about the viability of their businesses throughout this period,” she said.
Agencies 10.11am: ‘Rat’: Kyrgios erupts at tennis great
An extraordinary slanging match escalates as Nick Kyrgios calls out the antics of some of the game’s biggest names.
Don’t like no #rats ! Anybody telling off fellow sportsman/woman is no friend of mine! Look yourself in the mirror and think your better than us...@NickKyrgios @farfetch
— Boris Becker (@TheBorisBecker) June 30, 2020
We all live in the pandemic called #Covid_19 ! It’s terrible and it killed to many lives...we should protect our families/loved ones and follow the guidelines but still don’t like #rats @NickKyrgios @farfetch
— Boris Becker (@TheBorisBecker) June 30, 2020
@TheBorisBecker is a bigger doughnut than I thought. 😂😂 can hit a volley, obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed though.
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) June 30, 2020
Your funny guy ....how is it down under? Respect all the guidelines? https://t.co/tZ67V5Qu3m
— Boris Becker (@TheBorisBecker) June 30, 2020
Nick Kyrgios has dismissed Boris Becker as a “doughnut” after being branded a rat by the tennis legend for calling out the antics of German ace Alexander Zverev.
READ the full Nick Kyrgios story here
Mackenzie Scott 10.01am: Home prices defy economic collapse
The financial year ends with double digit property price growth in Sydney and Melbourne, but recent declines signal more falls ahead.
READ the full house prices story here
Rachel Baxendale 9.53am: How 10 Vic postcodes were picked for lockdown
Victorian health department officials devised a very specific formula to arrive at the list of 10 postcodes, containing 37 suburbs, which will go into lockdown from 11:59pm on Wednesday night.
The three-step formula involved first identifying local government areas with more than double the averages number of COVID-19 cases for LGAs in Victoria, then reviewing all the postcodes in these LGAs.
Health bureaucrats then identified priority postcodes with more than five cases, and more than 20 cases per 100,000 residents.
Premier Daniel Andrews said that if case numbers increase in postcodes which are not currently locked down, they will be added to the lockdown list.
“It’s heartbreaking to have to lock down these suburbs, but if we don’t lock down these suburbs, as I said, we will be locking down all suburbs, and no one wants to get to that,” he told ABC radio.
READ MORE: State leads push for bold tax reform
Tim Dodd 9.41am: Vic spike throws SA’s student return into doubt
Victoria’s COVID crisis has thrown into doubt South Australia’s plan to fly 800 international students into Adelaide this month to resume study at the state’s universities. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has made border reopening a precondition for the return of international students to SA, but the COVID spike in Victoria forced SA Premier Steven Marshall to scrap the planned July 27 opening date for the state’s borders.
It is a setback for SA, which aims to become a major centre of international education, and hopes to bring in large numbers of international students next year.
Meanwhile the UK government, in spite of having nearly 1000 new cases of COVID a day, is aggressively marketing itself as an international student destination and will accept students in large numbers for the northern hemisphere academic year starting in September.
READ MORE: Student return to SA in doubt
Rachel Baxendale 9.33am: We had to draw the line somewhere: Andrews
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has justified his 10 postcode lockdown by saying that he had to draw a line somewhere, and will have to lock down all suburbs if coronavirus can’t be contained in the hot spots in Melbourne’s northwest.
The state’s health department will issue an update on Wednesday’s new figures later today, but the Premier confirmed more than 20,000 tests had been conducted on Tuesday as part of his government’s testing blitz, with a focus on hotspot suburbs.
“Whenever you draw a line, obviously, there’ll be people on either side of it,” Mr Andrews told ABC radio.
“The alternative of course is to lock down the entirety of Melbourne, and the public health advice tells us that we’ve got unacceptably high numbers of cases in localised areas, so we’ve tried to be as logical as we possibly can be, but it’s based on where the cases are, and these suburbs are pretty dense, there’s lots of people there.
“We think that this is the best way to try and contain it. We can’t rule out adding further suburbs if we see further spikes in cases, but at this stage these are the postcodes where the public health team has said to us, ‘Right, lock these suburbs down, otherwise you’re going to have to lock down all suburbs’, and we just don’t want to get to that point.”
Mr Andrews warned police would be patrolling the borders of the locked down postcodes.
“There will be booze bus type arrangements on main corridors, in and out of these postcodes,” he said.
“Not every corridor at the one time, but it’ll be revolving, it’ll be moving across those different access points of entry, our main traffic corridors.
“Not every car will be stopped, not every person will be stopped, but the rules have to be followed, and if people don’t follow the rules, if they think they can kind of chance their arm, try their luck on this, there’s every chance you’ll be asked, ‘Where are you from, what reason have you got to be out of your home?’ and if you don’t have a good reason against the rules, and they’re very well understood – this is the lockdown that all of us were in for what felt like the longest of times – then you do face the prospect of an on-the-spot fine.”
The individual on-the-spot fine for breaching health department coronavirus directives in Victoria is $1652.
“I really hope it doesn’t get to that,” Mr Andrews said.
“We will provide support to every family affected, every business affected, as best we possibly can.
“I know this is deeply frustrating and really challenging. We didn’t want to get to this point, but if the suburbs aren’t locked down, then all suburbs will be.”
The Andrews government yesterday announced additional $5000 payments for businesses affected by the lockdown, while people who cannot attend work as a result of having to quarantine due to coronavirus can access a $1500 hardship payment.
READ MORE: Property investor? Tax time could be tricky
Agencies 9.25am: NZ’s ‘China spy’: I’m fit to be MP
A secretive MP accused of being a China spy insists he is fit to serve amid calls to probe his membership of the National party.
READ MORE: Full story on the NZ MP accused of spying here
Erin Lyons 9.17am: Weddings, pubs, transport: Restrictions lift in NSW
A raft of coronavirus-related restrictions will lift across NSW today, including a limit on the number of patrons pubs, cafes and restaurants can hold as long as they remain seated and stick to one person per four square metres.
As part of the further ease, there is no limit on how many guests people can have at their wedding, but it depends on how many attendees the venue can hold while adhering to the four-square-metre rule – if there are more than 20 guests, there can be no dance floors.
Some 10,000 people will be allowed to fill stadiums and cultural events, and community sport will resume for both adults and children.
Commuters will notice a growth in the number of “green dots” on buses and trains with more people allowed to use the state’s public transport system in a bid to help residents return to the workplace.
“To allow for the increase in capacity on the network, more travel options have been made available with additional services outside of peak, extra staff, and cleaning on public transport, more than 20km of pop-up cycleways, new sanitisation cleaning stations and pick-up locations for point-to-point transport and additional carparking and traffic management on the road network for road users,” the NSW government website states.
But Minister for Transport and Infrastructure Andrew Constance urged commuters to take caution.
“If you feel the slightest bit unwell don’t get on the public transport network,” he said.
On compassionate grounds, restrictions on funerals have eased but must allow for the four-square-metre rule to apply.
However, places of public worship, funeral homes or crematoriums can have up to 50 attendees without the four-square-metre rule provided non-household contacts can maintain 1.5 metres of physical distance.
Cinemas, theme parks, brothels and theatres will reopen, and residents are welcome to travel throughout the state during the school holidays with 20 people allowed to stay in holiday homes.
Queensland’s borders will also open to NSW residents from July 10.
However, some restrictions remain.
You can still only have up to 20 visitors in your home at one time, but there is no daily limit on the amount of visitors you can have as long as the number doesn’t exceed 20 at one time.
No more than 20 people can gather outdoors in a public space.
Max Maddison 8.59am: SA borders may open to NSW, ACT
South Australian Premier Steven Marshall says he is looking “very closely” at reopening the borders for travellers from the ACT and NSW.
With the state open to travellers from COVID safe states and territories — such as Western Australia, Queensland and Tasmania — Mr Marshall scrapped plans to open up to the rest of the country after a resurgence of cases in Victoria.
“We are looking very closely at the ACT and NSW. As I said we are all committed to going back to having no borders in Australia, as soon as it’s safe to do so,” Mr Marshall told Today on Nine.
“Our advice is that’s not quite right at the moment but we are going to be working Victoria to make sure we can achieve that.”
However, Mr Marshall said he was confident that SA was well placed to manage any potential outbreak
“Look, we are worried but we have put really good precautions in place. We’ve got excellent testing, excellent tracing in South Australia. Most importantly the people of South Australia have educated themselves about this disease. They are doing the right thing. We are very grateful,” he said.
READ MORE: Marshall’s move puts off students’ return
Max Maddison 8.50am: Face masks ‘part of solution to hot spots’
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly says localised shutdowns are “absolutely part of our plan”, and says face masks may be part of the solution in hotspot areas.
Pointing to the localised shutdown in north-west Tasmania earlier this year, Dr Kelly said shutdowns have been in “our plans all along”.
“We hoped we wouldn’t have do it, but here we are and a very proportionate and appropriate response being made by the Victorian authorities as announced yesterday,” Dr Kelly told ABC News Breakfast.
However, with attitudes towards the effectiveness of face masks shifting recently, Dr Kelly said face mask usage could become part of health advice in hotspot areas.
“I think we — we have been very clear that masks are not the 100 per cent answer that some people want to make them, but they can, in certain circumstances, be part of the solution,” he said.
READ MORE: Letters – Enough with ‘second wave’ panic
Max Maddison 8.37am: Palaszczuk: ‘I’ll leave it at that’
After firing up at Scott Morrison yesterday, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she’s “said my piece” and will “leave it at that”.
After blasting the Prime Minister for his continued jabs at Queensland, Ms Palaszczuk said the national leader should bring the states and territories together, rather than picking them apart.
“It’s ridiculous. I said my piece yesterday, I was silent for a long time, cutting back. I was copping it nearly every day, Queensland was singled out, not South Australia, not Tasmania,” Ms Palaszczuk told Seven’s Sunrise.
“It is coming thick and fast from a lot of senior cabinet ministers. I stayed silent. Today, I said my piece.”
Ms Palaszczuk warned Queenslanders returning from Victoria that they would face 14 days paid quarantine from midday Friday.
“We have had zero cases now for many, many days, and we have very few deaths, thank goodness, still we’ve had tragically some people that have died,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
“I think if we all work together to get Victoria under control hopefully things will be better in weeks if not months. That’s a matter now for everyone to help out. Hopefully the Prime Minister helps with the national response there with Victoria as well.”
Queensland has recorded no new cases of coronavirus overnight. The state has just two active cases and the total stands at 1,067, with 1,054 patients recovered. 370,973 tests have been conducted in the state.
READ MORE: Palaszczuk blasts PM
MAX MADDISON 8.09am: We might have to use stick in Victoria: PM
Scott Morrison says the “stick will have to be put about” to ensure everyone is kept safe, after hundreds of Victorians in coronavirus hot spots refused tests.
The Prime Minister said repercussions for rejecting testing may have to be explored, after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced that 928 people had refused tests in two Melbourne suburbs — Keilor Downs and Broadmeadow.
“We are doing it the Australian way, the use of incentive carrot not stick, occasionally the stick will have to be put about, whether it’s fines or sanctions in place to ensure we keep everybody safe,” Mr Morrison told Channel Seven’s Sunrise program.
In addition, the Prime Minister said the resurgence of cases in Melbourne, which along with Sydney had done the heavy lifting in terms of taking returned travellers, wasn’t “surprising”, but said the country needed to continue adhering to health advice.
“Outbreaks are not surprising. We always said there would be some. No system is perfect and Australia is still far ahead of the rest of the world. Let’s remember seven states and territories have pretty much no community transmission at all,” he said.
“Both of those states (NSW and Victoria) have been running those quarantines and paying for them themselves, that means their risks have been greater.”
READ MORE: Closures in virus hotspot suburbs
MAX MADDISON 7.55am: Critical evaluation into Vic spike needed: Canavan
The decision to exclude Victoria from Queensland’s border reopening is the “only decision that could be made”, says Nationals MP Matt Canavan, and calls for critical evaluations of what went wrong in Victoria.
While the Queensland Senator said the time for anger would come, reintroducing lockdown measures and eradicating the virus were the solutions currently available for Victoria.
“I think it is the only decision that could be made yesterday,’’ Senator Canavan told Today on Nine. “I welcome the fact that finally the borders are open, it’s taken a lot of to-ing and fro-ing the last month and uncertainty for businesses but it is unfortunate what’s happened in Victoria.
“I don’t think we should get too angry here right now, there will be a time for that. We have to be determined to crush this again. We have crushed the virus before.”
Mr Canavan said the focus should be on the best way to keep the virus contained, before deciphering what went wrong.
“And I do think of course we need to critically evaluate what went wrong in Victoria, Neil is right, mistakes were made but we are all humans. Mistakes get made from time to time,” he said.
“What we have to do now is focus on a country, as a country to respond in the best way possible to keep this contained and then ultimately declining. That’s got to be the focus.”
READ MORE: EDITORIAL: Forging a recovery while easing a mini-spike
Max Maddison 7.10am: US cases lead global resurgence
Global recorded cases of coronavirus are approaching 10.4m, led by a resurgence of cases in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Representing slightly under a quarter of total infections, confirmed cases the US has continued to spike, with 41,556 confirmed cases overnight. The country has reported 2,590,552 cases, and 126,140 deaths. Total confirmed cases standing at 10,375,897, while global fatalities have reached 507,373.
Confirmed cases in India are growing, with recorded daily infections still hovering around 20,000. Despite the soaring numbers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was forced to warn citizens against complacency, after concerns that social distancing and hand washing advice was being ignored.
However, while daily cases are still at all time high levels, Brazil has seen a downward trend over the last three days, recording 24,052 infections yesterday – half the daily record set on June 19.
READ MORE: When can you travel overseas?
Max Maddison 7.00am: US ‘could see 100,000 cases a day’
Anthony Fauci, America’s top-ranking infectious-disease expert has warned the country could see new cases going up to 100,000 a day.
Dr Fauci said the US is now recording about 40,000 new cases a day but could more than double if people continue to flout advice on social distancing and face masks.
“I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around,” Dr Fauci told a Senate committee on Tuesday.
Although he couldn’t provide an estimate of the eventual death toll, he said, “It is going to be very disturbing, I guarantee you that.
“This idea of pushing back against scientific data is problematical. And congregating in bars, indoors, is bad news.”
The stark warning comes as the governor of Arizona shut down swathes of the economy – including bars, gyms and movie theatres – for a month, only weeks after reopening. The state has seen record daily increases in cases of coronavirus.
A surge of new coronavirus cases and rising hospitalisation rates in states such as California and Texas has jeopardised reopening plans throughout the US.
More than 41,000 new coronavirus cases were recorded nationwide on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The number was an increase from Sunday, but lower than Friday’s record of 45,255. World-wide, confirmed COVID-19 infections exceeded 10.3 million, with more than 505,000 deaths. The U.S. accounts for about a quarter of each figure.
READ MORE: WHO warns worst is yet to com
Rachel Baxendale 6.20am: Victoria’s alarming infection acceleration rivals Italy
Victoria’s surge in new cases has accelerated so fast in the past week that its infection rate is now greater than Italy’s on a per-capita basis.
Infection control breaches by security contractors hired by the Andrews government to manage Victoria’s hotel quarantine regime have fuelled a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks that have forced a four-week shutdown of 37 suburbs in Melbourne’s north and west.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced a judicial inquiry into the cluster of infections from staff at quarantine hotels who breached infection control protocols and have been linked to almost 50 COVID-19 cases.
Stay-at-home restrictions on more than 300,000 residents will come into force from midnight on Wednesday after the state confirmed 64 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday and 75 on Monday. The jump followed a fortnight of double-digit daily case counts which have seen the number of active cases in Victoria rise to 321.
“I certainly can’t rule out other postcodes having to be locked down, and I can’t rule out other further steps having to be taken,” Mr Andrews said.
Read the full story, by Rachel Baxendale and Rosie Lewis, here.
Tessa Akerman 6am: Nurse pleads for Victorians to accept virus test
Nurse Melissa Urie works at a hospital in one of Melbourne’s hotspot suburbs. She’s knows all about the pain and suffering wreaked by COVID-19. What she doesn’t know is why anyone would refuse to be tested for it.
Ms Durie, and countless other medical experts, aren’t trying to complicate the issue or be insensitive to those with a legitimate reason for avoiding the test.
It’s just that the equation is so simple, and unbending: the more people who are tested, the greater the likelihood that the virus can be brought under control.
“I would strongly encourage everybody to have the test,” Ms Urie said. “Everybody wants to go to work and feel safe. I’m in that category.”
Read the full story, by Tessa Akerman and Rachel Baxendale, here.
Agencies 5.45am: ‘Globally, the pandemic is speeding up’: WHO
The World Health Organisation has warned the “worst is yet to come” as the COVID-19 pandemic death toll passed 500,000 over the past six months.
“We all want this to be over. We all want to get on with our lives. But the hard reality is this is not even close to being over,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference as the number of confirmed infections topped 10 million.
“Six months ago, none of us could have imagined how our world — and our lives — would be thrown into turmoil by this new virus.
"Tomorrow marks six months since WHO received the first reports of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause in #China.
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 29, 2020
The six-month anniversary of the outbreak coincides with reaching 10 million #COVID19 cases and 500 thousand deaths"-@DrTedros
“Globally, the pandemic is actually speeding up. We’re all in this together, and we’re all in this for the long haul. We have already lost so much — but we cannot lose hope.”
Read the full story here.
More Coverage
Property prices fall for second month
After several months of modest price falls, property experts are not expecting a housing market resurgence off the back of an interest rate cut.
Rise of local terror demands better from our leaders
The scourge of anti-Semitism in Australia has become a runaway train that now demands a radically escalated counter-terror mindset from federal and state governments, police and spy agencies.