Coronavirus Australia live updates: Dutton caught in US ‘information virus’, China claims, after RBA warning
China’s embassy has taken aim at Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s call for the communist nation to show more transparency over COVID-19.
- Staggering plunge in working hours: RBA warning
- PM announces first lifting of virus restrictions
- Tasmania officials reveal factors behind cluster
- China vows to block global review
- Why we won’t rescue Virgin: Cormann
- NSW pupils back full-time in staged rollout
- National cabinet to discuss restrictions lift
Welcome to live coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. Despite dire predictions Philip Lowe says Australians ‘can be confident our economy will bounce back and we will see it recover’. Elective surgeries will begin to gradually restart after the Anzac Day long weekend as the Health Minister says ‘we are in a position to start the recovery’.
Matthew Denholm 8.45pm Hope in Tasmania after only one new case
Tasmania recorded only one new case of coronavirus on Tuesday, raising hopes an outbreak in the state’s northwest is near its peak.
It brings the state’s total cases to 201, of which 113 have been in the northwest, where a cluster has occurred, focused on the North West Regional Hospital, near Burnie.
The latest case is a northwest man aged in his 90s who had been a patient at the NWRH.
“A concerted effort is being made to identify any further cases of coronavirus in the northwest,” said Public Health Director Mark Veitch.
“Anyone who lives in the northwest who currently, or in the last few days, has had respiratory symptoms, like a cough, sore throat, runny nose, or fever, should arrange testing through the Public Health Hotline on 1800 671 738 or their GP.”
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Imogen Reid 8.15pm Aged-care resident in hospital
An eldery resident of a retirement village in Sydney’s northern beaches is in hospital with COVID-19.
NSW Health confirmed the 84-year-old woman resides at an independent-living facility in Dee Why.
The state’s health authority said one of her family members is also suffering from the coronavirus.
READ MORE: Honour the heroes of this battle — and fight to stop its return
Imogen Reid 7.47pm Cairns lab workers test positive
Three employees in Cairns Hospital’s pathology laboratory have tested positive for coronavirus.
Queensland’s Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said the healthcare workers had no mild or no symptoms and did not realise they were infected.
They have been placed in self-quarantine and Cairns Hospital will start to screen all staff working from Monday to determine if further transmission has occurred.
“If anyone says they have symptoms or have had symptoms since March 19, they will be referred to the fever clinic for testing. Contact tracing is also continuing,” Dr Young said.
“It is important to understand that there is a low risk of further transmission but we need to make every effort possible to ensure this disease does not spread further.”
The tests were ordered after a Cairns Hospital pathology worker tested positive to the virus on April 16.
“A Brisbane-based technician who visited the lab on 19 and 20 March and was diagnosed with the disease when he returned home is believed to be the source of infection,” the Queensland Health statement read.
READ MORE: Major clinical trial set for virus treatments
Imogen Reid 6.30pm Third death in Sydney aged-care home
A 92-year-old woman has died at a western Sydney aged-care facility where all residents have tested positive to COVID-19.
Anglicare’s Newmarch House nursing home in Caddens, near Penrith, has been battling an outbreak since a staff member worked six shifts while showing symptoms of the coronavirus.
The resident is the third person to succumb to the virus at the high-care home.
Anglicare, the organisation that oversees Newmarch House nursing home, confirmed the resident passed away on Tuesday morning and had multiple health issues.
“We are saddened to advise a third resident of Newmarch House, who had tested positive for COVID-19, passed away late this morning,” the statement read.
Anglicare Sydney CEO Grant Millard said: “I have spoken personally to the immediate family of the resident to convey our deepest sympathies.
“This is a very sad time not only for the immediate family but also for other residents and staff.”
The death takes the national death toll to 72.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said six new cases of COVID-19 were recorded overnight, taking confirmed cases in the state to 2969.
READ MORE: Facebook bans anti-lockdown posts and groups
Richard Ferguson 6.15pm Dutton parroting instructions from US, China claims
China’s embassy in Australia has taken aim at Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton’s call for the communist nation to show more transparency over the coronavirus pandemic.
Mr Dutton called last week for China to reveal more about the origins of COVID-19, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison pushed for an independent global review into the origins of the disease.
A spokesman of China’s embassy in Canberra accused Mr Dutton of parroting the lines of the US on Wednesday.
“Obviously he must have also received some instructions from Washington requiring him to co-operate with the US in its propaganda war against China,” the spokesman said.
“It is well known that recently some people in the US, including high-level officials, have been spreading anti-China ‘information virus’.
“Their aim is to shift blame and deflect attention by smearing China. What they have done is neither moral nor helpful to solve their own problems.”
READ MORE: Some Australia Post deliveries set to slow
Richard Ferguson 4.50pm: Morrison speaks to Gates on way forward
Scott Morrison spoke to Microsoft founder Bill Gates on Tuesday about the coronavirus crisis, as both the Prime Minister and the world’s second richest man search for a solution.
It is understood Mr Morrison and Mr Gates spoke about potential COVID-19 vaccines, the importance of the Indo Pacific, and the World Health Organisation.
Mr Gates has spent the past few years warning world leaders of a potential global pandemic.
Mr Morrison is also expected to talk to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron about coronavirus later this evening.
READ MORE: Gates: World needs a global approach to fight
Patrick Commins 4.10pm: Staggering plunge in working hours: RBA warning
Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe has warned the health crisis will lead to a “staggering” 20 per cent plunge in the total hours worked by Australians over the first half of the year, but said Australians “can be confident that our economy will bounce back and we will see it recover”.
In a speech on Tuesday afternoon, Dr Lowe said he was “encouraged” by Scott Morrison’s comments earlier in the day that we had reached a “turning point” in the fight against COVID-19, and that the country was on the “road to recovery”.
Dr Lowe said a “plausible scenario” was that the social distancing restrictions become progressively eased “as we get closer to the middle of the year, and are mostly removed by late in the year, except perhaps the restrictions on international travel”.
READ MORE: Tough months to cross the bridge: RBA
Amos Aikman 4.05pm: NT could lead nation in lifting restrictions
The Northern Territory could lead the nation in lifting coronavirus restrictions, according to Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who has pledged to “do it once and … do it right” likely starting in about mid-May.
The Top End jurisdiction is now on its fifteenth day without detecting a new COVID-19 infection. There has been no evidence of community spread, and almost half the 28 known coronavirus patients are fully recovered.
Mr Gunner flagged the end of April as the time he would begin laying out a staged recovery plan to ease restrictions. “We will take our time. We’ll follow the expert advice. We will do it once, and we will do it right,” he said.
“It will be safe. It will be staged. It will be done at a time when we can be confident that any future outbreak of the virus can be caught and contained.”
There have been calls from some businesses and community groups for the most costly and inconvenient controls to be lifted sooner. Mr Gunner urged people not to “stuff up” the Territory’s gains. “We are essentially on a path to be able to do a scale-back, which will probably be nation-leading when we do it,” he said.
“Let’s make sure we keep working together, keep holding the line, so that we can actually return to normal and get businesses open again.”
He also announced on-the-spot $5500 fines for anyone caught spitting on a worker.
Mr Gunner said Deloitte had predicted the Territory could have the fastest-growing economy in the nation once coronavirus controls were removed.
READ MORE: South32 metals hit by coronavirus woes
3.58pm: Morrison’s swipe at Turnbull book
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has taken a thinly-veiled swipe at Malcolm Turnbull after receiving sharp criticism in his predecessor’s new memoir. Mr Morrison swatted away questions about the former prime minister’s book, titled The Bigger Picture, which contains various criticisms of his government. “On this issue I will remain focused on the actual bigger picture, and that is dealing with the response to coronavirus,” he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.
Earlier in Sydney Tony Abbott launched an impassioned defence of his former chief of staff Peta Credlin after Mr Turnbull accused the pair of sharing a bizarre dynamic.
The long-held bad blood between the two former Liberal prime ministers boiled over again after the release of Mr Turnbull’s memoir.
AAP
READ MORE: Abbott responds to Turnbull’s claim Credlin was ‘running the country’
Amanda Hodge 3.50pm: Joko bans Muslim holiday return
Indonesian president Joko Widodo has finally banned the mass homecoming for the Muslim holiday of Eid, known as mudik, to prevent a mass escalation of the coronavirus across the archipelago nation.
President Jokowi, as he is known, announced the ban two days before the start of the holy fasting month of Ramadan which precipitates the return of tens of millions of Indonesians to their home villages in May.
“Today I am announcing a ban on mudik,” he said in a livestreamed announcement. “Please prepare the necessary steps for this.”
READ MORE: Joko Widodo bans Muslims from mass homecoming for Eid
Paige Taylor 3.45pm: WA records single new case, just 96 active cases
Western Australia has recorded a single new case of coronavirus overnight, bringing the state’s total to 546.
There were just 96 active cases of the virus in WA on Tuesday because 443 people have recovered. However, seven people had died from COVID-19 in WA hospitals including three from the cruise ship Artania that docked in Perth in March seeking help for sick foreign nationals.
WA Health Minister Roger Cook said the new WA case, which comes after a marked slowdown in new cases across the state over the past two weeks, was a female healthcare worker from Royal Perth Hospital who did not go to work with symptoms. Contact tracing will establish if she could have infected anyone else.
Mr Cook said 26 people were in WA hospitals with coronavirus and five of those were in intensive care.
WA remains in a state of emergency but on Monday, when no new cases were recorded, the state’s police commissioner Chris Dawson lifted bottle shop restrictions that limited each customer to three bottles of wine or one carton of beer. Mr Dawson put the limits in place because people were panic-buying alcohol and he was worried that his officers would be called upon to deal with alcohol-related violence when they were needed to carry out social isolation checks and other duties related to the pandemic, including manning the state’s nine regional borders.
READ MORE: ‘End in sight’ but no pub celebrations
Richard Ferguson 2.12pm: Administration a ‘road out’ for Virgin: PM
Scott Morrison says Virgin Australia’s move into voluntary administration gives the troubled airliner a “road out” of its financial woes.
Josh Frydenberg earlier named former Macquarie Bank chief executive Nicolas Moore as the government’s emissary to Deloitte – Virgin’s new administrators – as the government continues to look for a commercial solution and keep two airlines.
The Prime Minister called on the competition regulator and the Virgin administrators to work together to ensure there was not an airline monopoly.
“It is a road out and forward into the future to ensure that the airline can emerge on the other side and we can have the strong commercial viable petition between two carriers in Australia which the government believes is very important,” he said.
“It is very important in usual times but even more important as we emerge from the coronavirus economic crisis, ensuring that we have those carriers in place.
“It is important that the competition regulator also, particularly as we are coming out, and the administrator works with the airline to ensure that it can go forward viably, that it is also not crushed by any anti-competitive actions that may be put in place by another player in the market.”
READ MORE: ‘This is not Ansett’: administration not the end for Virgin, Treasurer declares
Richard Ferguson 2.06pm: Commonwealth won’t have access to app data: PM
Scott Morrison has promised the commonwealth will not be able to access any data from a forthcoming coronavirus contact tracing app.
Several Coalition MPs have vowed not to download the app – which will collect contact data from a user’s phone through bluetooth data to help find who a COVID-19 positive patient has come into contact with – due to privacy concerns.
The Prime Minister said on Tuesday that no federal agency will be allowed to access the data, only state and territory health officials, and that a privacy assessment will be published.
“The privacy statement is being developed with the privacy commissioner. There are also technical assurances that we have been working very carefully through,” he said.
“The app only collects data, and puts it into an encrypted national store, which can only be accessed by the states and territories.
“The commonwealth cannot access the data, no commonwealth agency at the national level, not government services, not Centrelink, not Home Affairs, not the Department of Education, nothing.
“It will be locked in the encrypted data store that can only be accessed by the state health detectives.”
READ MORE: Scientists push for more privacy
Richard Ferguson 1.57pm: PM backs global inquiry into virus origins
Scott Morrison has backed an independent international global inquiry into the origins of coronavirus, and says such a review would not be a criticism of China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has accused Foreign Minister Marise Payne of dancing to the tune of the United States for sparking calls for such a review.
The Prime Minister said it was clear COVID-19 came from Wuhan, China and strongly supported his foreign minister’s campaign.
“Such an inquiry is important and we can respectively have a difference of view,” Mr Morrison said in Canberra.
“The virus began in Wuhan, China, I think that is well understood. And it’s important the WHO acts and all parties that are part of the WHO, act with great transparency.
“I think this is important regardless of where a virus may break out if it happened in Australia, if it happened in China, if it happened in parts of Africa, or the Pacific, or the Middle East or wherever it would happen to be, it’s important for public health globally that there is a transparency in the way you can get access to this important information early.
“So it’s not pursued as an issue of criticism, it’s pursued as an issue of importance for public health.”
READ MORE: Heat on Morrison over WHO funding
Angelica Snowden 1.54pm: Ruby Princess breakthrough: no new cases, deaths
For the first time in two weeks NSW Health has reported no new COVID-19 cases originating on the Ruby Princess.
While six people did test positive to coronavirus overnight in the state, the authority said there were “no new cases on board the Ruby Princess nor any new cases of Ruby Princess crew members in NSW Health facilities”.
It is a significant milestone because every day for the last two weeks – since April 7 – NSW Health has reported a death linked with the cruise ship or a new case associated with it.
It was also revealed that only one new COVID-19 case was reported in connection with the Newmarch House aged care facility in NSW.
There are now 42 people in total who have contracted coronavirus that are linked with the facility in Caddens including 14 staff and 28 residents.
An analysis of coronavirus recovery time was released by NSW Health after they interviewed 2000 people who had contracted the illness.
According to the analysis, 50 per cent of people who contracted the potentially deadly virus recovered in 16 days and 75 per cent had recovered in 3 weeks.
Younger people recovered faster than older people and the majority – 95 per cent – of people interviewed who had the virus recovered after 6 weeks.
READ MORE: Timeline to tragedy aboard the cursed Ruby Princess
Richard Ferguson 1.50pm: ‘We are in a position to start the recovery’
Health Minister Greg Hunt says a national plan to boost ventilators and a shift to telehealth has put Australia back on the road to recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
As elective surgeries get set to gradually restart, Mr Hunt said on Tuesday that the hospital system’s capacity to deal with COVID-19 outbreaks is now much greater.
“In regard to our primary care, we have been very successful with over 4.7 million telehealth consultations,” Mr Hunt said.
“We have delivered into Australia 60 million masks. That has allowed for 22 million distributions with another 11.5 million masks to be distributed over the coming week.
“We have now achieved our national goal of full capacity of 7500 ventilators. That is an extraordinary achievement across our hospitals and across the country.
“All of this means we are in a position to start the recovery.”
READ MORE: Clinical trial set for virus treatments
Richard Ferguson 1.42pm: 500,000 JobSeeker applications processed since March
More than 500,000 welfare applications have been processed since the Morrison government boosted the JobSeeker payment to support workers who lost their jobs in the pandemic.
Scott Morrison revealed on Tuesday that just as many JobSeeker applications have been processed in the past six weeks as would usually be approved in a year.
“We have now processed, since March 16, 517,000 JobSeeker claims,” the Prime Minister said.
“That is an extraordinary effort by those working in the Department of government services and Centrelink.
“What it does is it reinforces that both the JobSeeker and the JobKeeper payments work together to provide the necessary income support for Australians who find themselves out of work, or those who are on reduced hours, or who are being stood down through the course of the coronavirus crisis.”
READ MORE: 780,000 jobs lost in first three weeks of April
Richard Ferguson 1.35pm: Elective surgeries to resume after Anzac Day
Elective surgeries, dental appointments, and IVF procedures will begin to gradually restart after the Anzac Day long weekend, Scott Morrison says.
Some elective procedures were postponed last month to ensure the hospital system had the capacity to absorb a huge influx of COVID-19 cases.
The national cabinet decided this afternoon that category two surgeries and selected category three surgeries will start from Monday, with a review on May 11 to see if more medical restrictions can be lifted.
“All IVF, all screening programs, where they have ceased … can be restarted,” the Prime Minister said in Canberra.
“Post cancer reconstruction procedures, such as breast reconstruction, dental and level two restrictions, so – such as fitting dentures, braces, non-high-speed drilling and basic fillings.
“All procedures for children under the age of 18, all joint replacements, including knee, hips, and shoulders, all cataracts and eye procedures, and endoscopy and colonoscopy.
“All measures will be further subject to review on 11 May to determine if all surgeries and procedures can then recommence more broadly.”
READ MORE: Australia’s ventilator stockpile up by 3000
Angelica Snowden 1.20pm: No new cases recorded in ACT
The ACT has reported no new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours.
ACT #COVID19 update (21 April 2020)
— ACT Health (@ACTHealth) April 21, 2020
There have been no new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the ACT in the past 24 hours. The total is still 104. A total of 92 cases have recovered. The ACT has recorded 3 deaths. The number of negative tests is now 7022. â„¹ï¸ https://t.co/YGW9pOHG3e pic.twitter.com/xO2OpBMcG3
On Sunday, the territory reached seven consecutive days without reporting any new coronavirus cases.
One case was reported on Monday, bringing the total number of people who tested positive to coronavirus to 104.
There have been no further deaths reported in the ACT where three people have succumbed to the virus.
READ MORE: Six strategies to survive the downturn
Richard Ferguson 1.13pm: PM to reveal elective surgeries plan
Scott Morrison is due to reveal a plan to re-open elective surgeries in Australian hospitals, following a meeting of the national cabinet this morning.
Most elective surgeries have been cancelled as part of restrictions to grow the health system’s capacity to deal with an influx of coronavirus cases.
It is now expected that such procedures will be allowed gradually since the COVID-19 curve has largely flattened.
READ MORE: 780,000 jobs lost in first three weeks of April
Elias Visontay 1.11pm: PM to speak at Parliament House
Scott Morrison will hold a press conference at 1.15pm at Parliament House.
It comes as the Prime Minister meets with state and territory leaders and their health advisers for a meeting of National Cabinet on Tuesday.
READ MORE: ‘End in sight’ but no pub celebration
Angelica Snowden 12.55pm: Trump temporarily suspends all immigration to US
US President Donald Trump has announced in a tweet that he will temporarily suspend immigration. In the tweet, the president said he would sign an executive order to stop immigration to the country in order to protect US citizens from COVID-19, the “invisible enemy”, and to save jobs.
In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020
The news comes after some states confirmed they would slowly reopen, amid protests against shutdowns that erupted around the country.
READ MORE: US takes its first tentative steps to reopening businesses
Angelica Snowden 12.40pm: Aussies on India flight quarantine in hotels
Australians on a mercy flight from India have arrived at Adelaide hotels where they will stay in quarantine for two weeks. The second plane load of 325 Aussies were flown from Mumbai via Indonesia and arrived on Tuesday morning. Under a heavy police presence, the majority of passengers checked into the Playford Adelaide hotel in the CBD while SES workers unloaded their luggage.
325 passengers departed on flight JT2854 from Mumbai to Adelaide today. Pleasure to work w smart & caring Australians and Indians to help make it happen. @MarisePayne @dfat @DrSJaishankar @MEAIndia pic.twitter.com/TQK6cftTMU
— Greg Wilcock (@AusCG_Mumbai) April 20, 2020
Twenty people from Tuesday’s flight were transferred to the Pullman hotel, joining others who returned on the first plane on Monday. No passenger experienced COVID-19 symptoms, according to a Twitter report.
Upon arrival, passengers were met by police, customs and SA Health officials. On Monday, 374 people arrived on a similar flight from Chennai with all passengers showing no signs of the virus during initial health checks, SA Health said.
It left SA with 435 confirmed cases, of which 369 were now considered recovered. Six people remain in hospital, with two of those, men aged 68 and 75, in intensive care and listed as critical.
Despite the low numbers, SA Health officials say it’s not yet time to start lifting the restrictions imposed in response to the global pandemic. — With AAP
READ MORE: Under 60 and in good health? Crossing the road is more dangerous
MICHAEL MCKENNA 12.35pm: Qld says Canberra may have to nationalise Virgin
Queensland has called on the Morrison Government to consider nationalising or taking an equity stake in Virgin if a buyer isn’t found for the airline. State Development minister Cameron Dick also opened the door on Tuesday for the Queensland Government to extend its $200m financial commitment to the Brisbane-based airline once it holds discussions with administrators.
Over the weekend, Mr Dick offered $200m to help rescue the airline — on the condition it maintains its headquarters in Queensland — as he called on other states and the federal government to join a bailout of Virgin.
After the announcement that the 20-year-old airline was going into voluntary administration, Mr Dick said the focus should be that the 5000-strong workforce continues to be paid and the airline is not broken-up. But he cast doubt on hopes there would be a corporate buyout of the airline, which is saddled with $5b in debt, and that he believed governments would need to step in to ensure Australia’s two airline policy.
Asked if that involved nationalising the airline, Mr Dick said: “We need to consider all options about this airline and if that is a direct equity injection by governments, surely the federal government must consider that.’’
Mr Dick said the state government would meet with Virgin’s administrators and it was possible the state would extend its financial commitment to rescuing the airline.
“We will now reach out to the administrator to offer support but we will need to see them do their initial work before we can it take it any further,’’ he said.”
“They (the federal government) need to come to the party to support the administrator and support the ongoing operations of the business while it is in hibernation. Every other national government around the world are supporting their airlines, their national airlines.
“We need to get away from this economic rationalist approach of ‘let the airline crash, someone else will start another airline in Australia’.
“No-one’s going to start another airline in Australia every airline around the world is grounded they aren’t flying, there is no revenue and unless they have a large capital base, they can’t contribute to Australia.’’
READ MORE: Gottliebsen: How debts left Virgin Australia vulnerable
Elias Visontay 12.15pm: McCormack: contact tracing app will save lives
Michael McCormack has sought to reassure Australians the soon-to-be released government contact tracing app for COVID-19 is safe to use, after his National Party colleague Barnaby Joyce said he will not download the app because of privacy concerns.
The Deputy Prime Minister said he and every member of his family will download the app, and said it will save lives. His comments come after Victoria’s Information Commissioner called for data-storage safeguards to be placed on the smartphone app to ensure privacy.
“It’s important, it’s going to save lives, it’s going to protect livelihoods,” Mr McCormack said on Tuesday. “I’ll tell you what, I’d just as soon get my phone out, download an app — it’s going to take a couple of minutes if that — download the app, and make sure that if I come in contact with somebody who had coronavirus, then all the necessary precautions take place.
“I’d much sooner download an app, than two months from now, be lying in an ICU bed, be lying in a palliative care bed, and wondering why I didn’t download an app. Pretty simple,” he said.
READ MORE: Push to strengthen privacy of proposed coronavirus contact app
PATRICK COMMINS 12pm: ABS data reveals massive scale of job losses
The COVID crisis has led to the loss of 780,000 jobs over the three weeks to April, with one on four employees in the accommodation and food services industry losing their jobs over the period, according to new ABS payroll data.
The figures offer the first, robust look at the devastating impact of the COVID crisis on employment over the past month. They show that younger Australians have been hit particularly hard, with one in ten of those under 20 years old losing employment.
The new ABS data release covers all employing businesses who report through the single touch payroll system to the Australian Taxation Office, which covers nearly all large and medium sized businesses, and around 70 per cent of small businesses.
Overall, there were 6 per cent fewer jobs between March 14 — when Australia confirmed its first 100 cases of coronavirus — and April 4. There were 20 per cent fewer jobs in the arts and recreation, the data showed.
The job losses accelerated through the three-week period, with most of the impact coming in the final week: strict social distancing measures and the shutdown of non-essential services began from March 23
ABS Head of Labour Statistics Bjorn Jarvis said “looking at the week-to-week changes, the decrease in jobs in the week ending 4 April 2020 was 5.5 per cent, significantly larger than the 0.5 per cent decrease in the week ending 28 March 2020”.
READ MORE: Payrolls data shows 780,000 jobs lost in first three weeks of April
Ben McKay 11.45am: New Zealand COVID-19 toll rises to 12
The death of an elderly Auckland woman has taken New Zealand’s COVID-19 death toll to 12. The woman, who died on Monday and was aged in her 70s, had underlying health conditions and was a resident at St Margaret’s Hospital and Rest Home in West Auckland.
New Zealand health authorities announced the country’s new cases on Tuesday were just five — the smallest number for more than a month.
READ MORE: Schools to open as Ardern relaxes Kiwi clampdown
Angelica Snowden 11.20am: NSW continues its discussions with Virgin
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has confirmed the state will continue having discussions with Virgin Australia after the company announced it went into voluntary administration.
The Treasurer said NSW would be “best served by having a competitive aviation sector”.
“We have been in discussions with Virgin, as have other states, about their future,” he said in a statement. “We will continue these discussions with the Administrators and the Federal Government.”
The confirmation comes after Premier Gladys Berejiklian earlier said it was “fairly apparent” that one state alone could not bailout the airline and the NSW government would “see what happens” in the private market. “The circumstances are what they are and it is fairly apparent that it would be beyond the ability of just one state to support that organisation at this stage,” she said. “Now it is up to the market I think to make those determinations.”
READ MORE: Why we won’t rescue Virgin: Cormann
Elias Visontay 11.10am: Albo tells PM: put aside ideological blinkers
Anthony Albanese is pleading for Scott Morrison to “put aside the ideological blinkers” and bail out Virgin, arguing it was government travel closures that led the airline to enter voluntary administration on Tuesday.
“We have to bear in mind that this crisis isn’t a result of market failure, it’s a result of a government decision to shut the market. And that’s why talk of market-based solutions at the moment is a triumph of ideology over common sense,” the Opposition Leader said on Tuesday at a press conference with Virgin workers pleading for action.
Jobs: @VirginAustralia has gone into voluntary administration. Workers and their unions have joined Opposition Leader @AlboMP at @SydneyAirport to make a public statement. #7NEWS https://t.co/KA3zCfgCb9
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) April 21, 2020
“Scott Morrison has said that there isn’t a blue team or a red team. Well, there’s a red team behind me here, they’re wearing the Virgin Australia uniforms proudly. Proudly contributing to our national economy. It’s about time that Scott Morrison put aside the ideological blinkers and gave the support that is required.”
READ MORE: Virgin Australia formally enters administration
MATTHEW DENHOLM 10.45am: Tasmania health officials identify factors for outbreak
Medical staff in northwest Tasmania continued to work despite having respiratory infection symptoms and this was an “important factor” in the region’s major COVID-19 outbreak, say health officials.
Public Health Director Mark Veitch on Tuesday morning said new cases in the northwest outbreak were “trailing off”, with five new cases overnight bringing the total to 112.
Dr Veitch said a number of factors had been identified as potentially playing a role in the outbreak, which has severely restricted access to several regional hospitals.
“We know that there were a number of staff who had symptoms when they were working over the time of the outbreak; often relatively mild symptoms,” Dr Veitch said.
“And we think that is probably an important factor. We also know that staff in hospitals can mix in (shift) handover rooms and various settings where it is impossible to maintain social distancing. We think that could have been a factor.
“We also know there were some unrecognised cases among patients that could have contributed to transmission. And at the very start of it, we know that there were two people admitted as infections arising from the Ruby Princess (cruise ship).”
Dr Veitch would not comment on claims that some northwest health workers held a dinner party that may have contributed to the outbreak among staff. “The Police are undertaking an investigation and as an operational matter it is not … for me to comment,” he said. “When we did our contact tracing … we found that across the cases that we dealt with there seemed to be very few gatherings of any kind undertaken by staff.”
As of Tuesday morning, the virus had infected 72 staff at the North West Regional and other local hospitals, as well as 22 patients, 11 household contacts and seven other contacts of infected people. “The number of cases associated with that outbreak seems to be trailing off and that’s very encouraging,” Dr Veitch said. “It suggests that the transmission that might have occurred when the hospitals were open, before people went into quarantine, is now easing. That’s a very positive sign for the Burnie community and health care workers there. “
Statewide, Tasmania had 200 cases as of Tuesday morning, as it confirmed plans to increase testing.
READ MORE: Levelling with the public must be the new norm
Rachel Baxendale 10.30am: Vic Police fine 89 for breaching distancing rules
A massage business continuing to operate, five people travelling in a vehicle together and a person found drunk on a train a long way from home are among 89 businesses and individuals fined by Victoria Police in the past 24 hours for breaching physical distancing rules.
Police on Monday conducted 893 spot checks on homes, businesses and non-essential services, with checks since March 21 totalling 25,814. Examples of breaches include a $9,913 fine issued to the owner of a massage business in Frankston, in Melbourne’s outer south east, after two workers were located in the venue.
The workers were also issued with $1,652 fines.
Other fines were issued to five people who do not live together travelling in a vehicle in Williamstown, in Melbourne’s southwest, as well as to a person found drunk on a train in Frankston, despite living in Geelong, south west of Melbourne.
READ MORE: Push to strengthen privacy of proposed coronavirus contact app
Angelica Snowden 10.15am: Man in court for spitting blood on nurse
A man will face court today after he punched and bit security guards and spat blood on a nurse, NSW Police say. The 41-year-old man was refused bail after he attacked two security guards and nurse on Sunday at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney’s inner west.
Police allege that the man punched one security guard in the face, bit another on the arm and spat blood and saliva “into the face of a female nurse”.
In a separate incident, a 32-year-old woman allegedly spat on a bus driver who asked her not to smoke inside the vehicle. Police say the woman abused the bus driver on Sunday at Potts Point on Darlinghurst road before she spat on him and left the bus.
The 41-year-old man and 32-year-old woman have both been charged with assault, rather than facing a COVID-19 fine, and will appear in Syney’s Central Local Court today.
READ MORE: ‘End in sight’ but don’t make plan to celebrate at the pub
Ewin Hannan 10.00am: ACTU: Taxpayers face $800m Virgin bill
Taxpayers face an $800 million bill to pay the entitlements of Virgin Australia workers unless the Morrison government puts together a rescue plan and acquires a stake in the embattled airline, the ACTU says.
All strength to @VirginAustralia workers & your families tonight. We are with you & will keep fighting for your jobs. 16000 jobs in the balance, where are you @ScottMorrisonMP #SaveVirgin
— Michele O'Neil (@MicheleONeilAU) April 20, 2020
ACTU president Michele O’Neil said the government would be responsible for the “biggest airline collapse in Australia’s history” unless it acted immediately to rescue Virgin Australia.
If it fails to act, the government would have to use taxpayers money to pay an $800 million entitlements bill to Virgin Australia workers under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee scheme.
“The Morrison Government could have chosen to save these workers’ jobs at any time over the past four weeks,” she said.
“Instead, they chose to sit by and do nothing, and watch as 16,000 jobs were pushed closer and closer to the brink of destruction.
“It is not too late. Virgin Australia can still be rescued. It must keep trading in administration, and then come out of administration with new shareholders that include the Federal Government.
“This is do or die for the Morrison Government. They can choose to save the jobs of 16,000 Virgin Australia workers, or they can choose to abandon all these workers and hand Qantas a monopoly.”
READ MORE: Why we won’t rescue Virgin: Cormann
Angelica Snowden 9.50am: ‘Flexibility, discretion’ key to school returns
NSW Minister for Education Sarah Mitchell said schools should aim to have a quarter of their students on site everyday from week three.
Individual schools would have to exercise “flexibility and discretion” to determine how they go about the transition back to face-to-face learning.
“How they break that group up will be a matter for them,” she said.
“We are asking them to consider family groupings to make it easier for parents to transition back to normal schooling.”
The minister said extra measures will be implemented at schools to keep the spread of COVID-19 at bay.
“We will have extra cleaning, extra sanitiser, extra thermometers and also extra health equipment in our sick bays.”
READ MORE: Jails for virus lockdown flouters
Richard Ferguson 9.35am: China vows to block virus probe
China has vowed to block any independent global review of its early handling of coronavirus, taking aim at Foreign Minister Marise Payne’s calls for one.
The Foreign Minister is pushing for an inquiry into the early stages of the pandemic as divisions grow over whether Australia should substantially reduce trade with the Asian superpower.
At a Beijing press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that Senator Payne’s calls for a global inquiry were not based in facts and he accused Australia of “dancing to the tune” of the United States.
“Australian Foreign Minister Payne’s remarks are not based on facts. China is seriously concerned about and firmly opposed to this,” he said.
“Since the outbreak began, China has always acted in an open, transparent and responsible manner and taken a series of resolute, timely and forceful measures. It lost no time in reporting the outbreak to WHO, shared the genome sequence of the virus with other countries, and carried out international co-operation on epidemic prevention and control among experts of different countries, which has won plaudits from the international community.
“We hope that the Australian side can treat this issue in an objective, scientific and scrupulous manner.
“We hope that Australia will do more things to deepen China-Australia relations, enhance mutual trust and help epidemic prevention and control in both countries, rather than dancing to the tune of a certain country to hype up the situation.”
READ MORE: Call to separate China trade, virus concerns
Craig Johnstone 9.25am: Concerns over community transmission in Cairns
Queensland’s chief health officer Jeanette Young has urged Cairns residents to get tested for COVID-19 if they show any symptoms after concerns about community transmission.
Dr Young said several people with connections to a pathology lab at Cairns Hospital have tested positive to the virus.
“It is important that anyone who lives in Cairns and who is unwell comes forward and gets tested,” she said.
She has ordered all staff at Cairns Hospital to be screened and tested.
However, she said she did not expect there was a widespread problem in Cairns as community testing had been in place there for two weeks.
Meanwhile, Queensland will hold an Anzac Day dawn service with just four participants after Chief Health Officer Jeanette Young agreed to temporarily relax restrictions on social gatherings.
However, the Queensland RSL is encouraging Queenslanders to stand at the end of their driveways at 6am on Anzac Day to pay respects to the fallen.
Only Governor Paul de Jersey, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and state RSL president Tony Ferris will attend the official ceremony to lay wreaths at the Shrine of Remembrance.
Queensland recorded six more COVID-19 cases overnight, bringing the state’s total to 1024.
READ MORE: Adam Creighton writes: Under 60, in good health? Crossing road more risky
Rachel Baxendale 9.10am: Seven new cases recorded in Victoria
Seven new cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Victoria in the past 24 hours, bringing the state’s total to 1,336.
Tuesday’s new cases includes one person who has recently arrived from overseas, and was diagnosed in mandatory quarantine in a Melbourne hotel.
The state’s death toll remains 15, with no deaths since the weekend.
The total number of Victorian cases includes 641 men and 695 women, with people aged from babies to their early nineties.
There have been 138 cases of COVID-19 with no known links to other cases.
Currently 28 people are in hospital, including 12 patients in intensive care, while 1,202 people have recovered.
More than 88,000 tests have been completed in Victoria.
READ MORE: Pandmeic ever present for Q&A panel
Angelica Snowden 8.55am: 49 crew disembark Ruby Princess
NSW Deputy Police Commissioner Gary Worboys said 49 crew members will disembark the Ruby Princess, moving into Sydney hotels before they fly to their home countries.
He said a “controlled movement process” was taking place to transport the crew members and flights have been organised to repatriate the crew.
“It will only be a matter of days,” he said. “Those flights have been organised.
“Those people will go into isolation in Sydney and they will be taken from there under a controlled process to the airport.”
One of the crew being taken off the cruise ship is COVID-19 positive and they will stay in a healthcare facility before flying home.
Deputy Commissioner Worboys said the remaining 48 crew were “no risk”.
“There is a window of opportunity now, some people are exercising that opportunity based on health advice,” he said.
“(We are getting) those people with no risk out of the community of NSW and back to their home.”
Deputy Commissioner Worboys said the crew members are mostly from the UK, US, New Zealand and Canada and while some would take the opportunity to leave the ship, a few hundred will remain on board.
“There still needs to be a crew to sail the ship,” he said.
He said the cruise ship is still on schedule to set sail on Thursday.
READ MORE: Peak passed but not yet on downhill run
Angelica Snowden 8.40am: Pupils’ workload same at home or at school
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said students would complete the same unit of work whether they were at school or home.
Announcing a staged return to the classroom, Ms Berejiklian said: “We want as much consistency as possible during the transition.”
The Premier said the time frame to May 11 would afford schools enough time to agree on what the staggered return to school would look like.
She said her government wanted to ensure they had a better assessment of the virus before confirming a return to face-to-face schooling.
Ms Berejiklian said the NSW government also wanted to ensure safety measures were embedded in the return to school design that will include extra cleaning, fewer students and staggered drop off and pick up.
The premier said the highest risk of transmission is between adults.
“Obviously we ask school teachers to manage social distancing when they are with their peers,” she said.
Teachers will also be prioritised for COVID-19 testing as part of the return to regular school.
Children will also be able to be tested, but the Premier warned against the efficacy of temperature testing saying that a “temperature might mean you have the virus, but it might not”.
The premier said the return to school would be closely monitored.
“We will be keeping a close eye on the data.”
READ MORE: Contact tracing app explained
Elias Visontay 8.20am: Why we won’t rescue Virgin: Cormann
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says bailing out Virgin would set an inappropriate “precedent across the economy” for the government to bail out big businesses.
In one of several media appearances on the day Virgin are expected to announce they are entering voluntary administration, Senator Cormann told ABC Radio National government could ultimately provide “sensible support” for Virgin, but said the government only wanted to take sector-wide measures.
“There’s some other issues at play here and clearly there were some substantial problems that needed to be resolved … there are parts of the Virgin business that have been performing well, and there are other parts that obviously caused the problem, there’s a significant level of debt that will have to be dealt with,” Senator Cormann said on Tuesday morning.
Asked about the government stepping in to rescue the struggling airline, Senator Cormann said “if there is an opportunity to provide some sensible support in an appropriate fashion we would of course consider that”.
“We are dealing here with taxpayers’ money, $1.4 billion is a huge amount of money and you’ve got to make sure that the decisions you make are principles-based and that you’re making the right decisions for the right reasons.
READ the full story here.
Angelica Snowden 8.10am: NSW pupils return full-time from term three
NSW school pupils can return full-time from term three, under a staged rollout that will see a gradual increase in time spent in the classroom.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed that students would return to school on May 11.
She said students will start by going back to one day a week, and then progress to two.
“We will look to increase the number of days students are at school in a staged way and hope to have all children back at school full time from term three,” she said.
Coronavirus - NSW Schools: By the end of term 2 and the start of term 3, students should be back at school full-time. #7NEWS https://t.co/iqyUD1b4F9
— 7NEWS Sydney (@7NewsSydney) April 20, 2020
The premier said playground equipment would be cleaned regularly and other safeguards would be implemented to ensure a “safe return” to school.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said six new cases of COVID-19 were recorded overnight.
There are now 2969 confirmed cases in the state.
Dr Chant said over 1000 people have recovered from COVID-19, with half of those recovering in 16 days from the virus.
The premier said she was pleased to observe a “definite trend” that the number of coronavirus cases were reducing.
READ MORE: Kiwi schools reopen as Ardern relaxes lockdown
Rachel Baxendale 8.05am: Judge only trials, electronic tags in Vic
About 3000 people on bail in Victoria will be electronically monitored rather than having to visit police stations, and judge-only trials will be allowed if the defendant and prosecution agree, under a swath of temporary new legislation being put forward by the Andrews government to manage the coronavirus pandemic.
The government has circulated its list of temporary law changes on Tuesday morning, ahead of an emergency sitting of state parliament on Thursday.
The list includes changes to how courts, the corrections system and other legal systems work so the justice system continues to operate throughout the crisis.
The government said the changes would not relax the thresholds for bail, or for sentencing offenders.
Measures include:
– Judge-only trials will be permitted where the defendant has agreed and the prosecution have been consulted.
– Courts will also be given greater flexibility to change their processes to reduce person-to-person interaction, including electronic filing and execution of affidavits and increased use of audio-video links, telephone and other technology to conduct proceedings.
– Magistrates’ courts will be given the power to impose electronic monitoring conditions on community corrections orders – a power currently only held by the County Court and the Supreme Court.
– The implementation of tenancy forms agreed upon by national cabinet last week, which will enshrine the temporary ban on rental evictions and rent increases in law, and boost mediation support to help landlords and tenants negotiate new rental agreements. Related legislation delivering land tax relief for landlords will be implemented through a separate appropriation bill.
– The Local Government Act 2020 will be amended to allow virtual meetings for local councils and amend the Parliamentary Committees Act to allow joint standing committees of the parliament, including the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), to carry out their work remotely.
– Planning permits will be allowed to be displayed and sent electronically. Planning panels will be able to conduct hearings by video-conference or in other remote ways.
– Long-term injured workers who are due to transition off WorkCover weekly payments and are unable to return or find employment due to the impacts of their injury and coronavirus will be provided with up to six additional months of weekly WorkCover payments.
– Children and parents engaged in family court matters will be able to attend conciliation conferences and counselling remotely.
– Exemptions from nurse-to-patient ratios will be able to be granted by the Minister for Health, following consultation with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, where coronavirus places extraordinary demand on their services.
Almost all the provisions in the bill will sunset after six months.
READ MORE: Aussies toeing line on isolation
Angelica Snowden 8.00am: Qld will help Virgin if HQ stays
Queensland State Development Minister Cameron Dick said his government is prepared to work with NSW to bail out Virgin, but headquarters should stay in Queensland.
Joining @karlstefanovic & @AllisonLangdon on @TheTodayShow at 7:15am to discuss Queensland’s battle to save @VirginAustralia jobs. CD (photo via Virgin Australia) pic.twitter.com/RjEZKnER64
— Cameron Dick (@camerondickqld) April 20, 2020
“We’re prepared to work with any government but in particular the Federal Government to ensure the airline is not broken up,” he said on the Today Show.
“I don’t think it makes any sense in a time of crisis … to expect the 1200 families who are part of the Virgin family here at their Headquarters to be uprooted to Western Sydney,” he said.
“I’m not looking to relocate the Virgin workers from NSW to Queensland.”
Mr Dick said Deputy Premier Jackie Trad was not involved in the deal due to an alleged conflict of interest with Virgin CEO Paul Scurrah.
“Any minister who has any real or perceived conflict of interest has had no decision making role in this at all,” he said.
“So the ministers involved in making this decision have been the Premier, and myself, we are the cabinet committee that has made this decision.
“(Jackie Trad) has had no decision making role at all”
Jackie Trad was a personal guest of the Virgin CEO at his $7.2 million luxury Canadian ski lodge in Whistler last year.
READ MORE: Qantas, Virgin refuse frequent flyer extension
Elias Visontay 7.30am: Government lashed for ‘hypocrisy’ over Virgin
Opposition transport spokeswoman Catherine King is accusing the government of hypocrisy as it stands firm against pressure to bail out Virgin.
Ms King said the government’s line that it is “not in the business of owning an airline”, reiterated as recently as Tuesday morning by Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, and its preference for private investment, conflicts with the government’s attitude toward other transport projects including Inland Rail which it has “a huge equity stake in”.
Her comments come as Virgin is expected to announce it is entering voluntary administration on Tuesday.
“It’s in the national interest to save 16,000 jobs, and to ensure that we have two strong airlines in Australia,” Ms King told ABC TV on Tuesday morning.
“Most of us lived through the collapse of Ansett. We saw how long it took for Virgin Blue then, in those days, to come up as a strong competitor to Qantas.
“The Government likes to say “it’s not in the business of owning an airline”. Well the Government owns a railway, Inland Rail, which it has a huge equity stake in. It seems to keep forgetting that when it talks about not wanting to take an equity stake and save 16,000 jobs.
Ms King said if the airline was forced to enter administration, it would be stripped “back down to the bone”, and “the strong player that we have in the market today competing against Qantas” would not emerge from the process.
She warned administration would lead to route closures outside of major capital cities.
READ MORE: Survival chance in Virgin administration
Angelica Snowden 7.30am: Berejiklian to update on schools at 8am AEST
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will hold a press conference on the coronavirus pandemic in her state at 8am AEST.
Ms Berejiklian is expected to update the public on the number of COVID-19 cases and provide more detail on school arrangements for term two.
Angelica Snowden 7.25am: Deal to be done on Virgin: Shorten
Shadow Minister for Government Services Bill Shorten says state governments and unions should support a “deal” to bail out Virgin Australia to secure jobs and cheap airfares.
“There’s a deal to be done,” he said on the Today Show.
“I don’t think the federal government should do all the heavy lifting.
“I think there’s a deal to be done between private investors, between state governments, maybe the unions and the workers also the Feds.”
Mr Shorten said Malcolm Turnbull should “leave the hate behind him” after the former prime minister’s book was published yesterday.
“I sat opposite Tony Abbott as Prime Minister and I sat opposite Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister,” he said.
“I know at one level everyone’s clutching their pearls and hyperventilating over what Malcolm says.
“For me it’s a fundamental issue – You have to leave that hate behind you.”
READ MORE: Branson hocks Necker to save Virgin
Elias Visontay 7.15am: Government help ‘would make it harder for Virgin’
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann says the government stepping in to rescue Virgin from collapse “would actually make it harder to find a sustainable private sector-led, market-led solution”.
Senator Cormann’s comments come with the struggling airline expected to announce on Tuesday that it will go into voluntary administration as a result of COVID-19-related movement restrictions halting its operations.
Speaking to ABC TV on Tuesday morning, Senator Cormann said Virgin faced “a series of challenges” prior to the coronavirus outbreak, and reaffirmed the government is “committed to two airlines moving forward”.
“Voluntary administration offers the opportunity to restructure and refocus business, underperforming parts of the business. It offers the opportunity for recapitalisation. It offers the opportunity for private sector interest to come forward and buy the business, or assist with the recapitalisation of the business. So there are a lot of opportunities from here on in to ensure that there is a viable second airline in Australia moving forward.
“The first responsibility to bail out a company, to bail out a business, lies with its owners, and Virgin has very substantial shareholders, Singapore Airlines and Etihad Airlines own 20 per cent each, there’s 40 per cent or thereabouts that is owned by substantial Chinese investors. Obviously, the first responsibility is with the existing shareholders.
“If the existing shareholders are not prepared to step up, there is the opportunity for a market-led, private sector-led initiative to take over the business.”
Senator Cormann said the government would work with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to ensure any new owners ensure competition and key routes were maintained.
“There is the opportunity to ensure that this comes to a successful conclusion, but the Government stepping in would actually make it harder to find a sustainable private sector-led, market-led solution. I mean the government is not in the business of owning an airline.”
READ MORE: Ailing Virgin’s crash landing
Angelica Snowden 6.55am: Wuhan schools open, Japan cases spike
Schools are set to re-open in the Chinese city of Wuhan – the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.
Schools have been closed in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province since January, when lockdown measures were brought in to try and contain the spread of the virus.
But final-year high school students in the province will return to classrooms from May 6, officials said.
It is the latest easing of restrictions as the country’s domestic outbreak is brought under control.
Wuhan is the capital of the Hubei province, which has recorded 4,512 deaths linked with COVID-19.
Japan
Japanese medics are warning more must be done to prevent the coronavirus from overwhelming the country’s healthcare system, as confirmed cases passed 10,000 despite a nationwide state of emergency.
Experts have been alarmed by a recent spike in COVID-19 infections, with hundreds detected daily.
Meanwhile Kentaro Iwata, a professor of infectious diseases at Kobe University who has repeatedly criticised Japan’s response to the pandemic, warned he is “pessimistic” the postponed Olympics can be held even in 2021.
Singapore and Hong Kong
Asia’s rival financial hubs, Singapore and Hong Kong, are facing markedly different fortunes as they battle the virus.
Hong Kong said it detected no confirmed COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, its first daily tally of zero since March 5.
But Singapore reported a record jump of 1,426 virus cases, taking its total to 8,014 including 11 deaths, as more infections are detected in dormitories housing foreign workers.
India
India eased a weeks-long virus lockdown for the agriculture and manufacturing sectors to support the economy, but many said they were struggling to restart their operations.
Rural workers have been particularly hard hit by the lockdown which started in late March, and is now set to go on until early May.
The government said it would also convert part of the country’s surplus rice harvest to ethanol for the production of alcohol-based hand sanitisers, in an effort to address shortages.
According to the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Tally, India has recorded 17,655 cases of coronavirus and 559 have died.
READ MORE: Bipartisan call to separate China trade, virus issues
Angelica Snowden 6.40am: Worst is still to come: WHO
The head of the World Health Organisation says “the worst is yet ahead of us” in the coronavirus outbreak while many countries are beginning to ease restrictive measures.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn’t specify why he believed that the outbreak that has infected nearly 2.5 million people and killed over 166,000, according to figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, could be even worse.
Mr Tedros also compared the coronavirus pandemic with the Spanish flu in 1918.
“It has a very dangerous combination and this is happening in a hundred years for the first time again, like the 1918 flu that killed up to 100 million people,” he told reporters in Geneva.
“But now we have technology, we can prevent that disaster, we can prevent that kind of crisis.
“Trust us. The worst is yet ahead of us,” he said. “Let’s prevent this tragedy. It’s a virus that many people still don’t understand.”
France
More than 20,000 have died from COVID-19 in France surpassing the toll from the deadly heatwave that hit the country in 2003.
The head of the national health agency, Jerome Salomon, said France passed a “very painful, symbolic mark,” by registering 12,513 deaths in hospitals and 7,752 in nursing homes as of Monday.
The country has not been counting people who die with the virus at home.
Salomon said the virus has killed more people than have died from the flu in any single winter in the country and more than the 2003 heatwave that left 19,000 people dead.
He said the pandemic in France has reached a high “plateau” that’s trending slowly downward.
There were 5,683 patients in intensive care across the country, a number that dropped for the 12th straight day.
Italy
Italy has marked the two-month anniversary of its coronavirus outbreak by registering its first-ever drop in the number of currently infected patients.
Civil protection chief Angelo Borrelli said Monday the 108,237 currently infected was 20 fewer than a day earlier, “another positive point” in Italy’s general trend of easing pressure on the health care system.
Overall, Italy has had a total of 181,228 confirmed cases, up just 1.2% from a day earlier in one of the lowest day-on-day increases.
Another 484 people died, bringing its toll to 24,144, the highest in Europe and second only to the U.S.
Italy’s outbreak began two months ago when a 38-year-old Unilever employee tested positive in the Lombardy city of Codogno.
After the test was confirmed on February 21, the man spent weeks in intensive care as his pregnant wife tested positive and his father died.
Spain
Over 200,000 people have contracted COVID-19 in Spain while the country recorded the lowest number of new deaths in four weeks.
Health ministry data shows Monday that 399 more people have succumbed to the COVID-19 disease created by the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s total death toll to 20,852.
Spain had counted more than 400 daily deaths since March 22.
The outbreak’s spread has continued at a slower pace than in previous weeks, with 4,266 new infections that is bringing the pandemic’s total tally to 200,210.
The Spanish government is starting to relax its confinement measures, trying to reactivate the economy after a two-week freeze and allowing children under 12-years-old to venture out to the streets for brief periods from next week.
With AP
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Jacquelin Magnay 5.15am: Champions League match may have fuelled outbreak
A senior UK government medical officer has fuelled speculation that a major football match on March 11 contributed to the spread of coronavirus across the country.
As death rates in the UK appear to be declining, with 449 announced on Monday to bring a total death tally of 16,509, Professor Dame Angela McLean, the government’s deputy chief scientific adviser, said it would be interesting to assess the “relationship there is between the virus that has circulated in Liverpool and the virus that has circulated in Spain”.
On March 11, when Spain was in the beginnings of what would become a very tight lockdown, about 3,000 Atletico Madrid fans travelled to Merseyside to watch the Champions League match against Liverpool.
The mayor of Madrid, Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, told Onda Cero radio: “It didn’t make any sense that 3,000 Atletico fans could travel to Anfield at that time. It was a mistake.
“Looking back with hindsight, of course, but I think even at that time there should have been more caution. From the day before the game the regional government and Madrid council had already adopted important measures on reducing large gatherings of people.”
Liverpool council officials believe the match contributed to coronavirus spreading throughout the Liverpool area.
Another Champions League match, Atalanta against Valencia, has been labelled a “biological bomb”. That game at the San Siro in February has been blamed for the virus spreading extensively across Northern Italy and into Spain.
Slides from today’s #coronavirus press conference (20 April 2020):
— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) April 20, 2020
🔵Transport use change
🔵New coronavirus cases in the UK
🔵People in hospital with COVID-19 in Great Britain
🔵Global comparison of deaths https://t.co/Ko93U2z0Nz pic.twitter.com/1CrYM0xuJN
Read the full story here.
Rachel Baxendale 5am: National cabinet to discuss lifting of restrictions
Premiers have warned that tough social-distancing measures will remain in place for at least another three weeks, despite Australia’s mainland recording just eight new cases of coronavirus on Monday.
And any eventual loosening of bans next month is unlikely to include pubs, restaurants and mass gatherings, the leaders said.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Queensland counterpart Annastacia Palaszczuk indicated Tuesday’s meeting of national cabinet would involve discussion of which restrictions could be lifted.
Read the full story here.
Simon Benson 4.45am: Virgin set to be placed into voluntary administration
Virgin Australia is expected to be put into voluntary administration today after the Morrison government rejected an 11th-hour appeal for a $100m grant to keep it afloat for another two weeks, as private equity firms circle the airline.
A board meeting of international shareholders late on Monday signed off on the move to put the company into administration in the wake of coronavirus travel restrictions shutting down the airline and there being no prospect of a government bailout.
The dramatic development has plunged 16,000 direct and indirect Virgin jobs into greater doubt and capped a day of turmoil for Australia’s aviation and tourism industries that also left travellers with price rise fears.
Read the full story here.
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