Coronavirus Australia live news: Linda Reynolds: Ardern orders Auckland back into lockdown; ADF ‘offered Victoria help on multiple occasions’
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has ordered Auckland into lockdown after four new coronavirus cases — New Zealand’s first community infections in 102 days.
- ADF offered help multiple times
- Six kids under 10 in Victoria hospitals
- NSW records 22 new cases
- Shots fired as Trump speaks
- Hotel bureaucrats’ video boast
Welcome to The Australian’s rolling coverage of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Linda Reynolds has dismissed Daniel Andrews’ claims over ADF support for quarantine hotels. As Victoria records 19 deaths and 331 cases, the number of younger patients in hospital and intensive care is growing
AFP 11pm: UK schools begin full return despite spike
Scottish children began attending schools for the first time in five months on Tuesday as leaders across Britain try to kickstart a return to education despite coronavirus cases increasing again.
Scotland’s devolved government has ordered pupils in different parts of the UK nation to return gradually through this week, with all classes set to have resumed fully by next Tuesday.
In neighbouring England, where plans to restart schooling in June had to be abandoned following opposition from teaching unions and some parents, the government is adamant kids will return early next month.
But the reopenings come as Britain, which has recorded the highest death toll in Europe from COVID-19 with more than 46,000 fatalities, fears the start of a resurgence.
Officials recorded more than 1000 new cases in 24 hours for the first time Sunday since June, as a months-long lockdown has been gradually eased in the subsequent weeks.
READ MORE: Putin’s daughter a vaccine guinea pig
Ewin Hannan 10.30pm: Bank workers seek pandemic rise
Union urges banks to pay customer-facing Victorian employees a $5 an hour wage rise to compensate for COVID-19 stress.
Rebecca Urban 10pm: Schools extend helping hand to families
Schools are offering families reduced school fees as COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the economy.
Rachel Baxendale 9.30pm: Death rates of elderly laid bare
Analysis of Victoria’s cases and deaths shows the elderly are at exponentially greater risk of dying.
Tessa Alerman 9pm: Dogs a boost to lockdown survival
Whether a schnauzer, spaniel or shepherd, dogs are again proven to be the perfect companion, this time in lockdown.
Sumathi Reddy 8.25pm: Doctor suffered ‘long-haul virus’ for months
Doctor Coleen Kivlahan is one of the tens of thousands of people who have suffered long-term symptoms from COVID-19.
Max Maddison 8pm: All of NZ under stage-two restrictions
Auckland will enter a four-day level-three lockdown until noon on Friday (2pm, AEST). The rest of the country will be under level-two restrictions for the same period.
Health authorities were first alerted when a person in their 50s was tested at their doctor. Health officials proceeded to test all six members of the family. Three more of the family members tested positive. None of the infected people have a history of overseas travel.
Stage-three restrictions will force residents to stay home except for essential services such as grocery shopping or exercise
One of the most important lessons we’ve learned from overseas is the need to go hard and go early and stamp out flare ups to avoid the risk of wider outbreak,” Ms Ardern said.
“In line with our precautionary approach, we will be asking Aucklanders to take swift action with us.”
New Zealand reported just 22 deaths in a population of five million and had not recorded community transmission since May 1.
As a result, New Zealanders had been enjoying a near-normal lifestyle with no social distancing and spectators allowed at sports and cultural events.
But health authorities had repeatedly warned people not to be complacent and said a second wave of infections was “inevitable”.
AFP 7.35pm: Ardern orders Auckland back into lockdown
Jacinda Ardern has ordered Auckland into lockdown after new coronavirus cases emerged on Tuesday. The Prime Minister made the move after New Zealand’s largest city recorded the country’s first community coronavirus infections in 102 days.
The source has yet to be confirmed for the four cases from one family.
“After 102 days, we have our first cases of COVID-19 outside of managed isolation or quarantine facilities... While we have all worked incredibly hard to prevent this scenario, we have also planned and prepared for it,” Ms Ardern said.
MORE TO COME
AFP 7.20pm: Putin’s daughter given ‘vaccine’
Russia has developed the first vaccine offering “sustainable immunity” against the coronavirus, President Vladimir Putin, adding his daughter took part in experiments.
“This morning, for the first time in the world, a vaccine against the new coronavirus was registered” in Russia, Mr Putin announced on Tuesday during a televised video conference call with government ministers.
“One of my daughters had this vaccine. I think in this sense she took part in the experiment,” he said.
Russia has been pushing hard to quickly develop a coronavirus vaccine and said earlier this month it hoped to launch mass production within weeks and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year.
The World Health Organisation last week urged Russia to follow established guidelines and go “through all the stages” necessary to develop a safe vaccine.
The pandemic has seen an unprecedented mobilisation of funding and research to rush through a vaccine that can protect billions of people worldwide.
READ MORE: State in the slow lane to recovery
Max Maddison 7pm Cases at Sydney school and hospital
A school and hospital in Sydney’s west suffered COVID-19 scares on Tuesday.
A student at Parramatta Public School and two staff members at Liverpool Hospital returned positive tests, forcing the school to shut its doors and hospital staff into self-isolation.
The Department of Education said school staff and students had been asked to self-isolate. Close and casual contacts have been identified and isolated.
“The safety and wellbeing of our staff and students is of paramount importance to us at all times. As such we will continue to work closely with NSW Health to ensure that all necessary health advice is adhered to,” the statement said.
South Western Sydney Local Health District confirmed two staff members at Liverpool Hospital had been diagnosed with the virus, but the risk to patients was considered low.
“One worker wore a face mask and appropriate personal protective equipment and the other was not working with patients at the time they were infectious,” a spokeswoman said.
While one of the hospital cases has links to an existing cluster, the other remains under investigation.
READ MORE: Untangling media myths of COVID-19
Ewin Hannan 6.26pm: Union wants $5/hour rise for frontline bank workers
The Finance Sector Union has urged the banks to award thousands of customer-facing Victorian employees a $5 an hour pay rise to compensate for the “stress and anxiety” they are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nathan Rees, the union’s national assistant secretary, said the number of COVID-19 outbreaks across Melbourne had been “distressing”, and the banks should recognise the commitment of its frontline staff.
“The COVID pandemic in Victoria has the whole state on heightened alert,” he said.
“Banks are an essential service for the economy and our members in branches can’t work from home.”
He said workers were dealing with distressed customers, policing mask and physical distancing requirements and keeping branch offices sanitised.
“They are responsible for keeping themselves, their families and their communities safe,” he said. “This additional work, along with the stress they are feeling should be recognised.”
He said the $5 per hour “essential allowance” should be paid for the duration of this pandemic.
National Australia Bank paid Group 1 and 2 employees a three per cent wage rise in June, backdated to January. A further three per cent wage rise will be paid next January.
“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis our priority has been the health and wellbeing of our colleagues and continuing to support our customers with essential banking services,” a NAB spokesman said.
“We thank all our colleagues for their hard work during this difficult period and are committed to support them through the pandemic and beyond.”
READ MORE: Gluyas — Banks face capital challenges, lower dividends
Olivia Caisley 6.12pm: Morrison government ‘worked extremely close with aged care’
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck has strongly refuted claims the aged care sector wasn’t given enough advice to deal with coronavirus outbreaks at facilities as Victoria recorded its second consecutive day of nineteen deaths.
On the first day of the aged care royal commission on Monday it was heard that federal authorities had failed to prepare for, manage or even investigate the deadly spread of coronavirus through nursing homes.
It was heard federal authorities, including the principal health body advising national cabinet, failed to update advice for aged care operators between June 19 and August 3 despite a spike in cases across Victorian nursing homes during that period.
But Senator Colbeck refuted the allegations on Tuesday and argued the Morrison government had worked very closely with the sector to ensure it was prepared.
“We have worked extremely closely with the sector, we’ve been meeting on a very regular basis weekly sometimes twice monthly to ensure they were informed of what we were doing,” he said.
“We will learn from their experiences and interacting with them (the aged care sector) on a regular basis to understand the concerns that they might have, and how we might act on those concerns.”
Acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly also dismissed allegations the federal government didn’t have a COVID-19 plan.
“That is not correct. We have been planning for our aged population as a vulnerable group since the beginning of our planning in relation to COVID-19,” Professor Kelly said.
Outside a parliamentary inquiry scrutinising the government’s response to the coronavirus on Tuesday Labor Senator Katy Gallagher called out the government’s response and argued it had not gone far enough.
“More than 20 people in that facility (St Basil’s) have died and there’s more than 170 cases linked to it and that’s a failure,” she said. “It’s a failure of the Commonwealth. The regulator seems to have played a part but there may be others and the Commonwealth needs to stand up and take responsibility for it.”
Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson was forced to write to the same inquiry on Friday, revealing that the independent regulator was made aware on July 10, not July 14, that a St Basil’s employee had tested positive on July 8.
It wasn’t until July 15 that the federal government rolled-out widespread testing at the facility, which is now connected to at least 170 cases and 20 deaths.
Senator Colbeck said he only found out about a communications blunder on Friday but said Ms Anderson would continue to have his full support.
Scott Morrison was made aware of the evidence amendment on Sunday.
“I think we can all continue to learn through the experience of COVID-19 but I have seen Janet working very hard for those in aged care in recent months, so yes I do think she has my confidence,” Senator Colbeck said.
The AHPPC told The Australian it had communicated its advice to the aged care sector on “many occasions.”
“In addition to the published AHPPC advice, the Department works closely with the aged care sector and providers to provide support and advice in response to COVID-19,” a spokeswoman said.
READ MORE: ‘My father died without knowing he had virus’
Rachel Baxendale 6.05pm: Victoria’s coronavirus death toll reaches 246
People in their 80s make up 41.9 per cent of Victoria’s 246 deaths from coronavirus.
The deaths include those of 128 men and 118 women, or a 52-48 per cent split.
There have been two people in their 30s in Victoria who have succumbed to the virus (0.8 per cent), one person in their 40s (0.4 per cent), 10 people in their 50s (4.1 per cent), 12 in their 60s (4.9 per cent), 47 people in their 70s (19.1 per cent), and 71 people aged 90 or above (28.9 per cent).
The increasing risk of death from coronavirus with age has been reflected in Victoria’s data, with 14.4 per cent of those aged 90 or above who contracted the virus having died in the state so far, while no one under 30 has died, despite 39.1 per cent of Victoria’s COVID-19 cases having been in people under 30.
Of the 2708 cases among people in their 30s (17.8 per cent of the total 15,251 cases), two have died (0.07 per cent).
Of the 1976 cases among people in their 40s (13.0 per cent), one has died (0.05 per cent).
Of the 1680 cases among people in their 50s (11.0 per cent), 10 have died (0.6 per cent).
Of the 1005 cases among people in their 60s (6.6 per cent), 12 have died (1.2 per cent).
Of the 657 cases among people in their 70s (4.3 per cent, 47 have died (7.2 per cent).
Of the 769 cases among people in their 80s (5.0 per cent), 103 have died (13.4 per cent).
Many of those included in the statistics have active cases, which sadly means they may still succumb to the virus, so the rates of deaths in each age group are likely to increase.
READ MORE: Gottliebsen — WFH: Don’t fall for the fad
Matthew Denholm 5.23pm: Tasmania records first new case in three weeks
Tasmania is no longer COVID-19 free, on Tuesday recording its first new case in almost three weeks.
Premier Peter Gutwein said the man in his 60s had tested positive after being transferred as a patient from a Victorian hospital to Burnie’s North West Regional Hospital.
“The man had previously tested negative ... but has subsequently had a positive test,” he said. “I’m assured that all infection control procedures were followed and that the man bears no risk to any other patient or other Tasmanian.”
Even so, the case will create concern in NW Tasmania and at the NWRH, scene of the state’s last major outbreak of coronavirus.
READ MORE: Indonesia pushes for Bali bubble
Remy Varga 4.50pm: Reynolds: Victoria ‘consistently’ refused ADF offer
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds says the ADF was “consistently advised” Victoria did not need army assistance with the hotel quarantine system, which is thought responsible for unleashing the state’s second coronavirus wave.
It follows Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews earlier telling a coronavirus inquiry that it was incorrect to say there were “hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no.”
In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, Ms Reynolds said an application for 850 ADF personnel to assist with quarantining returning travellers was made on June 24 before it was withdrawn the following day.
“ADF officials asked whether Victorian authorities required assistance with its mandatory quarantine system on multiple occasions,” she said.
“No request for quarantine support was subsequently received from Victoria at that time.
“On 12 April 2020, Victorian authorities reaffirmed to ADF officials that all quarantine compliance monitoring operations were within Victorian authorities’ capacity.”
Ms Reynolds said again a request was made by the Victorian government and agreed to by the ADF for 850 personnel on June 24.
“The request was withdrawn by the Victorian Government the following day,” she said.
“The decision to withdraw the request is a matter for the Victorian Government.”
Earlier on Monday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews fronted a parliamentary inquiry into the state government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
He said he didn’t believe army personnel were available when asked why private security guards were used instead.
“I don’t believe ADF support was on offer,” said Mr Andrews.
“It’s been provided in limited circumstances in New South Wales, not to provide security as such but to provide transportation from the airport to hotels… I think it is fundamentally incorrect to assert that there was (sic) hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no.
“That’s not, in my judgement, accurate.”
READ MORE: Second wave of fear and loathing
Rachel Baxendale 4.30pm: Quarter of Victorian cases aged in their 20s
Almost a quarter of Victoria’s coronavirus cases have been in people in their 20s, but there have also been 2350 cases in people under 20, including 820 in children under 10.
People aged in their 20s represent the most common age group to have been infected with coronavirus in Victoria, followed by those in their thirties.
Of the 15,251 cases of COVID-19 in Victoria, there have been 820 cases in children aged 0-9 (5.4 per cent), and 1530 in people aged 10-19 (10.0 per cent), as well as 3610 in people in their 20s (23.7 per cent) and 2708 in those in their 30s (17.8 per cent).
There have been 1976 cases in people in their 40s (13.0 per cent), 1680 cases in people in their 50s (11.0 per cent), 1005 cases in people in their 60s (6.6 per cent), 657 cases in people in their 70s (4.3 per cent), 769 cases in people in their 80s (5.0 per cent), and 492 cases in people aged 90 or above (3.2 per cent).
READ MORE: New slogan: the bungling state
Max Maddison 4.00pm: Claims no plan for aged care ‘false’
Acting Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly has dismissed allegations that the federal government didn’t have a COVID-19 plan for aged care.
The royal commission heard the aged care sector was “underprepared” to handle the COVID-19 outbreak and federal government had no specific plan for it.
Responding to accusations that arose at the first day of the royal commission into the spread of coronavirus across aged care facilities, Professor Kelly said these allegations were false.
Yet he wouldn’t discuss comments made by Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck who admitted mistakes had been made in handling the response to the outbreak.
“That is not correct. We have been planning for our aged population as a vulnerable group since the beginning of our planning in relation to COVID-19,” Professor Kelly told a daily briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
“What do we know about those outbreaks? All of those have occurred in the context of community transmission and we know that the virus comes into the aged care facility.
...it’s incredibly infectious and difficult to control and we learn from each of those outbreaks and we introduce those measures to avoid those issues the next time it comes around.”
Professor Kelly also said while he didn’t possess a “crystal ball”, he was “very optimistic” about the development of a vaccine. With some trials already at Stage Three, he expected an answer about whether these vaccines were “safe and effective” to be close.
“I’m very optimistic about the - vaccine development. There are a large number of companies that are involved, academics are involved, Governments are involved, multilateral philanthropy and so forth are involved and Australia is involved,” he said.
READ MORE: ‘My father died without knowing he had virus’
Amanda Hodge 3.55pm: Indonesia pushes for Bali bubble
Indonesia is prepared to welcome back Australian tourists as early as next month when Bali reopens its borders to international visitors and is negotiating with Canberra to make that happen, a senior minister says.
Luhut Pandjaitan, the Co-ordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, said Indonesia was keen to establish a travel bubble with Australia, one of only a few countries that it considered safe.
“We have to carefully selected (countries), so I think Australia, New Zealand later on, China, of course, and maybe South Korea and Japan. We are studying day by day,” Mr Luhut told the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents’ Club in an online discussion on Monday night.
“Right now we negotiate with Australia. We will see what happens, what they need from us and what we need from them. We need to negotiate standard of care because nobody can claim they’re better than others.
“I disagree when people say this country is better than your country. Look at America now. Look at Singapore.
“In Jakarta, in Indonesia in general, quite OK, but we have to be careful. If everybody is disciplined then we can much reduce the impact of COVID-19. That’s the key, because we don’t have medicine to cure this disease today.”
READ the full story here
Remy Varga 3.15pm: Mask-less woman arrested for refusing to give name
Victoria Police have arrested a young woman not wearing a mask who refused to reveal her name and address.
Video emerged on Monday of an altercation between the woman, 21, refusing to wear a mask and a Victoria Police protective service officer on Wellington Street in Collingwood at about 5pm on Monday.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the woman was not fined because she has a condition exempting her from wearing a face covering, which she did not say to the PSO.
The spokeswoman said police made the decision to arrest the 21-year-old after she refused to provide her name and address.
“She then became physically aggressive and kicked a female officer to the upper body,” said the Victoria Police spokeswoman.
“The woman continued to resist arrest and had to be taken to ground before being arrested.”
In the video, the woman launches into a foul-mouthed tirade before the PSO appears to grab her.
“You’re choking me, what the f**k. Get off of me. Get off of me. You’re f**king choking me. Get the f**k of me.”
The woman then kicks another PSO who attempts to subdue her before saying she has a medical condition allowing her not to wear a mask.
In one of the series of videos posted, the PSO takes the woman to the ground and sits on her as bystanders film the incident on their phones.
“I’m not going to,” the woman said. “Just get off of me.”
A man filming the incident interjects to say: “She’s got an excuse for not wearing a mask mate... Look what you’re causing for what, a mask?”
By the last video, there are five officers in the video.
The Victoria Police spokeswoman said the woman received bail to appear at court at a later date, with the incident referred to Professional Standards Command.
READ MORE: ‘Father died without knowing he had virus’
Remy Varga 3.10pm: Fined after fleeing flatmate’s bedroom noise
A Melbourne man has been fined after he breached the 5km residence rule because his flatmate “was being too loud in the bedroom” with their intimate partner.
A Victoria Police spokeswoman said the man was found sitting in his car in the suburb of Maribyrnong in Melbourne’s inner west at around 7.30pm on Monday night.
Stage 4 restrictions are now in place for Melbourne.
— Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) August 10, 2020
Exercise is limited to once a day for 1 hour.
Shopping is limited to 1 person once a day.
And when doing either, you must stay within 5kms of your home.
You must also stay home between 8pm and 5am. pic.twitter.com/AB1pmyoV7u
“When asked for his reason to be there, he stated his housemate’s intimate partner was over and the couple were being too loud in the bedroom so he left the house to get peace and quiet,” she said.
Victoria Police issued 202 fines for public health breaches in the last 24 hours, including 33 penalties for failure to wear a mask and 70 for curfew breaches.
Other examples include three people who filmed themselves getting takeaway in Melbourne’s CBD and a man practising to be a DJ in someone else’s home.
READ MORE: Untangling media myths of COVID-19
Rachel Baxendale 2.40pm: Six children among 650 in Victorian hospitals
Six children under the age of 10 are among 650 people in Victorian hospitals with coronavirus on Tuesday, alongside two people aged 10-19, eight in their 20s, 20 in their 30s, 23 in their 40s, 49 in their 50s and 66 in their 60s.
There are also 117 people in their 70s, 233 in their 80s and 126 people aged 90 or above in Victorian hospitals with coronavirus.
Of these, there are two people in their 30s two people in their 40s, eight people in their 50s and 15 people in their 60s in intensive care, as well as 10 people in their 70s, five in their 80s and one aged 90 or above.
READ MORE: Shares soar to two-month high
Remy Varga 2.23pm: ‘Accommodation commander’ took charge of hotels
The boss of Victoria’s health department has been unable to name the people who had oversight of the botched hotel quarantine program, Victoria’s COVID-19 inquiry heared.
Taking the questions on notice, DHHS Secretary Kym Peake said the program was first overseen by a deputy state commander before oversight was transitioned to an “accommodation commander” in mid-April.
Ms Peake said the deputy state commander had emergency management experience and played a role in the bushfire response.
“I actually don’t have their names,” she said under questioning by Bridget Vallence.
Ms Peake took the question on notice as well as the organisational structure of the governance group.
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Remy Varga 2.01pm: Health staff contracting virus outside of work
Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos says only around 10-15 per cent of covid positive health workers contracted the disease at work, flagging the possibility staff were bringing the disease into healthcare settings.
“Roughly around 10-15 per cent of those cases are believed to have been acquired in a workplace,” she said.
“We have got, as you know, very extensive community transmission at the moment, it is possible that people are bringing the virus into workplace settings and then colleagues are infecting other colleagues, perhaps in a tearoom type environment, where people might take their mask off in a more relaxed frame.”
READ MORE: Mesoblast hit by virus drug questions
Remy Varga 1.53pm: Elaborate bureaucracy behind quarantine program
Emergency Management Victoria Commissioner Andrew Crisp signed off on the hotel quarantine operational program, the coronavirus inquiry has heard.
Victorian Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kym Peake detailed the elaborate bureaucratic structure that oversaw the management of the hotel quarantine system.
She said DHHS developed plans for the hotel quarantine program that were signed off by EMV Commissioner Andrew Crisp.
“The first was supporting the development of an operational plan for the multiple agencies that were involved in the delivery of the program for approval by the Emergency Management Commissioner,” she said.
When asked by the Member for Gippsland South Danny O’Brien if there was any minister or department responsible for the botched program, Ms Peake said: “Under the plan this governance group was responsible.
“There was a deputy state controller established initially with emergency management expertise... and then the middle of April there was an emergency operations centre created to support that governance with an COVID-19 accommodation commander who chaired that governance group.
Ms Peake said the governance group was made up of DHHS, the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Victoria Police, the Department of Transport and the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
READ MORE: Nats demand changes to uni fee reforms
Remy Varga 1.37pm: I wasn’t consulted over hotel security: Sutton
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer says neither he or his public health team were involved in the running of the state’s bungled hotel quarantine system.
Brett Sutton told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry he was informed of the coordination of data, the coordination of welfare support for medical and nursing staff as well as some issues relating to the subcontracting of health services.
But Professor Sutton said the hiring of security guards, which is believed to have led to infection control breaches, he was not consulted.
“I was not involved in any of that decisionmaking whatsoever,” he said under questioning by Member for Polwarth Richard Riordan.
“I can’t speak to the broader department, I was not informed of it and I wasn’t asked for advice.”
Mr Sutton said he was sure senior people from the Department of Health and Human Services were involved in the bungled program.
“I can only speak to my involvement and it wasn’t in relation to the contracting of security guards.
READ MORE: Untangling media myths of Covid-19
Patrick Commins 1.32pm: Victoria leads July job losses as restrictions bite
Victoria shed payroll jobs in July while the national labour market steadied, as the second wave of COVID-19 infections and associated restrictions weighed on the country’s economic recovery.
READ the full story here
Stephen Lunn 1.25pm: Aged sick should have been moved earlier
Newmarch House struggled to understand which level of government was responsible for dealing with its fatal COVID-19 outbreak in the crucial first few weeks of infection, the aged care royal commission has heard.
READ the full story here
Rachel Baxendale 12.01pm: Woman in 50s in Victoria’s latest deaths
Victoria’s COVID-19 death toll has reached 246, following a record 19 deaths in the 24 hours to Tuesday.
Monday’s record 19 deaths have been revised down to 18, due to the duplication of one of the deaths.
It is the second time in as many days the Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services has mistakenly reported a death twice.
The 19 deaths in the 24 hours to Tuesday include those of a woman in her 50s, a man in his 70s, six women and four men in their 80s, and four women and three men in their 90s.
Of the 19, 14 were aged care residents.
Premier Daniel Andrews said he sent condolences, sympathies love and support on behalf of Victorians to the families of those who have died.
“This will be an incredibly difficult time for them and I hope that that pain is made a little more bearable knowing that Victorians are with you in grief and loss and sadness,” Mr Andrews said.
The 331 new cases in the 24 hours to Tuesday bring the number of COVID-19 cases in Victoria since the pandemic began to 15,251.
There are now 650 people in Victorian hospitals with coronavirus, including 47 in intensive care, 24 of whom are on ventilators.
There have been 1,854,688 coronavirus tests conducted in Victoria since the pandemic began, including 34,090 processed in the 24 hours to Tuesday.
Tuesday’s positive test rate is 0.97 per cent, down from Monday’s 1.68 per cent, and well down from the record of 3.63 per cent 13 days ago.
There have now been 2903 COVID-19 cases in Victoria where contact tracers have been unable to find a link to any other known cases.
This does not include 2090 cases which remained under investigation on Monday, or the proportion of Tuesday’s 322 new cases which are yet to be linked to known outbreaks.
There are 1185 active cases in health workers - an increase of 120 since Monday.
There are 1838 active cases linked to aged care - 82 more than on Monday.
As of Tuesday, Victoria has 7880 active cases of coronavirus - 11 more than on Monday.
The 11 cases represent the lowest net increase in active cases in well over a month, meaning the gap between the number of new cases and the number of people who were recorded as having recovered from the virus each day has fallen dramatically.
The 19 deaths in the 24 hours to Tuesday would sadly also have played a role.
READ MORE: Watch your hands
Rachel Baxendale 11.48am: ‘Why the reversal on ADF request?’
In the parliamentary hearing Nationals MP Danny O’Brien questioned Daniel Andrews on his request to the federal government on June 24 for 850 ADF personnel “to specifically assist with compliance and monitoring support at hotel quarantine.”
“Within 24 hours, it was withdrawn. Why was that?” Mr O’Brien asked.
“Well, there are many different requests that go to the commonwealth,” Mr Andrews said.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that we’ve gone to what’s called an open request model.
“If you don’t do that, if you don’t have essentially an open dialogue and an ability to add, subtract, change, modify requests, then every time you make even the most minor change, you’ve got to replicate all the requests.
“It’s an ADF thing and it’s there to make sure that everybody is clear on what’s needed and everybody’s clear on what’s coming.
“The open request model means that we can, without having to replicate the entire process, without a sense that - well, I’ll ask for more than I need.”
Mr O’Brien interjected.
“Premier, my time is limited. Can you get to answering the question, please?” he asked.
“I’m asking you about a specific request for 850 specific ADF and why it was withdrawn?”
Mr Andrews said the request had not been made by him or by his crisis cabinet.
“The request for defence force personnel, there have been many of them and they’ve been met.
“The question you’re referring to, you’d need to speak to the person who made that request because it was not made by anybody in a position of authority.”
Mr O’Brien interjected: “I understand that it was made by the Emergency Management Commissioner (Andrew Crisp)”.
“When he appears before you, you can speak to him,” Mr Andrews said.
“Do you still have full confidence in the Commissioner?” Mr O’Brien asked.
“Absolutely,” Mr Andrews replied.
“Do you regret the decision to employ private security guards in hotel quarantine?” Mr O’Brien Asked.
“What I’d say to you is, no-one wanted a second wave of the virus,” Mr Andrews said.
“But none of us have the luxury of going back in time. None of us have the luxury in pretending that the challenge that we’re facing is something that we’ve ever faced. That’s what I’m focused on.
“There are answer that are needed and that’s why a separate process has been set up to get the answers.”
READ MORE: Second wave hits business confidence
Remy Varga 11.41am: 20,000 cases with no new lockdown: Mikakos
Victoria would have seen 20,000 additional cases of the coronavirus a day if the state had not returned to lockdown, state Health Minister Jenny Mikakos has told a parliamentary inquiry.
Ms Mikakos told the inquiry on Monday that the return of stage-three restrictions as well as mandatory masking were introduced in response to the modelling, which also predicted 8,000 Victorians would be hospitalised with the disease.
“Stage-three restrictions in Melbourne and the introduction of mandatory masks slowed the growth in case numbers but we needed to do more to reduce the number of cases more quickly,” she said in her opening statement.
“This modelling shows where we were headed without stage-three restrictions... on track for 20,000 cases per day.”
There have been 151 coronavirus deaths in Victoria linked to aged-care homes, Ms Mikakos s told th parliamentary inquiry.
“The largest source of fatalities we’ve had to date has been associated with nursing homes,” she said.
READ MORE: ‘Dangerous’ to think masks stop virus
Rachel Baxendale 11.32am: Why no response to request for police?
Nationals MP Danny O’Brien asked Daniel Andrews about a leaked email from the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions reported by Nine Newspapers on July 14.
The email was sent to the Department of Health and Human Services and Emergency Management Victoria within 24 hours of the hotel quarantine program being stood up, and requested that Victoria Police be present 24 hours at each quarantine hotel.
The email said: “We ask that DHHS urgently make that request as the control agency.”
“If your government was warned within 24 hours of the program starting that there was a need for police oversight, why didn’t the government respond to that?” Mr O’Brien asked.
Mr Andrews said he would not respond to an email that “purports to be from a person within government”.
“I’ve not seen that email. I’m not aware of the efficacy of that email.
“Again, there’s 106,000 pages of documents that have been provided to (Justice Coate).
“They’ll work through those and that’s appropriate and I’m happy to concede that I’ve not read those 106,000 pages of documents.”
Mr O’Brien interjected: “I’d like you to answer the question. Premier, the government was warned, and why didn’t it take action?”
“You’re putting it to me that a document I’ve not seen from a person — I’m not even sure whether that document is attributed to anybody — you’re asserting that that was a warning,” Mr Andrews said.
“I suppose I’m not necessarily agreeing with you that you can make that claim.”
Mr O’Brien said he would put his question another way.
“If The Age reported this on the front page on 14 July, surely you and your office have followed up this issue and have sought answers as to why the Department of Health and Human Services didn’t respond to the request that we needed police oversighting the hotel quarantine program?” Mr O’Brien asked.
“If I can put it another way to you, I’m not going to set up a judicial inquiry, an inquiry chaired by a former judge, and then conduct the same inquiry myself,” Mr Andrews said.
“There are some questions that can be answered and there are others that simply cannot.
“I take you back to the point I’ve made a number of times now, the judge’s process is not set up because we have all the answers. It is set up to get us all the answers.
“And from time to time - you’ve been on this committee a long time, I’ve been appearing before this committee for a long time, perhaps even longer than you’ve been a member of it, and from time to time, you will ask questions and despite the best endeavours of witnesses, me and others, we cannot provide you with all the answers.”
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Rachel Baxendale 11.16am: Andrews to address media at 11.45am
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is due to hold his daily coronavirus press conference at 11.45am, after spending the morning answering questions and the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.
Rachel Baxendale 11.07am: Hotel security a matter for judge: Andrews
Back at the Victorian parliamentary hearing: It’s worth noting that opposition and crossbench MPs appear don’t seem to be taking advantage of the opportunity to quiz Premier Daniel Andrews’s departmental secretary Chris Eccles and his deputy Tim Ada, and are instead asking all their questions to the Premier.
This is an odd tactic, given the Premier’s capacity as a politician to give political answers to the questions asked.
Nationals MP Danny O’Brien began his round of questions by asking the Premier who made the decision to use private security guards in the hotel quarantine program.
Mr Andrew said national cabinet had approved the rollout of a hotel quarantine system for returned travellers on March 27.
“That was to be stood up by midnight — that was a Friday — midnight the following night, being midnight the Saturday night,” the Premier said.
“We had already begun a process of engaging with hotels, using private security and others to support health workers who needed to isolate, to support vulnerable members of the Victorian community who needed to isolate.
“In many respects, the hotel quarantine system simply became an extension of previously agreed processes, so a service, if you like, that was already on the ground and running, the ultimate arrangements for hotel quarantine — so firstly, that it should happen — that’s national cabinet.
“Then the Victorian cabinet approves a set of arrangements and then they are implemented and delivered by officials and others at a very local level, because this is ultimately about the care and support of people, individual by individual, family by family.”
Mr O’Brien asked Mr Andrews to clarify whether he was saying Victoria’s full cabinet or its crisis council of cabinet was responsible.
“Oh, sorry. Crisis council,” Mr Andrews said.
“Why was the decision made to use security guards as opposed to police or ADF oversight?” Mr O’Brien asked.
“Well, in terms of the ultimate answer as to the desirability, effectiveness or otherwise, to all these arrangements, there is another process to deal with that,” Mr Andrews said, referring to Justice Coate’s inquiry.
“The process I’m referring to is not set up to avoid answering questions. It’s to get us answers and if, clearly, this system has not worked as it should have, it is unclear to me exactly where the origin and nature of some of those deficiencies and failures are, so we have sought a separate process so as not to mark our own paper, as it were, but instead to have others look at that in detail.
“In terms of the arrangements, our crisis council of cabinet funded and endorsed a program.
“The program is then delivered at a local level by a big team, a team that was able to I think provide support and quarantine for in excess of 20,000 people.
“The exact nature of security arrangements, their adequacy or otherwise, that is appropriately a matter for the judge to look at.”
ADF support ‘not on offer’
Mr O’Brien asked Mr Andrews why he had chosen to use private security guards rather than police or ADF personnel.
“I’m glad you mentioned the use of ADF. I don’t believe ADF support was on offer,” Mr Andrews said.
“It’s been provided in limited circumstances in New South Wales, not to provide security as such but to provide transportation from the airport to hotels.
“I think it is fundamentally incorrect to assert that there was (sic) hundreds of ADF staff on offer and somehow someone said no.
“That’s not, in my judgement, accurate.”
Mr O’Brien said his question was why private security guards had been chosen.
“There was a proposal drawn up,” Mr Andrews said.
“It was essentially already operating, at some significant scale, but would need to go to another level.
“It was running quarantine and support services for a range of different people, whether it be health workers, vulnerable Victorians, women and children fleeing family violence.
“The best answer I can give you is that this hotel quarantine model was simply an extension of those arrangements, arrangements that had until that point, and I have no evidence to the contrary, had worked well in those cohorts.
“It was simply amended to include the return travellers, and it was stood up within the specified time frame, and they are the decisions that were made.
“It was essentially an extension of a program that we had already stood up. Nothing more, nothing less.”
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Mackenzie Scott 11.00am: Border-dodging teens test negative
Two teenagers who were arrested on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast yesterday after dodging state border controls have tested negative for the virus.
The girls, aged 15 and 16, were stopped by Queensland Police at Noosa Civic Centre shopping mall on Monday afternoon, after arriving from a known NSW hotspot on Friday via train and allegedly lying on their border declarations about their whereabouts.
They were taken into custody for testing, with no charge laid as of this morning.
“The results of tests on two young women who are believed to have travelled from Sydney when it was a hotspot, but before the border with New South Wales was closed, were negative,” state health minister Steven Miles said.
Police had been tracking the pair for at least 24 hours prior to their arrest, which was documented extensively on social media. It is believed they did not enter the states 14-day mandatory hotel quarantine after arriving from the known hotspot of Greater Western Sydney ahead of the state’s border to NSW closing in the early hours of Saturday morning.
It has now been 10 days since the last locally acquired case in Queensland and two weeks since a trio of women returned from Melbourne with the state’s first two cases of COVID-19 in the community since May.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she is unaware whether the two teenage girls were spoken to by police when they arrived in Brisbane on Friday.
NSW residents are prevented from entering into Queensland, and Queensland residents who have passed through NSW or Victoria are required to go into two-week hotel quarantine when entering the state.
Ms Palaszczuk was asked in Parliament whether police had conducted a border check when the girls arrived in Brisbane on the train.
The premier said she did not know and referred the question to Police Minister Mark Ryan.
-with Charlie Peel
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EWIN HANNAN 10.54am: Working holiday visa ‘threat to jobs, prices’
Implementing proposed union changes to the working holiday visa program would threaten thousands of jobs and increase food prices, the fresh produce industry claims.
Unions have called for changes to the program, claiming the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the industry’s over-reliance on exploited backpackers to fill jobs that could be done by workers already living in remote and rural Australia.
The Australian Workers Union, the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, and the Transport Workers’ Union want a national labour hire licencing scheme set up to allow unions to spot visit and conduct checks on wages.
They called for an supply-chain accreditation scheme for the horticultural industry, stricter labour market testing, a public register of visa workers, and a national accommodation provider licencing scheme that would allow unions to exercise right of entry on worker accommodation.
But the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance, whose members include leading fresh produce growers and suppliers, said farmers were subject to tight regulation and undertakings to employ people lawfully and ethically.
AFPA chief executive Michael Rogers said suppliers and growers would not tolerate illegal and unethical treatment of workers.
“It’s the union movement that ‘needs an overhaul from top to bottom’,” he said.
“As they try desperately to insert themselves into the produce industry, this risks resulting in thousands of lost jobs, dramatically higher prices that struggling families can’t afford, and a loss of $13 billion to an already devastated economy.”
He said if unions had evidence of exploitation of any workers in the horticulture industry, they should provide it to the Fair Work Ombudsman, the police and the Department of Home Affairs.
“Claims of an industry determined to exploit foreign workers are absurd ranting from unions desperate to maintain membership as the COVID crisis creates a tough economic environment and makes workers think about the worth of what they get for their money – obviously fewer are spending it on union fees”, Mr Rogers said.
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Charlie Peel 10.49am: Queensland extends zero-case run to 10 days
Queensland has gone 10 days without a recorded case of community transmission of COVID-19.
Speaking in Parliament on Tuesday morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there had been no new cases of the virus overnight.
It has been two weeks since the state was thrown into a state of panic after it was revealed three women from Logan - two of whom had the virus - spent a week in the community, visiting restaurants and shops after returning to Brisbane from Melbourne and failing to declare they had been in a coronavirus hotspot.
A person who dined in a restaurant at the same time as one of the women contracted the virus, prompting health authorities to scramble to track the spread of the virus and introduce restrictions on visiting aged care homes.
“Recently we learned just how much we value our days without new cases,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.
“We had a three-month streak of no community transfer until the selfishness of a few undid the hard work of the many.
“Anxiety crept back into Queensland.”
Health Minister Steven Miles said the state had tightened its protocols in response to the “Logan cluster”, which included closing the border to NSW residents.
“Thanks to our response over the past fortnight, we have avoided a potential disaster,” Mr Miles said.
“We have concluded that we will not accept rule breakers.”
The state recorded one new case in the 24 hours to Monday morning - a man in hotel quarantine after returning from overseas.
The economic impact of Victoria’s stage four coronavirus restrictions is set to cost Queensland $480m in the next three months.
Treasurer Cameron Dick said the figure was based on federal government analysis of the impact the strict lockdown in Victoria would have on the economy in other states.
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Imogen Reid 10.42am: Berejiklian: Private school cluster will grow
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has sent a clear message to schools undertaking extracurricular activities, saying they are unacceptable during a pandemic and could lead to a surge in numbers.
“Whether it’s offsite gatherings, whether it’s mingling between students, we are in a pandemic. Every organisation, every entity needs to abide by the COVID-safe plans because otherwise we risk having a surge in numbers, but also we risk having new clusters and none of us want to see that,” she said.
Ms Berejiklian said she expects the number of cases linked to the Tangara school cluster — which added eight of today’s 22 new NSW cases — will grow.
“Unfortunately, people who live in that same household are extremely susceptible,” she said.
“If someone in your family has it, it is extremely difficult not to get it, so that’s why we ensure everybody in the household self isolates and follows the rules.”
Asked whether extracurricular activities triggered the outbreak, Ms Berejiklian said she would let the health authorities speak to that, but stressed that they were not permitted during this time.
“Extracurricular activities, those excursions which you would ordinarily do, are not acceptable during a pandemic, can I make that very clear,” she said.
Ms Berejikian reported a drop in the amount of people coming forward for testing, revealing that just over 13,000 people were tested yesterday, as opposed to the 20,000 tested in the days prior.
“On the weekend, we tend to see a dip in the number of people getting tested and last night’s results reflect that,” she said.
“It’s really important for us to get those testing rates back up.”
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Rachel Baxendale 10.27am: Greens MP wants answers on public housing
Greens MP Sam Hibbins quizzed the Premier on the lockdown of public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne in Melbourne’s inner northwest.
It was the harshest lockdown in any democracy in the world, but it did succeed in limiting the spread of the virus in the towers, which house some of Victoria’s most vulnerable people.
“When you announced the lockdown on Saturday 4 July at around 4:20, you stated that residents would be supported with onsite clinical care as well as food delivery and care packages,” Mr Hibbins began.
“Then, five hours later, at around 9:30, you said, ‘We’ll provide everything residents need during this period from food to medical supplies, toys to toiletries. No-one will go without. No-one will be left alone.’
“Well, it turns out people did go without and people were left alone.”
Mr Hibbins reeled off a list of examples, including:
- “A woman who couldn’t get clean insulin needles for her diabetic child and after several days of calling the hotline, had to wash and reuse needles for her child.”
- “An elderly diabetic woman who had carers come and cook for her every day had her carers removed and despite her family repeatedly calling the hotline, no care was provided for three days until she was delivered in the food.”
- “A woman with a premature baby in intensive care in hospital was left for several days without anyone coming to collect expressed breast milk for her baby”
- “A woman who was denied a mental health check after threatening self-harm.”
Mr Hibbins said there were “dozens of cases” of people left without food, medication, mental health support, nappies and baby formula.
“These arrived late, or not at all, over the five days. Can I ask on what basis did you make the statement that no-one would go without?,” he asked.
“And when you announced the lockdown, was there a plan in place to deliver appropriate food, medicine and other essentials?”
Mr Andrews began his answer by explaining the need for the lockdown.
“If we don’t lock down those nine towers, we will see this run wild throughout the entire community,” he said.
Mr Hibbins said he was not questioning the lockdown.
“It’s important that I give you some context for this and that’s what I’m attempting to do,” Mr Andrews said.
“There’s no alternative but to accept the advice of the Chief Health Officer and part of the advice of the Chief Health Officer was to have an immediate lockdown - not a lockdown three days hence when you’d had the benefit of many, many hours to provide additional planning.”
“To your question, this has never occurred before. There’s no manual or play book or anyone you can go to and say, well, given your experience in doing things like this, can you provide me with some advice on how I might do it?
“Now, was every element of that response perfect? Well, what I say to you is of course it wasn’t, nor could it have been.”
Mr Andrews said it was more important to ensure the virus did not spread than to ensure people didn’t have to wait five hours for food.
“The ultimate vulnerability here was not whether somebody got fed within five hours or whether they had to wait until the following day to get a bag of groceries, the ultimate vulnerability here, Mr Hibbins here, if I might say, was this thing infecting everyone in those towers and hundreds of people dying,” he said.
“I think if you reflect on that issue, I think you see the challenge that we faced and the fact that no matter what we did, no element of this could be made perfect.
“The criticism of people who worked their guts out on the ground, they did their very best, Mr Hibbins and I think it’s wrong to suggest otherwise.”
Mr Hibbins said he was not suggesting otherwise.
“What I am suggesting, Premier, is there’s a long way between something not being perfect and something not being managed well from the start.
“Do you accept that there was a clear inconsistency between the public statements that you made that essentially said that no-one would go without, and what was in fact actually happening on the ground, where people did go without?”
Mr Andrews said the towers lockdown was clearly a “very big challenge”.
“But not providing people with a bag of groceries, or, indeed, dealing with the many, many complex circumstances ... or the mother of the newborn at the Royal Children’s Hospital that you referenced, of course we would have liked to have had that mother with her newborn baby,” he said.
“You’d want those two, the mum and bub, together, but that was not possible. That was not possible, and I suppose in order to try and provide general support - food and other welfare - there will have been specific examples of a very well defined need that may not have been met.
“No-one is pleased to think that anybody had to wait longer than you would like for the things that they needed, of course not, but the ultimate test, I think, is to compare the discomforts, the displeasure, and the real challenge, the whole challenge, the hardship of having to wait for some things, that needs to be compared not with what might be termed a perfect response, because I don’t know if there could be one, but compare and contrast...”
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Imogen Reid 10.16am: NSW records 22 new virus cases
NSW has recorded 22 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the 24 hours to 8pm on Monday.
Of the new cases, four are in hotel quarantine, two were acquired from Victoria and eight are linked to the cluster at Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian said her anxiety has not subsided since the start of the pandemic and reiterated the importance of getting tested.
“We need to keep pulling together, keep doing the right thing and maintaining our social distance, and most importantly, even with the mildest symptoms, stay home and get tested,” she said.
“Make sure when we’re out and about that we’re doing the right thing, that we’re always on our guard and, of course, that we’re always mindful of the most vulnerable.”
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Rachel Baxendale 10.06am: Andrews quizzed on Mikakos warning
Liberal MP Richard Riordan has moved to reports Health Minister Jenny Mikakos was warned as early as May 11 about insufficient infection control measures in hotel quarantine.
The first COVID-19 case in a security guard at the Rydges on Swanston quarantine hotel was made public on May 27.
“On your government’s own figures, this complete failure of government policy will surely be the most disastrous economic and social catastrophe in Victoria’s history,” Mr Riordan said to Daniel Andrews as the Victorian Premier who is facing the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee.
“How will you take personal responsibility for this? You’ve told us on numerous occasions you will be personally responsible. What does personal responsibility mean?”
Mr Andrews says he will not be “playing political games”.
“Mr Riordan, perhaps you and I have a different view as to the responsibilities of my office,” he said.
The Premier goes on to list things he says he’s doing with regard to managing the COVID-19 pandemic, including making sure healthcare workers have resources and support.
“Accountability is obviously a function of my role,” Mr Andrews said.
“That’s the job that I have. In terms of my responsibilities and the things that I ought to be focused on and which I am exclusively focused on, I’ve listed some of those.”
Mr Riordan interjected.
“But, Premier, Premier, after a month of acknowledging failures in hotel quarantine, nothing has been seen, no admissions by you have been made, no acknowledgement of the error has been made by you,” he said.
“Today, all Victorians ... have seen ... how your government has run hotel quarantine and you have nothing to comment about who is accountable and who is responsible for that.”
Mr Andrews hit back.
“I’ve said no such thing. Your analysis is completely inaccurate. I have not only accepted ultimate and accountability for any issues in that part of our pandemic response and all issues in our pandemic response, but I’ve established an appropriate arms-length process chaired by a former judge, not for the avoidance of scrutiny ... but to deliver that scrutiny and to provide the answers that all of us are fundamentally entitled to.”
Mr Riordan asked his final question.
“Did you, or did the crisis cabinet think hotel quarantine would be better run by people who fix roads and run an art gallery than your own health department?” he asked, with reference to private security guards.
“The answer to your question is no,” Mr Andrews said.
“At no point did people make a decision like that.
“Across the board people are performing roles and functions that are a long way away from what they might traditionally be expected to do.”
Mr Riordan’s time for questions expires.
Labor MP Gary Maas goes on to ask a series of Dorothy Dixer questions relating to issues such as the recent dramatic improvement in Victoria’s contact tracing practices, which until this month had seen some close contacts of COVID-19 cases wait more than 20 days to be notified that they may have been exposed to coronavirus.
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Rachel Baxendale 9.54am: Hearing zeroes in on genomic sequencing
Back at the at PAEC Liberal MP Richard Riordan has moved on to Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton’s comments last month that it is possible that all of Victoria’s second wave of coronavirus can be linked to hotel quarantine breaches.
Mr Andrews has himself conceded that “at least a significant proportion” of Victoria’s second wave is linked to hotel quarantine breaches.
“Premier, your Chief Health Officer says genomic sequencing confirms that the Victorian second wave has come from the minister’s (Martin Pakula’s) failed hotel quarantine, a point you have conceded yourself on numerous occasions,” Mr Riordan said.
“Because of this, hundreds of thousands of Victorians have lost their jobs and businesses, and thousands of family members have lost loved ones.
“Victorians have trusted you to keep them safe. You have catastrophically let them down. Will you apologise to Victorians?”
Mr Andrews said: “As I’ve said, Mr Riordan, I’m the leader of the government and the leader of the state and I take responsibility for all of the decisions that are made across our government and the performance of all of our agencies.”
“That ultimate responsibility is an important function of the job that I have, the great honour that I have to serve as the Premier of this state.
“I don’t agree with the way you have characterised various statements that the Chief Health Officer has made.
“Having stood beside the Chief Health Officer on the morning where genomic sequencing, a match of genomic sequencing had been received and the results had been appropriately analysed, both I and the Chief Health Officer - this is not a matter of dispute - indicated that at least a significant number - at least - and it may be more - there is further genomic sequencing, there’s always trials because it’s a longer process and more involved process than simply determining whether someone is positive or negative...”
Mr Riordan asked Mr Andrews whether he was saying that he did not have information about whether or not all of Victoria’s second wave is genomically linked to hotel quarantine.
“That’s not what I’m saying at all,” Mr Andrews said.
“What I’m saying to you, Mr Riordan, is there is some genomic sequencing that has been (linked).
“It could be a higher percentage than this but the phrasing, the way that the Chief Health Officer has described it and so, too, have I, ‘at least a significant portion of new cases’ and the resultant second wave (is) attributable to the spread of the virus out of the hotel quarantine system - that’s beyond doubt and no one is quibbling with that.
“On the issue of the availability of further genomic sequencing, I would direct you to the Chief Health Officer.”
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Remy Varga 9.47am: ‘Choking’: distressing mask arrest video emerges
Video has emerged of an altercation between a woman refusing to wear a mask and a VIctoria Police protective service officer.
Outside a brick building, the woman launches into a foul-mouthed tirade before the PSO appears to grab her.
“You’re choking me, what the f**k. Get off of me. Get off of me. You’re f**king choking me. Get the f**k of me.”
The woman then kicks another PSO who attempts to subdue her before saying she has a medical condition allowing her not to wear a mask.
In one of the series of videos posted, the PSO takes the woman to the ground and sits on her as bystanders film the incident on their phones.
“I’m not going to,” the woman said. “Just get off of me.”
A man filming the incident interjects to say: “She’s got an excuse for not wearing a mask mate... Look what you’re causing for what, a mask?”
By the last video, there are five officers in the video.
Victoria Police has been contacted for comment.
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Rachel Baxendale 9.41am: ‘Will you demand that jobs minister resigns?’
Liberal MP Richard Riordan has kicked off the questions at PAEC by asking the Premier about hotel quarantine, with reference to an article in today’s Herald Sun which reveals that Department of Jobs Precincts and Regions bureaucrats with no public health experienced were tasked with setting up the hotel quarantine program in little more than 24 hours.
“Premier, you have, every day, thanked Victorians, and every day, you have admonished Victorians who have not done the right thing,” Mr Riordan began.
“Premier, every day, you have assured us you will take responsibility, personal responsibility, and own the mistakes of your government.
“Every day, you have refused to tell the Victorians, which of your ministers was responsible for letting the virus out of hotel quarantine.
“This morning, the Herald Sun has revealed what you have been hiding from Victorians. Your Minister for Jobs (Martin Pakula) was responsible for bungled hotel quarantine. Will you demand that he resign?”
Mr Andrews’s response was initially too quiet to be heard, due to technical issues.
“Let me just repeat what I said,” the Premier continued.
“The answer to your question is no. And don’t take anything that I say in my answer as in any way me confirming the rather lengthy editorial that you’ve just given me.
“I’d say that a judicial inquiry has been established, not for the avoidance of transparency ...”
Mr Riordan interjected to clarify that retired judge Justice Jennifer Coate’s probe is a board of inquiry, and not a judicial inquiry.
“You’ve been advised by the chairperson it’s not a judicial inquiry. For the record, please be honest with Victorians. It’s not judicial,” Mr Riordan said.
“As I was saying, former judge Coate is running an inquiry,” Mr Andrews continued.
“She’s a former judge. I wouldn’t have thought there was a dispute about that. It’s an inquiry set up under the act of Victorian Parliament.
“It has broad terms of reference, a substantial budget and it will get us the answers that are required.
“Those answers are to a number of different questions, fundamentally related to any and all deficiencies in the management of this and exactly what circumstances have led to, as genomic sequencing confirms for us ...”
Mr Riordan again interrupted.
“Premier, the question was will you ask the minister to resign?”
Mr Andrews replied: “I answered your question.”
Mr Riordan then moved on to Mr Andrews’ haste in forcing his former ministers Adem Somyurek, Marlene Kairouz and Robin Scott to resign over branch stacking allegations, comparing that situation with those of a minister or ministers responsible for hotel quarantine.
“Premier, within 24 hours of an expose on TV about your factional enemies in your cabinet, you had them resign in 24 hours,” Mr Riordan said.
“We’ve seen an expose of clear failure of ministerial responsibility and you won’t have that minister resign.
“What do you say to Victorians as to why you can make resignations happen when they’re your political enemies but, when they’re in your cabinet, you won’t force them to resign?”
Mr Andrews responded: “Mr Riordan, the only enemy that every single Victorian confronts is this wildly infectious virus.”
“I’m not interested in playing political games with this,” Mr Andrews said.
“I don’t think there’s any comparison between the events you’ve quoted.
“We are all working as hard as we can to fight a wicked enemy. That’s the enemy I’m exclusively focused on.”
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Rachel Baxendale 9.27am: Andrews addresses Victoria’s second wave
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has begun his opening address at state parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, ahead of facing questions at what is essentially the state equivalent of Senate Estimates.
Mr Andrews is appearing alongside his departmental secretary Chris Eccles and deputy secretary for economic policy and state productivity Tim Ada.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos is due to appear at 11.15am alongside members of her department including Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton, his deputy Allen Cheng, and departmental secretary Kym Peake.
Mr Andrews opened with a statement regarding the recent peak and gradual improvement in Victoria’s daily coronavirus numbers, and the very recent improvement in the state’s contact tracing practices, which have lagged behind by thousands of cases for weeks.
Just minutes into Mr Andrews’ appearance, members of PAEC were struggling to hear him, as he is appearing remotely from his office less than 100m from the committee room.
Technical issues similarly plagued the last round of PAEC hearings.
It is not clear why Mr Andrews is unable to appear in person, while observing social distancing and mask-wearing practices, as he does when he addresses the media every day.
PAEC is a 10-member committee made up of five Labor MPs, three Coalition MPs, one Green and one Liberal Democrat.
The Labor chair of the committee holds the casting vote, limiting the committee’s ability to hold the government to account.
The committee is nevertheless the only form of parliamentary scrutiny Mr Andrews will face for months.
The Legislative Assembly last sat on June 18 and will not sit again until September.
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Imogen Reid 9.19am: NT borders to remain shut for 18 months
Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner has announced the Territory’s border will be shut for at least 18 months from today.
Mr Gunner told ABC 24 the list of banned states and territories was likely to increase from including just Sydney and Victoria.
“We have got an indefinite ban on Victoria, and Sydney keeps bubbling away to a point, so I can’t give you a date where that would ever lift,” he said.
“My advice to every Territorian, if you can, stay here in the Territory. You’re safe here, don’t go.”
Mr Gunner urged residents to cancel their Christmas holiday plans to limit travel to and from the Territory.
He said the Territory would be recruiting extra police to enforce the hard border.
“Territorians first. This is what I think Ineed to do to make sure some of the most vulnerable people in the world stay safe,” Mr Gunner said.
“I’m not taking risks here. Your life comes first. This is the Territory-first test. If you’re as safe as us, you’re welcome in. If you’re not, sorry, we’re closed to you.”
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Rachel Baxendale 9.12am: Victoria equals grim death record, 331 new cases
Victoria has equalled Monday’s grim record of 19 coronavirus deaths, with another 19 deaths in the 24 hours to Tuesday.
The deaths bring the state’s death toll since the pandemic began to 247 — all but 20 of which have occurred since July 5.
There have been 331 new cases in the 24 hours to Tuesday, consolidating a run of six days with numbers well below 500.
The 331 new cases have brought the seven day daily average down to 451 cases - the lowest seven day daily average in 12 days — despite the record 725 new cases recorded last Wednesday.
There were 331 new cases of #coronavirus (#COVID19) detected in Victoria in the last 24 hours.
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 10, 2020
Sadly, 19 deaths were reported.#Covid19VicData pic.twitter.com/bajE79zjUy
The new figures come as Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews fronts the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) hearing which is expected to focussing on Victoria’s trouble-plagued hotel quarantine inquiry.
Richard Ferguson 9.00am: PM’s appearance at G7 meeting pushed back
US President Donald Trump is planning to push the G7 meeting — which Scott Morrison was due to attend — in Washington past the November US presidential election.
The Prime Minister was due to go to the US in September after Mr Trump invited him several months ago, with a long term view to make Australia a permanent member of the power group.
In his daily press conference, the President now says the G7 meeting should happen after the election.
“It would be a better atmosphere,” Mr Trump said at the White House.
“It’s a better, calmer atmosphere.”
Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds recently went to Washington for annual AUSMIN talks with their US counterparts, and immediately went into self-isolation once they returned to Australia.
Staff writers 8.44am: Andrews to face committee over quarantine
Daniel Andrews is due to appear before a parliamentary committee today to answer questions over his government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
The Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) hearing is expected to focus on Victoria’s trouble-plagued hotel quarantine inquiry, the Herald Sun reports.
Jennifer Coate, who is running an inquiry into the bungled quarantine program, last week gave the all clear for the Premier and other ministers to answer questions over the program, saying there was no risk of prejudice to her inquiry.
READ MORE: Sloan — A new slogan: The bungling state
Imogen Reid 8.25am: ‘Sick and angry’: Aged Care Minister grilled
Aged Care Minister Richard Colbeck has copped a grilling on Nine’s Today show this morning over the dire situation unfolding in Victoria, after Karl Stefanovic said he felt “sick and angry for our most vulnerable”.
“We’ve lost 100 people in 10 days,” Mr Stefanovic said. “How did you get it so wrong?”
Mr Colbeck assured Mr Stefanovic that the plan in place to protect aged care homes from the virus continues to adapt, particularly in Victoria, despite the huge workforce shortages in the health care sector and aged care sector.
“Our response to the pandemic has continued to evolve, as it should’ve done, and we continue to put new things in place as we learn more about the virus, and I think the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre is a clear example of that, when we got to the situation where the scale of the circumstance was as it was,” Mr Colbeck said.
However, Mr Stefanovic gave a very blunt response: “The plan wasn’t good enough.”
“Well Karl, as we’ve learnt about the virus, we’ve continued to evolve the plan,” Mr Colbeck said.
“We’ve implemented things that we’ve learnt from other places, including Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch.
“I’ve seen that happen every day in Victoria as we’ve been battling through, unfortunately, we’re in a very difficult situation in Victoria at the moment.
“We have a huge workforce shortage, not only just in the healthcare sector but also in the aged care sector. This virus has found its way into every corner of the community.”
Mr Colbeck said there were “gaps in the systems” which meant it took four days for the Health Department to be informed about the outbreak occurring at St Basil’s in Fawkner.
“The commissioner advised me on Friday morning. I met with the Commissioner and the department early that morning,” Mr Colbeck said.
“That gap has been fixed, but I might point out Karl, that was exposed by the fact that neither the DHHS nor the provider had actually advised the Federal government of the outbreak at the facility, which is part of the first 24 hour plan the Commissioner had asked the provider to back, and we should have known the day before.”
READ MORE: Editorial — Fast lessons save lives in coronavirus battle
Cameron Stewart 8.10am: Shots fired as Trump speaks at White House
A shooting outside the White House forced Donald Trump to cut short a news conference as secret service agents whisked the president off the stage amid a security scare.
The president later resumed his press conference in the media briefing room, telling reporters that a person had been shot by secret service agents near the White House.
READ the full story here
Imogen Reid 8.07am: Border-dodging teens in custody, await tests
Two teenage girls who allegedly lied on their border declaration forms to enter Queensland will remain in custody while they wait for their COVID-19 results after skipping hotel quarantine when they arrived from a NSW hotspot last Friday.
Police arrested the girls, aged 15 and 16, at a Noosa Civic Centre shopping complex on Monday afternoon.
Authorities believe the pair arrived in Brisbane from greater western Sydney by train on Friday before travelling north to the Sunshine Coast, ahead of the total ban on all travellers from NSW.
Superintendent Craig Hawkins said the teenagers have not been “completely honest” upon their arrival to the state but were now cooperating with police.
“There is no information to suggest they are carriers of the disease. However, in the interest of safety and certainly because they were in a hotspot, we were keen to ensure they have undertaken the right testing,” Superintendent Hawkins said.
The girls were not displaying any sympoints of COVID-19 but several stores within the shopping centre were forced to close on Monday afternoon.
READ MORE: Border ban ‘drives down crime rate’
Imogen Reid 7.19am: ‘Massive mission’: Bureaucrats quarantine video boast
The Victorian bureaucrats tasked with managing the bungled hotel quarantine scheme say they treated the system as a “massive inbound super trade mission,” in a leaked video that reveals public servants with no experience were given one day to set it up.
The video leaked to the Herald Sun explains how Global Victoria — an agency that manages the state’s overseas trade missions — was given a key role in the program responsible for the state’s deadly second wave of infections, despite one bureaucrat admitting the process was one “none of us had ever done before.”
The agency’s CEO, Gonul Serbest, features in the clip, saying Global Victoria feels “really proud of the work we have been doing” in slowing the spread of COVID-19.
“It’s been a really interesting and complex project,” she says.
“We’ve been able to really lean in and use the passionate empathy that the Global Victoria team has to be able to provide a really great service to all of those people who are going through quarantine.”
However, the video explains how staff had little more than 24 hours to set up the program before passengers began to arrive at the hotels. It also shows that in addition to Global Victoria, staff from Agriculture Victoria, Regional Roads Victoria and the National Gallery of Victoria were involved in the scheme.
The system is now at the centre of a judicial inquiry following claims of widespread failings, including guests being allowed out of their rooms and even being engaging in intimate acts with the guards on duty.
Calls have been mounting for Victorian Premier Dan Andews to explain the system’s security flaws, after saying he would take full responsibility for the findings exposed during the inquiry.
READ MORE: Brady bunch behaviour ‘embodies DHHS mismanagement’
Imogen Reid 7.00am: Batemans Bay school closed after student tests positive
A student at Batemans Bay High School on the south coast of New South Wales has tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the closure of school as contact tracing is conducted.
It comes almost one month after a cluster emerged in the town at the Batemans Bay Soldiers Club.
The school issued an alert to parents overnight after being notified of the case by health authorities.
“The department has been advised by NSW Health that a student has tested positive for COVID-19,” the school said in a statement.
“All staff and students are asked to self-isolate while contact tracing occurs.”
The school is one of four to shut its doors across the state due to positive coronavirus cases.
Health authorities are particularly concerned with a growing cluster linked to Tangara School for Girls in Cherrybrook. The outbreak grew to nine cases on Monday, while another two infections will be included in today’s tally.
Bonnyrigg Heights Primary School in Sydney’s south west will reopen today after it was announced a student had been infected with the virus.
READ MORE: Wilson rejects aged care allegations
Imogen Reid 6.45am: Global cases hurtle towards 20m, doubling in 43 days
The number of global coronavirus cases is quickly approaching 20 million, with the United States, Brazil and India accounting for more than half of the reported infections.
It took almost six months to reach 10 million cases after the first infection was confirmed in Wuhan, China, in early January. It has taken just 43 days to almost double the tally.
The US has around 5 million cases, while Brazil has 3 million and India has 2 million.
Greece has reached a critical juncture in its ability to contain the spread of the virus after recording its highest number of positive cases since the pandemic began on Sunday.
After recording 203 cases, health experts have said the country is experiencing its second wave of coronavirus, prompting health minister Vasillis Kikilias to rethink containment measures after being warned of the growing rate of transmission.
It comes after the government announced that visitors to Greece arriving from Sweden, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic will need proof they tested negative for COVID-19 before entering.
Meanwhile, the number of new infections recorded daily in Ireland has overtaken that of the UK over the past 14 days.
Ireland’s infection rate is 16.9 cases per 100,000 people, compared to 16.5 in the UK.
China has seen a drop in new locally transmitted cases of coronavirus with just 14 cases recorded in the past 24 hours.
All the locally acquired cases were in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, which was previously at the centre of China’s last outbreak.
China has reported a total of 4636 deaths from the disease and 84,668 cases.
India has reached a grim new milestone recording 1007 deaths in the past 24 hours as cases surge by another 62,064 cases.
The number of positive cases reported since the start of the pandemic has reached 2,215,074 in India, which has recorded over 60,000 new cases everyday for the past four days.
READ MORE: She won’t talk, she tweets — Pericles would wince
Stephen Lunn 6.15am: Virus fail: no help for aged from federal authorities
Federal authorities have failed to prepare for, manage or even investigate the deadly spread of coronavirus through nursing homes, the aged care commission has heard.
And NSW Health was at odds with its federal counterparts about whether to move sick residents from aged care homes, a position labelled “intolerable” by the country’s aged care regulator.
As Australia recorded its deadliest day from the virus, with 19 deaths, including a record 14 in nursing homes, the aged care royal commission heard that, despite warnings from overseas that aged care residents were vulnerable to the disease and dying in huge numbers, government agencies had neglected the sector.
“While there was undoubtedly a great deal done to prepare the Australian health sector more generally for the pandemic, the evidence will reveal that neither the commonwealth Department of Health nor the aged care regulator developed a COVID-19 plan specifically for the aged care sector,” counsel assisting the commission Peter Rozen said.
Aged care quality and safety commissioner Janet Anderson, the industry regulator, was also accused of failing to developing or implement an appropriate COVID-19 response plan, and not investigating the two main nursing home outbreaks during the first wave of infections in March and April, Newmarch House and Dorothy Henderson Lodge in Sydney.
“It may come as a surprise to some that the aged care regulator has not investigated the circumstances of the Dorothy Henderson Lodge and Newmarch House outbreaks,” Mr Rozen said.
“Incident investigations are normally one of the key tasks of any regulator for obvious reasons. An investigation into the facts can inform future regulatory action.”
The aged care sector is reeling from a fast-climbing death rate due to COVID-19. More than 70 per cent of Australia’s deaths during the pandemic have been from residential aged care, one of the highest proportions in the world. Victoria is the current epicentre, with 138 people in aged care settings dying since July.
READ the full story here.
Damon Johnston 6.00am: Second wave of fear in quarantine hotels
Melbourne’s quarantine nightmare is not over, with fresh revelations that two hotels are battling major problems with security, infection control and tensions between medical staff, police and government officials.
Written complaints from staff seen by The Australian claim the fraught environment is compromising the mental health of some of the people isolating at the hotels.
A staff member has also detailed major concerns about the management by the Department of Health and Human Services of the Hotel Brady in Little LaTrobe Street and the Grand Chancellor in Lonsdale Street which are housing up to 200 guests at any given time.
READ the full story here.
Emily Ritchie 5.40am: Push to use lice drugs to treat virus
Leading health experts and a federal MP are doubling down on calls for drugs typically used to treat parasitic infections to be approved for off-label use in COVID-19 cases following Victoria’s deadliest day of coronavirus fatalities.
Nationals MP and gastroenterologist David Gillespie has joined leading digestive disease expert Professor Thomas Borody in petitioning for three already approved off-the-shelf drugs – Ivermectin, doxycycline and zinc – to be made available to treat COVID-19 due to a wealth of emerging data the drugs could be effective in treating the virus.
Ivermectin – used widely to treat head lice and scabies – has been found to stop coronavirus growing in cell culture in numerous global studies, including one led by the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute and other clinical studies which have led to some jurisdictions approving it.
READ the full story here.
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