Coronavirus Australia live updates: Property recovery will be slow, experts warn
The industry welcomed the lifting of restrictions on public auctions and open homes in NSW, but warned of a long wait for normality to return.
- CMO flags ‘cautious’ reopening of unis
- Drastic measures to crush cluster
- Toll rises with death of WA woman
- Spain ends ‘brutal’ measure after 48 days
Welcome to live coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has flagged a resumption of face-to-face learning at universities, as COVIDSafe app downloads hit 4.25m. Meanwhile, the staff at the Anglicare Newmarch House will be subjected to daily tests.
Mackenzie Scott 8.11pm Property recovery will be slow, experts warn
The decision to lift restrictions on public auctions and open homes in NSW has been welcomed by the property industry, but experts warn it may be a long wait for normality to return.
Sellers in the country’s largest property market will join the Northern Territory next weekend in having the option to hold traditional public auctions and open homes for inspection.
Last weekend, Western Australia eased the rules to allow open homes of up to six people, the first moves to reopen the property industry after six weeks of restrictions.
The restart comes as property researcher CoreLogic reported the strongest preliminary auction clearance rate since the bans were put in place.
Almost 60 per cent of the 590 properties put on the auction block nationally last week sold on the back of lower withdrawal numbers — sellers would have made the decision to list while the lockdown restrictions were in place.
CoreLogic auction commentator Kevin Brogan said the unexpected decision will not return the industry to normal immediately. Given the average four week lead time of an auction campaign, the number of properties on offer will remain low for at least a month.
“The number of properties listed for next weekend will be significantly lower than normal because, at the time of listing, there was probably no expectation that we were going to see the restrictions lifted at this stage,” he said
Read the full story here
Associated Press 8.05pm Thais flock back to parks, hairdressers and beer
Residents of Thailand’s capital enjoyed the city’s parks, booked haircuts and stocked up on beer and other alcoholic drinks Sunday as they enjoyed their first day of eased restrictions that were imposed weeks ago to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
The top perk in Bangkok, a city famous for its eateries, may have been the reopening of restaurants. Restaurants have to keep their customers at least 1.5m apart and use a wide range of sanitary measures, beginning with taking the temperature of customers and staff, and circulating fresh air.
Restaurants had been limited to takeout and delivery services since mid-March. There was also a partial lifting on the sale of alcoholic drinks that will allow takeaway purchases, even while bars remain closed. A nationwide ban had taken effect on April 10 and expired at the end of April, but provinces including Bangkok can reinstate a ban anytime.
When the ban was originally announced with just a few hours of notice, there was a rush to liquor stores and other sellers. With the lifting of the ban on Sunday, buyers could be seen piling cases of beer inside cars outside a supermarket.
City dwellers flocked to Lumpini Park in central Bangkok, where they lined up to be checked for face masks and have their temperatures taken before being allowed to enter. Runners and walkers, singly and in pairs, filled the park’s pathways but kept their distance from each other.
Barbers and hairdressers around the city were also back in action, and also under rules to ensure social distancing. They appeared to be doing good business as they advised would-be customers to book appointments for the following day.
READ MORE: Regional schools urged to reopen
AFP 6.30pm Iran reopens mosques after two-month lockdown
Mosques will reopen across large parts of Iran on Monday after being shuttered since early March over the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday night (AEST) that 132 counties, or about one third of the administrative divisions, would “reopen their mosques as of tomorrow”, speaking at a televised virus taskforce meeting.
Maintaining “social distancing is more important than collective prayer”, he added, arguing that Islam considers safety obligatory while praying in mosques is only recommended.
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Olivia Caisley 3.56pm: Children ‘not high transmitters of virus at school’
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has confirmed the medical advice on allowing students to return to classrooms across the nation has not changed, declaring children are not high transmitters.
“We think that children are not high transmitters of this virus in the school environment,” Dr Murphy said. “We have always said there is a potential risk for adults, in the staff room, adult interactions at the school, pick ups and drop off.”
When asked about the Victorian government’s decision to keep kids at home, Dr Murphy said that was based on the state’s desire to stop movement, rather than a medical concern about the safety of children.
It came after federal Education Minister Dan Tehan was forced to withdraw an attack on the Victorian Premier amid a deepening political stoush over school closures between the state and Commonwealth governments.
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Olivia Caisley 3.51pm: CMO flags ‘cautious’ re-opening of universities
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has flagged a “cautious” resumption of face-to-face learning at universities, declaring the move will be discussed at a meeting of national cabinet this week.
Dr Murphy said it is likely that some face-to-face activities will resume.
“I think universities are clearly in the mix of things that we’re talking about with national cabinet this week,” Dr Murphy said. “It is likely that they will start to re-commence some activities, without pre-empting the decision of national cabinet.”
READ MORE: Tales from the bunker
Remy Varga 3.46pm: Andrews extends gratitude to teachers
Premier Daniel Andrews says the Victorian government will always back teachers after an educator was confirmed as a positive case of the coronavirus.
It came after federal Education Minister Dan Tehan was forced to withdraw an attack on the Victorian Premier amid a deepening political stoush over school closures between the state and Commonwealth governments.
Mr Andrews took to Twitter on Sunday to confirm a teacher from Meadowglen Primary School had tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting the school’s closure for three days and sending two other teachers into self-isolation.
“Any Meadowglen students who can’t learn from home will be able to attend another local school,” he said on Twitter.
“Parents are being contacted, and we’ll make sure that every child is taken care of,” he said.
And finally, to all the teachers and school staff out there – my heartfelt thanks.
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) May 3, 2020
Please know that in Victoria, you will always be valued. You will always be listened to.
And we'll always have your back.
Around an hour earlier Mr Tehan conceded he had “overstepped the mark” by accusing Mr Andrews of jeopardising the national consensus by failing to commit to reopening schools.
His attack on the ABC’s Insiders program came before Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos revealed the positive test at Meadowglen Primary School.
Mr Andrews did not address Tehan’s comments or his withdrawal, instead extending his gratitude towards Victorian teachers.
“Please know that in Victoria, you will always be valued. You will always be listened to,” he said.
“And we’ll always have your back.”
The Australian Education Union has previously criticised the Morrison government for failing to consider the safety of teachers and education staff in the push to return teachers to classrooms.
The Victorian branch declined to comment when contacted by The Australian on Sunday.
READ MORE: Morrison needs to speak to the young
Olivia Caisley 3.31pm: ‘Australians cannot get complacement on virus’
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has again urged Australians to download the government’s COVIDSafe tracing app as he confirms 4.25 million people have now installed the contact tracing tool.
Dr Murphy said there are now 6801 cases across the nation and while Australia is still keeping under 20 cases a day “we cannot get complacent.”
“While we are now seriously looking at what measures could be relaxed, and making recommendations to national Cabinet over the coming week, we are very cautious about the need to move slowly and get the testing done,” Dr Murphy said.
He said about 16 million Australians had smartphones and if more people install the application the government will have greater confidence to start easing social distancing measures.
READ MORE: Bishops push to re-open churches
Lachlan Moffet Gray 2.49pm: Toll rises as 83-year-old woman dies in WA
An 83-year-old Western Australian woman has died of coronavirus, bringing WA’s death toll to nine.
“In mid April the woman was admitted to hospital,” WA Premier Mark McGowan told reporters on Sunday.
“I’ve been advised she did have pre-existing health conditions as well.”
The woman was a close contact of a pre-existing case and died on the 30th of April. She was not a resident of an aged care facility.
Of WA’s nine deaths, five were residents of WA and four were passengers on the German Artania cruise ship.
Despite news of the death, Mr McGowan said that Sunday marked WA’s fourth consecutive day without a new case of coronavirus, meaning the case has only detected two new cases in the past week.
WA remains at 551 confirmed cases, with only 19 still active.
“Of our active cases, just 13 are Western Australians. We also have one from interstate and five are from the Artania,” Mr McGowan said.
The Premier said that he would work with the National Cabinet and health authorities to decide whether further coronavirus restrictions will be lifted over the coming weeks and warned residents to stay diligent in washing their hands and socially distancing.
“Don’t be an idiot, we are all in this together,” he said.
Mr McGowan also said that a man from Gingin, a small town north of Perth, had been remanded in custody after being found to have twice failed to comply with isolation requirements.
He said police had arrived at the man’s property to issue him with a summons over his initial breach, only to find again that he was not home.
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Rosie Lewis 2.17pm: I overstepped the mark on Andrews: Tehan
Education Minister Dan Tehan has been forced to withdraw his attack against Daniel Andrews after he accused the Victorian premier of showing a “failure of leadership” by not committing to reopening schools.
Just five hours after Mr Tehan declared Mr Andrews was the “one premier in particular who is jeopardising the national consensus” on reopening schools, he said he had overstepped the mark.
“No one wants a situation where students are missing out on their education based on where they live or what school they go to. The academic research tells us that the remote learning arrangements have the potential to result in poorer educational outcomes for up to half of Australian primary and secondary students if continued for an extended period, in particular the vulnerable, poor, remote and indigenous students who suffer the most,” Mr Tehan said.
“It was those examples I was thinking of this morning during my interview on Insiders when I expressed my personal frustration that more schools weren’t starting more in-class learning in my home state.
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Remy Varga 1.52pm: Teacher had symptoms for ‘a fair while’
A Melbourne teacher who tested positive for the coronavirus prompting the school’s closure had shown symptoms for “a fair while”, the principal says.
Meadowglen Primary School principal Loretta Piazza said she believed the music teacher had been part of an earlier cluster of COVID-19 but had only succeeded in being tested recently.
“He has had fairly mild symptoms for a fair while and I think he was part of a fairly big cluster early on,” she told 3AW on Sunday.
“I think he felt the bad had passed and he was okay to come to school.”
Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos confirmed on Sunday the school would be closed for three days for cleaning after the teacher tested positive for the disease.
Ms Piazza stressed the teacher had not come into contact with any students at the school but had come in to prepare online videos to assist in remote learning.
“All his contact has been with staff and adults,” she said.
“The good news is he hasn’t been with any of the kids... He’s just been in the staffroom and in the music room.”
The closure comes amid a deepening political stoush between the Commonwealth and the Victorian government over schools.
Ms Piazza said the teacher had attempted to get tested multiple times after being linked to the cluster but was knocked back, with the outbreak occurring before testing criteria was expanded.
“I think this was the early days when they were only looking at people who had travelled overseas or who had come into contact.”
“There were others involved in that cluster and they were tested and they tested positive, now why the doctor wouldn’t test him I don’t know.”
The Victorian government announced last week plans to test 100,000 people in 14 days, urging anyone with even mild symptoms of the coronavirus to get tested.
READ MORE: War of words erupts over school return
AAP 1.29pm: Virus risk ‘one in 10,000’ for NRL: V’Landys
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys says there is only a “one in 10,000 chance” of players catching coronavirus if they conform to the NRL’s strict biosecurity measures after they reassemble this week.
The NRL will take the next step toward a May 28 restart of the suspended competition when the 16 clubs hold education days on Monday, with the biosecurity guidelines to be explained to all players.
Providing players are satisfied, they are expected to resume training as early as Tuesday.
V’landys said he was confident that players would adhere to the guidelines despite the poor example set by social isolation breaches of high-profile players last week, saying the consequences would be “immense”. “We need to trust our players, and have that confidence in them. I think they realise the importance, not only are they affecting themselves but they are also affecting the 485 colleagues and the game itself,” he told Nine Network’s Sports Sunday.
AAP 1.01pm: ‘No reason for complacency despite no new cases’
Tasmania has recorded no new COVID-19 cases for another day, but Health Minister Sarah Courtney says that is no cause to ease restrictions.
She told reporters on Sunday that while the latest results are encouraging, it is no reason for complacency and urged people to stay at home unless going out for essential reasons.
“We know in other countries we have seen second waves which have had devastating consequences,” she said.
“So please I ask all Tasmanians, while this is very encouraging, we cannot be complacent and we must continue to ensure we are complying with all the measures.
“Restrictions remain across Tasmania and police are going to monitor those.” Twelve of Tasmania’s 13 COVID-19 deaths have been in the northwest, and two- thirds of an overall 221 cases have come from the outbreak in the region. But Premier Peter Gutwein said on Saturday that with the northwest outbreak under control, the tighter restrictions there would be eased from Monday. Overall, Ms Courtney said as of Sunday there had been 221 confirmed cases, 158 of those people had recovered.
READ MORE: Pandemics teach us lesson in humanity
Lachlan Moffet Gray 12.39pm: Same-day tests to eradicate virus cluster
The staff at the ill-fated Anglicare Newmarch House Aged Care Facility will be subjected to daily coronavirus tests to ensure the virus, which has already killed 14 residents, does not spread any further.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said this would be the first time the staff of any aged care facility will be subjected to daily testing, with the scheme recommended by an infectious disease expert.
“There will now be a daily testing regime of every staff member walking into that facility,” Mr Hazzard told reporters on Sunday.
“That obviously has its own challenges...but I’m asking all the staff to be accepting of what is quite an uncomfortable test.”
The tests will produce results on the same day they were undertaken.
Mr Hazzard said that NSW Health would also provide an infection control specialist to work on site with Newmarch staff “to support the staff in the use of PPE” and that telehealth services were being provided so residents could continue to consult with their GPs who are no longer conducting site visits.
He also said that Anglicare had been doing their best to manage the situation, made difficult by the fact that most regular staff had to go into isolation after a health worker at the facility was diagnosed with coronavirus on April 11. Nine separate organisations have stepped in to bolster staff numbers.
“I think Anglicare have taken the advice of health staff and done what they can...my only debate with Anglicare was communication,” he said.
In the last 24 hours NSW confirmed four additional cases of coronavirus, two of which were connected to Newmarch House, NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said.
Neither of the cases connected to Newmarch were in residents – one was a close contact to someone at the facility and another is still under investigation.
NSW now has 3035 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 2306 having recovered.
106 cases are being treated by NSW Health, 14 of which are being cared for in ICU, with 11 of ventilators.
243,128 people have been tested across the state to date.
If you do have a sore throat, an itchy throat, a temperature, a bit of a cough....please come up, and step forward and have a test,” Mr Hazzard said.
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Lachlan Moffet Gray 11.33am: Restrictions to lift on property inspections, auctions
Property-mad Sydneysiders will again be able to engage in their favourite weekend activity, with NSW to lift restrictions on home inspections and on-site property auctions from next Saturday.
The coronavirus-led ban on the activities instituted six weeks ago added to concern over how the property market might fare amid the global pandemic – but NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said they will now be able to go ahead if real estate agents follow certain guidelines, like limiting the number of people inspecting properties and attending auctions, as well as establishing cleaning regimes.
“Real estate agents should limit the number of people viewing a property and attending an auction, follow stringent cleaning and safety guidelines, ensure clients do not touch surfaces and always have hand sanitiser available,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
“The community has done an outstanding job in limiting the spread of COVID-19 and we need to make sure we continue to exercise vigilance and care.”
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the rollback of restrictions was a welcome sign, but warned against complacency.
Choosing a home is one of the biggest decisions anybody makes, and easing the restrictions to ensure people can more easily inspect, buy or rent a property is an important step for NSW,” Mr Perrottet said in a statement on Sunday.
“The real estate industry has been adaptable in transitioning to online auctions, property inspections by appointment or online, and now as we make the move back to a more normal mode of operation we must ensure safety measures such as social distancing remain a key part of the process.”
The move to lift restrictions on open home inspections and on-site auctions follows similar moves made in the last week by the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
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Remy Varga 11.08am: Teacher’s positive test forces Melbourne school closure
A school in Melbourne’s north has closed after a teacher tested positive for the coronavirus, Victoria’s Health Minister has confirmed.
It comes after federal Education Minister Dan Tehan accused Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews of “taking a sledgehammer” to schooling by refusing to reopen classrooms.
Jenny Mikakos told reporters on Sunday that a teacher at Meadowglen Primary School in the far northeast suburb of Epping had tested positive for COVID-19.
“We are in fact the government that runs schools in Victoria [and] we are the government leading the public health response that is keeping Victorians safe,” she said.
“If we just look to the fact today we’ve had a staff member in a school test positive, I’m sure that Dan Tehan would have liked to have had that knowledge... before making those remarks earlier today.”
Victoria also announced that 13 new cases of coronavirus were detected in the last 24 hours, the largest daily increase since April 18.
There are now 1384 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the state.
Six of the new cases were connected to a meat processing facility in Melbourne, three to overseas travellers, one to community transmission and another three identified among the 9205 tests conducted on Saturday.
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READ MORE: Schools must return
Lachlan Moffet Gray 11.00am: Just one new virus case in Queensland
Queensland has confirmed just one case of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the second consecutive day it has done so.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed the additional case on Twitter on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 1035.
Sunday, 3 May – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) May 2, 2020
• 1 new confirmed case
• 1,035 total confirmed cases
• 115,598 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders have died from coronavirus. 976 patients have recovered.#COVID19aus pic.twitter.com/1HOmFu0OPI
976 coronavirus patients have recovered, meaning just 59 cases remain active in the state.
Six Queenslanders have died of COVID-19 and more than 115,000 tests have been carried out.
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Lachlan Moffet Gray 10.22am: Doctors planned for my death: UK PM
Boris Johnson’s health was so dire as he was battling coronavirus that his doctors were planning how to declare him dead, he has revealed.
In an interview with The Sun on Sunday the UK prime minister said that “litres and litres of oxygen” was needed to keep him alive.
“It was a tough old moment, I won’t deny it. They had a strategy to deal with a ‘death of Stalin’-type scenario,” Mr Johnson told the newspaper.
“I was not in particularly brilliant shape and I was aware there were contingency plans in place.
“The doctors had all sorts of arrangements for what to do if things went badly wrong.”
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Lachlan Moffet Gray 10.04am: Fourteenth resident dies at virus-stricken nursing home
A fourteenth resident of the Anglicare Newmarch House Aged Care Facility has died of coronavirus, operator Sydney Anglicare confirmed on Sunday.
A spokesman for the operator said that the resident passed away in hospital on Saturday May 2.
Since coronavirus was detected in a staff member at the facility on April 11, 37 residents have been diagnosed with COVID-19 – 14 of whom have now died.
26 staff have also tested positive and a further 63 have been forced into isolation.
The western Sydney facility attracted controversy after family members of residents complained about inadequate communication from the operator concerning their loved ones, and have questioned why many coronavirus positive residents have not been moved to nearby Nepean Hospital.
In a statement, Sydney Anglicare said they were looking at alternative accommodation for residents without coronavirus.
“Alternative accommodation options for people who are COVID-19 negative are being discussed with some residents and their families and of course this is possible, provided there is a good understanding of the risks and precautionary measures that this would involve – for the resident and their families,” a spokesman said on Sunday.
“Our prayers and thoughts are with our grieving Newmarch House families and also with our staff who have worked so closely with the residents and their families.
We are thankful for the ongoing support provided by government departments and their specialist staff.”
READ MORE: Boris Johnson reveals his dire virus battle
Olivia Caisley 9.53am: ‘Failure of leadership’: Andrews slammed
Education Minister Dan Tehan has accused Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews of “taking a sledgehammer” to schooling due to his reluctance to get students back in the classroom, accusing him of “jeopardising” the national cabinet process.
In a ramping up of rhetoric on Sunday, Mr Tehan told ABC Insiders Mr Andrews’ reluctance to restart schools was a clear “failure of leadership”.
“We have one Premier in particular who is jeopardising the national consensus on this,” Mr Tehan said in reference to the Victorian Premier.
Mr Andrews has taken a hard line stance on schools in Victoria amid calls from the Morrison government for children to return to the classroom.
The issue of when schools will fully reopen remains a key sticking point in the major states of NSW, Victoria and Queensland, despite the advice of the nation’s Chief Medical Officer that it is safe for children to attend.
Mr Tehan said parents should no longer listen to their state premiers about school attendance but “listen to the medical advice.”
He said 1,500 out of 2,500 private schools had taken up the Morrison government’s $3bn incentive to re-open their classroom doors.
READ MORE: Back to school, a lesson in chaos
Lachlan Moffet Gray 9.48am: Man arrested quarantining at Disney World
Florida police have arrested a man who had been quarantining on a closed island at Disney World, telling authorities it was a “tropical paradise.”
Richard McGuire was discovered by local police on Disney’s Discovery Island on Thursday, and said he had been there since Monday or Tuesday with aims to stay for a week.
The 42-year-old was spotted by a security guard who alerted authorities and began a search.
Mr McGuire said he didn’t hear numerous deputies searching the private island or him on foot, by boat and by air because he was asleep in a building.
He told the deputy he didn’t know it was a restricted area, despite there being numerous “no trespassing” signs.
“Richard stated that he was unaware of that and that it looked like a tropical paradise,” according to the arrest report.
Orange County Marine deputies on Bay Lake used a public address system to tell Mr McGuire he was not allowed to be on the property, but he remained on the island, anyway, according to the arrest report.
A security representative for Disney said she saw Mr McGuire using a company boat Thursday, noting that the area had several “no trespassing” signs and two closed gates. She asked the agency to press charges.
Mr McGuire was arrested on a trespassing charge and taken to jail without incident. It was not immediately clear whether he had an lawyer who could comment. Previously called Treasure Island, Discovery Island had been the site of a zoological park before the island was closed to the public in 1999.
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Olivia Caisley 8.55am: Labor calls for ‘greater clarity’ on school return
Labor leader Anthony Albanese has called for “greater clarity” from the Morrison government when it comes to getting students across the nation back in the classroom.
Mr Albanese told Sky News on Sunday parents wanted clearer advice about when their children can return to school.
“I think what parents want and what they tell me, is they want clarity,” Mr Albanese said. “They want clearer advice about when schools will go back, so they can plan their own lives so I don’t think anyone wants any of these restrictions to be on longer than necessary.”
It comes ahead of Education Minister Dan Tehan’s appearance on the ABC’s Insiders program later this morning.
“I think we should listen to the medical advice and I don’t think what we should do is have political leaders giving different advice, different days.”
Asked about whether the Morrison government should continue to push for an international inquiry into the origins and early spread of COVID-19, Mr Albanese said Australia needed to “say what needs to be said”, regardless of its economic ties.
“We are allies with the United States, but we’re friends with China and other countries in our region, and Australia can’t allow those economic relationships that are so important for us to stop us being prepared to say what needs to be said.”
He called on the Morrison government to apply its recent collaboration with scientists when it comes to the coronavirus to other policy issues such as climate change.
“Since 2013 there’s no plan to deal with climate change and that’s one of the things that I hope happens arising out of this, just as we were talking about listening to the medical experts,” Mr Albanese told Sky News.
“I think we should listen to science, much more on issues like climate change, and I hope that the government takes its new-found respect for science and expert advice and puts it into practice in other policy areas.”
Mr Albanese also lashed out at the government for getting the economy “wrong” well before the coronavirus crisis and a horror bushfire season.
“They had already doubled the debt, they had productivity going backwards, consumer demand going in the wrong direction, we had wages not keeping up with the cost of living, we had household debt at record levels, and all of the economic indicators were bad that’s why the Reserve Bank kept cutting interest rates,” Mr Albanese said. “ Last year, so we went into this crisis with the economy already suffering.”
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7.30am: Australia to trial stem cell therapy
A stem cell treatment for coronavirus patients is set to be trialled by Sydney’s Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute.
Executive director Professor Jason Kovacic says the institute will work on a local clinical trial of the treatment being explored by New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital.
He says nine out of 12 patients in the US administered with stem cells were able to come off a ventilator in just 10 days.
“These stem cells were trialled extensively for patients with cardiac diseases and the beauty of them is it is an off-the-shelf therapy, the stem cells can be administered to any patient and have substantial effects on changing the course of inflammation and the immune response,” Prof Kovacic told the Sunday Telegraph.
The institute is looking to start trials with local patients in coming months. Prof Kovacic says the treatment could help avert higher mortality among COVID-19 patients with pre-existing cardiovascular illness.
AAP
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7.00am: New York antibody survey’s surprising result
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has pushed back against what he called premature demands that he reopen the state, saying more understanding of the new coronavirus is needed.
As about half of US governors partially reopen their economies over the weekend, and Cuomo said he needs much more information on what the pandemic is doing in his state before he loosens restrictions.
The governor released the preliminary results of a statewide antibody survey of about 15,000 people showing that 12.3 per cent had been previously infected with the virus.
As of Saturday, the number of known infections across the US had climbed to more than 1.1 million, including about 65,000 deaths.
“Even when you are in uncharted waters, it doesn’t mean you proceed blindly,” he said on Saturday.
“Use information to determine action – not emotions, not politics, not what people think or feel, but what we know in terms of facts.”
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy echoed Cuomo’s slow-go restart approach, even as he reported “positive trends”, including a decline in hospital patients with COVID-19.
While the number of deaths has trended lower in recent days, New Jersey’s toll, second only to New York’s, stood at 7742, which Murphy cited as a key reason for maintaining his stay-at-home order.
“The family, friends and neighbours who we have lost are the reason why we cannot rush our restart,” he said at a news briefing.
“We need to keep seeing these lines moving in these directions before we can put New Jersey on the road back, and before we’re able to responsibly restart our economy.” Georgia and Texas are leading the way in the partial reopening of businesses that were shuttered by the pandemic.
Leaders in those and several other states where the coronavirus has had less of an impact are under pressure to allow people to return to work. Government data released this week showed 30 million Americans have sought unemployment benefits since March 21.
Cuomo pointed to the roughly 900 new coronavirus cases that hospitals in New York are still reporting daily, and the fact that officials do not know where those infections are coming from, as reason to continue keeping the Empire State shut down.
Reuters
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6.40am: France introduces ‘Australian-like’ quarantine measure
French Health Minister Olivier Veran said people travelling into France, including French citizens returning home, will be placed in a 14-day quarantine as part of new extended proposals to limit the spread of the new coronavirus. Entering France is currently very restricted to essential travel, and a travel certificate is required for everyone entering the country. The proposals are being sent to parliament next week.
Veran said that “the compulsory quarantine will concern anyone entering the national territory, an overseas territory or Corsica.” It’s not clear if the quarantine would apply only to travellers from beyond the Schengen border and Britain. The Schengen Area includes 26 countries and encompasses most of the European Union nations.
READ MORE:
6.30am: Spike in Italian deaths as hospitalisations decline
The number of beds treating COVID-19 patients continued to decline as Italy prepared to ease its strict lockdown measures on Monday. The Civil Protection Agency said that there were 212 fewer people hospitalised with the virus and 39 fewer in intensive care in the past 24 hours, numbers that have been consistently easing in recent weeks.
That has given authorities confidence to be able to cope with any new spike in cases as more businesses reopen and individuals are allowed more freedom to move around their towns and cities of residence.
At the same time, the number of dead nudged up the most in 11 days – by 474 – and the number of people who have recovered from the virus was the lowest in more than two weeks. Italy has registered the most deaths after the United States, at 28,710.
AP
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Jacqueline Magnay 6.20am: Spain ends ‘brutal’ measure after 48 days
After 48 days of brutal home isolation, Spaniards descended en masse to parks and beaches on Saturday, the first day of being allowed outside to exercise and walk since the country’s March 14 coronavirus lockdown.
The Spanish government had announced over a week ago that the general public could go outside for an hour’s enjoyment from May 2 but limited it to sunrise from 6am to 10am or sunset at 8pm to 11pm.
The time slots of 10am to midday and 7pm until 8pm are reserved for the more vulnerable people aged over 70. Children are allowed out between midday and 7pm.
Mark Carter, from Melbourne who has been in Barcelona to nurse his late mother Beverley in her final weeks, and then sort her estate and Spanish paperwork, said the exact rules were a bit murky as people were supposed to be restricted to one hour a day within 1km distance of their house.
“That’s unless you are doing sport and in that case you have to remain inside your district, but still only have an hour maximum,” the 36-year-old told The Australian.
“I can get to the water and harbour but my 1km doesn’t extend to the beach.”
Tayla Stephenson, a 24 year old from the Gold Coast who only arrived in Barcelona earlier this year to start a new marketing job, had said she was ‘’super excited to be allowed out’’ saying it would help with the mental strain of being cooped up.
She took some early morning video footage at the beachside, where the sand was still off limits, showing a crowded boardwalk of runners, cyclist, rollerbladers and walkers, with others stretching and sitting on benches.
However in other parts of Spain the beaches were open and people went for a swim in the ocean.
Last week children under 14 were allowed outside for an hour with one parent.
Up until now the only reasons Spaniards were allowed outside were to buy food, medicine or walk the dog 100m from the front door, and military and police regularly checked everyone on the streets.
“It’s lovely to be able to dress up and go for a walk instead of doing exercises at home,” Sonia Claesson, 79, told The Local while she was walking in Madrid with a friend.
”We’re part of the high-risk population, so I didn’t go out at all,” she said.
Some people wore a black ribbon to respect the nearly 25,000 deaths across the country attributed to coronavirus.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain would gradually ease restrictions in phases until the end of June. He announced on Saturday that public transport users would have to wear masks from Monday.
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Steve Zemek 12.30am: Probe into Newmarch House infection control lapses
NSW health authorities are investigating possible infection control breaches by staff of a Sydney aged care facility at the centre of a coronavirus cluster.
Of the five new COVID-19 cases in the state recorded over the past 24 hours, two were recorded at Anglicare’s Newmarch House. There have been 61 cases and 13 deaths related to transmission at the western Sydney facility.
On Saturday, it was announced that two staff members had contracted the virus and NSW Health have deployed two infection control nurses to the facility to review its procedures.
“We’ve clearly seen transmission that on the surface looks like there’s been breaches of infection control amongst particularly the staff,” NSW chief medical officer Kerry Chant said.
“And that’s obviously a concern. There are have been some elements where consistent application of infection control practice has not occurred.”
NSW Health minister Brad Hazzard defended the government’s handling of the outbreak amid a second wave of infection at the facility, and said he had expressed his disappointment to Anglicare management.
“I made my views very clear to Anglicare. That’s all I’ll say,” he said. He defended the staff who had spread infection, saying dealing with the virus was “like almost going to the moon”.
But he conceded there had been breaches of health protocols. “Some of those people may or may not known exactly how to use the equipment in the most appropriate way,” he said.
“It only takes a moment. Our doctors are highly trained, but like everybody else you can make a mistake.”
Anglicare Sydney chief executive Grant Millard said “it would seem that’s fairly obvious that there have been failings”.
“The use of PPE (personal protective equipment) is foreign to a lot of people,” Mr Millard told Seven News on Saturday.
When asked whether there would come a point where Anglicare would decide to remove some residents from the aged care home, Mr Millard said the option would be brought up with those living at Newmarch House.
“In small number to date that we’ve had discussions and this is something that we’re going to raise with residents in our communication shortly,” Mr Millard said.
NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay called on the government to give all Newmarch residents, even ones who were healthy, the option of being moved to the public hospital system.
“It’s clear COVID-19 is not in control in Newmarch House, it is in fact out of control,” she said.
The five new cases took NSW’s coronavirus tally to 3031, with no new deaths recorded.
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Agencies 12.15am: Kim Jong-un makes first public appearance in weeks
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertiliser factory near Pyongyang, state media said yesterday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumours that he may be seriously ill.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim attended the ceremony in Sunchon with other senior officials, including his sister Kim Yo-jong, who many analysts predicted would take over if her brother was suddenly unable to rule.
State media showed videos and photos of Kim wearing a black Mao suit and constantly smiling, walking around facilities, applauding, cutting a huge red ribbon with scissors handed by his sister, and smoking inside and outside of buildings while talking with other officials.
Seemingly thousands of workers, many of them masked, stood in lines at the massive complex, roaring in celebration and releasing balloons into the air. A sign installed on a stage where Kim sat with other senior officials read: “Sunchon Phosphatic Fertiliser Factory; Completion Ceremony; May 1, 2020.” There was no definite sign that Kim was in discomfort, although there were moments where his walking looked a bit stiff. He was shown moving without a walking stick, like the one he used in 2014 when he was recovering from a presumed ankle surgery. However, he was also seen riding a green electric cart, which appeared similar to a vehicle he used in 2014.
It was Kim’s first public appearance since April 11, when he presided over a ruling Workers’ Party meeting to discuss the coronavirus and reappoint his sister as an alternate member of the powerful decision-making Political Bureau of the party’s Central Committee. That move confirmed her substantial role in the government.
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Agencies 12am: Boris Johnson names baby after coronavirus doctors
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds have named their baby boy Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, honouring their grandfathers and doctors who cared for the U.K. leader after contracting the coronavirus. Symonds made the announcement on her Instagram page, posting a picture of her cradling the infant. She praised the maternity team at University College Hospital in London, saying her “heart is full.?
The birth came just days after Mr Johnson returned to work following his hospitalisation for the coronavirus. He spent a week in London’s St Thomas’ hospital, including three nights in intensive care.
Ms Symonds wrote in the post, explaining the name as “Wilfred after Boris’ grandfather, Lawrie after my grandfather, Nicholas after Dr Nick Price and Dr Nick Hart — the two doctors that saved Boris’ life last month.” Mr Johnson’s office said he would take paternity leave later this year. — AP
Carrie Symonds has announced she and prime minister Boris Johnson have named their baby boy Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson
— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) May 2, 2020
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Misconduct finding over WA ombudsman’s globetrotting
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Everyone agrees arts courses cost too much. But imagine how increasing what students pay to become teachers and nurses to subsidise humanities courses would go down in the electorate.