Coronavirus live news Australia: Home Affairs ‘myth busters’ join anti-vax crackdown
Australians to get a more accurate timeline for vaccine; Greg Hunt reveals Home Affairs ‘myth-busting unit’; first 300,000 AZ doses arrive.
- Qld says federal government should foot quarantine bill
- Myth-busters to join anti-vax crackdown
- Concerns anti-vaxxers will disrupt rollout
- Johnson & Johnson vaccine approved
- Auckland sent back into lockdown
- Queensland’s bid to dodge quarantine bill hits snag
Welcome to The Weekend Australian’s live rolling coverage of the coronavirus crisis.
As first shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine hits Australia, Home Affairs unveils a ‘myth-busting’ unit to counter vaccine misinformation.
Specialist detectives are reportedly keeping tabs on anti-vaxxers amid concerns storage facilities may be targeted.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg flags post-JobKeeper support for the aviation sector, New Zealand’s largest city has been ordered back into lockdown after an apparent isolation breach and Queensland’s dramatic refusal to pay a $30m hotel quarantine bill has hit a snag: ousted former treasurer Jackie Trad already agreed to the deal.
Nicholas Jensen9.45pm:US cases and hospital admissions down
Newly recorded COVID-19 cases in the US have fallen, with the number of infected people in hospitals below 50,000 for the first time in four months.
US health authorities reported more than 1500 deaths on Saturday, local time, down from 2151 a day earlier.
The US reported more than 68,000 new infections on Saturday, which was also down on Friday’s 73,006.
A total of 48,870 infected people were in hospital, with 10,114 of those in intensive care.
The number of hospitalisations has not been below 50,000 since the beginning of November.
More than 511,000 people have died of COVID-19 in the US, accounting for about a fifth of the world’s reported 2.5 million deaths. More than 28.5 million people in the US have been infected with the virus.
READ MORE:Young Aussies doing it tough on all fronts
Matthew Denholm9.05pm:Antarctic ‘home reno’ to replace rebuild
Australia has shelved plans to build a new research station on the sub-Antarctic outpost of Macquarie Island, opting instead for a cheaper but transformative seven-year “home reno”.
The nation’s ageing station on the wind-lashed island, halfway between Hobart and Antarctica, was to be completely replaced with an architecturally designed station but after four years of planning and initial work, this option has been dropped, with an exit clause in the lead contract, with VEC Civil Engineering, exercised.
The Australian Antarctic Division, which has already spent $9m on the project first announced in 2016, realised the preferred option could not be delivered within the remaining $41m funding envelope.
With federal funding particularly tight post-COVID, and the pandemic complicating already difficult logistics, the AAD will this week announce a more modest if still significant “home reno” to revamp the existing station.
Agencies8.25pm: Vatican envoy to Iraq tests positive
The Vatican’s ambassador to Iraq, Mitja Leskovar, has tested positive for COVID-19, two officials say, just days before Pope Francis’s historic visit.
“Yes, he tested positive, but it will have no impact on the visit,” an Iraqi official involved in the papal plans said.
An Italian diplomat also confirmed the infection.
As apostolic nuncio to Baghdad, Leskovar had been travelling across the country in recent weeks to prepare for the pope’s ambitious visit, including visits to Mosul in the north, the shrine city of Najaf and the southern site of Ur.
During foreign trips, popes typically stay at the nuncio’s residence, but Iraqi officials have not revealed where Francis will reside during his trip, citing security reasons.
Iraq is experiencing a resurgence of coronavirus infections, which the health ministry has blamed on a new faster-spreading strain that first emerged in Britain.
The country of 40 million is registering around 4000 new cases per day, near the peak that it had reached in September, with total infections nearing 700,000 and deaths at nearly 13,400.
Pope Francis, as well as his Vatican staff and the dozens of international reporters travelling with him, have already been vaccinated.
Iraq itself has yet to begin its vaccination campaign.
READ MORE: Vaccine rollout ramped up after target missed
Stephen Lunn7.45pm: Shift from the cities ‘is just a sugar hit’
Don’t believe the hype around the big COVID-19-led shift to the regions, urban planner Shane Geha says, because Australians will overwhelmingly stick to where the jobs are.
Big cities simply have too much going for them to stop being the go-to place to live, and if high property prices were that much of a deterrent, the regional shift would have been greater already, Dr Geha said.
An adjunct professor at UNSW, Dr Geha said while a tree-change might work longer term for those about to retire, many people who were moving because they thought remote working was the new normal might find themselves returning to the cities.
Only when regional cities like Ballarat in Victoria or Wollongong south of Sydney reach a critical population mass of about one million people will they be able to generate their own employment ecosystems and sustainably draw people from the capitals, he said.
Adeshola Ore7pm:Increased rollout after jab target miss
Australia’s rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine will begin early next week after the Morrison government failed to meet COVID jab targets for February.
The federal government confirmed 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca jab arrived at Sydney airport on Sunday, a step Scott Morrison said was a significant milestone for the country’s fight against the virus.
Sunday’s latest vaccine data showed the government missed its goal to administer 60,000 doses by the end of February after only 30,000 Australians were inoculated last week.
The Prime Minister said the arrival of the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccine shipment meant Australia could ramp up its rollout to priority groups in the first phase, with frontline healthcare and border workers first in line to receive the jab.
“We will now be able to scale up the vaccination rollout to our priority groups, including our most vulnerable Australians and to our frontline border and health workers,” he said.
“Australia is in a unique position because importantly this vaccine gives us the ability to manufacture onshore. Every Australian who wishes to be vaccinated will be able to receive a vaccine this year.”
Adam Creighton6.30pm:Young Aussies doing it tough on all fronts
Young people have overwhelmingly borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic through lost income, lost jobs, higher house prices and a massive future tax bill, according to researchers at Melbourne’s RMIT University.
The study also says Scott Morrison’s JobSeeker, JobKeeper and JobMaker programs have done little to alleviate the “serious, damaging and potentially lifelong” costs now faced by most young people at the same time fees have been lifted significantly in some university courses.
“Young people have been more likely to lose their jobs, less likely to meet inclusion criteria for the more generous JobKeeper initiative, more likely to take up the self-funded early superannuation drawdown options, and potentially facing dramatically increased university fees from 2021,” the researchers argued.
Agencies5.30pm:Eight arrested at anti-lockdown protest in Denmark
Danish police said they arrested eight people in an anti-lockdown demonstration in Copenhagen on Sunday (AEDT).
Organised by a group calling itself “Men in Black”, the rally of around 1200 people in the Danish capital was the first since the government announced last week that it was extending many anti-coronavirus restrictions.
Police said the rally remained largely peaceful, but eight people were arrested for allegedly using fireworks and for rowdy behaviour.
Initially, around 600 people took part in the demonstration, but the crowd had swelled to around 1200 by the end of the evening on the square in front of Copenhagen’s town hall, police said.
Denmark, which has been under a partial lockdown since late December, announced last Wednesday that it would ease some virus restrictions but keep the majority in place despite protests from the opposition.
While Danes will once again be able to visit some shops and partake in small-scale sports and communal activities from Monday, many restrictions have been extended until April 5, including the closure of bars, restaurants, and most secondary and higher education institutions.
The number of COVID-19 infections in Denmark has fallen sharply over the past few weeks, but the rate of incidence of the so-called UK variant of the coronavirus, which is more easily transmissible, remains a source of concern, authorities said.
Sarah Elks4.35pm:Qld says federal government should foot quarantine bill
The Queensland government will not bill other states for housing their residents in hotel quarantine and is calling for the Commonwealth to chip in financially.
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles kicked off an interstate stoush this week when he tore up a $30m bill from the NSW government to cover Queenslanders who had used hotel quarantine in that state.
It has been reported that former QLD Treasurer Jackie Trad signed an agreement at a Board of Treasurers meeting on April 1 that states would share hotel quarantine costs according to residency.
But Health Minister Yvette D’Ath disputed that report on Sunday, saying QLD never agreed to such a deal.
“I’ve not seen any documents or records that say the state government signed up to footing the bill for other jurisdictions. Queensland has not asked any other state or territory to pay the bills of their residents who have come here, and we’ve asked of them to go into hotel quarantine,” she said.
Ms D’Ath said QLD would not bill the other states, and the federal government should foot the bill.
“The fact is every jurisdiction has incurred significant costs in setting up and managing hotel quarantine … The bulk of the people we’ve managed have come from overseas. I believe it’s the Commonwealth who should be stepping up and assisting us financially,” she said.
“I’m not going to start having a fight and playing tit for tat with other jurisdictions, I don’t think we should be cannibalising each other. I won’t be sending a $30m invoice to another jurisdiction, especially when it includes thousands of people who actually don’t have a residential address in QLD.
“Why would we handover taxpayers’ money to people who don’t identify as having a residential address in QLD in the first place?
“If there’s a conversation to be had about the significant costs that every jurisdiction has incurred on hotel quarantine, it should be with the Commonwealth.”
READ MORE:State of Origin quarantine war over expenses
Blake Antrobus3pm:State’s plan to speed up COVID check-ins
Long queues, waiting times and filling out countless forms could be a thing of the past as a new QR code check-in app is launched across Queensland today.
The Check-In Qld app has been spruiked by the state government as a simple way to improve contact tracing.
The free mobile phone app remembers a person’s details, eliminating the need to re-scan QR codes and re-enter personal information when visiting a particular venue.
But ministers have assured the public only the most basic data will be retained by the government in case of an outbreak.
Businesses will need to sign up to the new app, which is not mandatory.
Doug Meagher, Venue Manager at the Orion Hotel in Springfield, said it simplified the check-in process for people visiting his business and the administration duties for his staff.
“It’s made it more efficient, I’ve been able to take a staff member from the front door and put them back into a service role,” Mr Meagher said.
“It was a convoluted system we previously had, we had excel spreadsheets we needed to send to Queensland Health, we had to retain the data for 28 to 56 days on premise.
“We had QR codes with onerous information … you couldn’t check people in with that.
“Now if you come in, scan it once, you’re done.”
Digital Economy Minister Leeanne Enoch said it was similar to the contact tracing app used in the ACT and had gone through extensive trials prior to the rollout.
She said the data collected by the app would be stored for up to 56 days before being deleted.
“Queensland Health will be able to access that immediately if they have to in order to carry out contact tracing,” Ms Enoch said.
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Christine Kellett2pm:Home Affairs ‘myth-busting unit’ to boost confidence
Health Minister Greg Hunt says Australians will now be able to get a more accurate idea of when they can expect to receive the Covid vaccine, launching a national “vaccine checker” on the australia.gov.au website.
Mr Hunt said the government was also launching the second phase of its public information campaign to counter vaccine misinformation being spread in the community.
The Minister — whose own electorate office was targeted by anti-vaxxers yesterday — said a “myth busting unit” had been set up within the Department of Home Affairs to instil confidence in the public.
“There has been a myth busting unit that was actually quietly set up within Home Affairs during the course of 2020 in co-operation with the Health Department,” Mr Hunt told a press conference on Sunday.
“That is where information is found that is plainly ridiculous, whether it is 5G fairies or other things. We put out (accurate) information directly to the media. We also make sure information is available publicly. We don’t want to give too much air to some of the silliest ideas but we do want to provide public reassurance to combat the marketplace of those ideas, which would in any way falsely have some impact on public confidence.”
It follows reports that AFP detectives have begun compiling lists of anti-vax protesters amid fears they may target vaccine storage facilities in an effort to disrupt the rollout.
READ MORE:Greg Sheridan — Biden on brink of disastrous mistake with Iran
Adeshola Ore12.55pm:First AstraZeneca vaccines arrive in Australia
The first 300,000 doses of the imported AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines have touched down in Australia this morning.
The rollout of the imported AstraZeneca jabs is due to commence on Monday March 8 if the batch passes the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s testing of quality standards.
Scott Morrison said today was a significant milestone in Australia’s vaccine rollout.
“We will now be able to scale up the vaccination rollout to our priority groups, including our most vulnerable Australians and to our frontline border and health workers,” the Prime Minister said in a statement.
“Australia is in a unique position because importantly this vaccine gives us the ability to manufacture onshore. Every Australian who wishes to be vaccinated will be able to receive a vaccine this year.”
Australia has secured almost 54 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with 50 million of them to be made in Melbourne by medical company CSL.
The rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine was scheduled to begin in late March.
READ MORE:Satellite sites ready for rollout
Sarah Elks12.45pm:Qld govt issues show cause notice after vax bungle
The Queensland government has issued a show cause notice to Healthcare Australia, after the contractor for the federal government wrongly dosed two elderly Queenslanders with the COVID-19 vaccine this week.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said the state government – which regulates the contractor operating in the state – wanted to be confident the company had processes in place to stop the issue happening again.
“We have issued them a show case, because we are the regulator of them, just to make sure that they’ve put all the practices in place that are necessary to give us the confidence,” she said.
“But we do have the overall power as regulators of these contractors. If we believe these contractors are not fulfilling their regulatory obligations in relation to this vaccine, we absolutely will step in and take action.”
The two elderly residents suffered no adverse effects after being given four times the recommended dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Tuesday morning at the Carseldine aged care centre, in Brisbane’s north.
The federal government is responsible for rolling out the vaccine in all aged care homes across Australia, even ones owned and run by the Queensland government.
Ms D’Ath said the federal government was aware confidence had to be maintained in the vaccination process. She said there should be an “external assessment mechanism” to assess the federal government’s vaccination rollout, as there was in Queensland.
Queensland has vaccinated 2030 people in the first week of the rollout, at hospitals on the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Cairns.
New vaccination hubs will be opening at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital on Monday, and the Sunshine Coast and Townsville later in the week.
At least 3000 jabs are expected to be administered in the coming week.
READ MORE:Jab-bungle doctor already under watch
Lisa Allen12.26pm:Australia’s pandemic property growth a world beater
The smaller Australian capitals of Perth and Brisbane, as well as the Gold Coast, were among the world’s strongest performing cities in real estate last year, recording annual residential price growth higher than the global average of 1.9 per cent.
Sydney and Melbourne, given their high price growth amid the pandemic last year, also made the cut and were included in Knight Frank’s global list of prime residential hot spots.
Perth was the top-ranked Australian city, coming in at No 34 out of the list of 65 top cities.
Tracking the movement of luxury residential prices across the world’s top 100 residential markets, the Knight Frank report found Perth produced 3.6 per cent annual growth, up from 0.9 per cent a year earlier.
The Gold Coast produced annual growth of 3.2 per cent, followed by Brisbane with 2.5 per cent price growth, while Sydney came in at No 56. Melbourne came in on par with Oslo with 0.9 per cent growth.
“Globally, prime residential prices performed better than expected in 2020, with markets having to weather the global pandemic and associated economic turmoil,” said Knight Frank’s head of residential research, Michelle Ciesielski.
Read the full story here.
Staff writers11.23am:Police ‘draw up target list’ of anti-vax protesters
Police are drawing up a list of anti-vaccination protesters amid fears that vaccination hubs and storage facilities could be targeted, the Sunday Herald Sun reports.
It comes as The Weekend Australian revealed Victoria Police held serious concern that left-wing extremists in Victoria were using Covid to inflame tensions with government and justify acts of violence.
Senior government and law enforcement figures are reportedly worried militant protesters could try to disrupt the rollout of the vaccine.
Protesters were out in force again on Saturday. The Sunday Herald Sun reports that a specialist team of detectives has been set up by the Australian Federal Police to crack down on anti-vaxxers. Investigators from Taskforce Lotus are on standby to be deployed in the event of a major security breach involving the vaccine, it reports.
Read the full story here.
John Stensholt11am:Real cost of Covid on AFL, NRL revealed
COVID-19 cost the two biggest football codes more than $250m in revenue, caused more than $100m in operating losses and the spending of previously accumulated savings and had them receive $45m in JobKeeper revenue to survive 2020.
Both the AFL and NRL have trumpeted better than expected fiscal results for last year this week, but a fuller examination of their financial performance shows the big cost the pandemic wrought.
The NRL on Friday revealed a $24.7m deficit for its 2020 financial year, which did not include the State of Origin series played at the end of the season. The league said if the three-game series was included in its results it would have recorded just a $3.7m deficit for 2020.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys lauded the result, which compared to an underlying loss of $22.7m for the AFL and came after the NRL managed to reduce its operating expenses by a whopping 32 per cent.
“The game faced financial catastrophe when we were forced to suspend the season in March. I’m pleased to report that because we were able to resume the season so quickly and renegotiate new deals with our partners, the game finished the financial year in much stronger shape than first predicted,” V’landys said.
“We’ve recorded a modest deficit and had State of Origin been played in the 2020 financial year we would have been close to breaking even.”
Read the full story here.
Dow Jones10.29am:Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets approval
US health regulators authorised the first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, according to people familiar with the matter. The shot from Johnson & Johnson promises to boost a mass-vaccination campaign rushing to end the deadliest pandemic in more than a century.
The vaccine’s authorisation, the third issued by the US Food and Drug Administration, will give health authorities a desperately needed new source of doses as they scramble to ramp up inoculations ahead of elusive emerging strains.
Shipments are expected to start within a day or two, which could mean the first doses will be administered the coming week. The FDA authorised the vaccine’s use in adults.
The shot’s addition to the country’s vaccination drive comes at a precarious moment in the pandemic in the US Newly reported cases, hospitalisation and deaths have been dropping in recent weeks, but remain higher than peaks seen last summer and spring.
Also, new variants are spreading. More than 2,100 cases linked to variants first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil have now been detected in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
– The Wall Street Journal
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Heath Parkes-Hupton9.40am:Victoria records no new cases
Victoria recorded no new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday.
The Department of Health announced there were zero fresh cases after 7440 tests were conducted across the state.
There were no locally or overseas acquired infections for the second day in a row, while there is still 15 active cases in Victoria.
The last recorded cases of community transmission were announced on Friday, when two people were identified as being positive.
They were already in isolation and are close contacts to a case linked to the Holiday Inn cluster.
Victorians are relishing their first weekend since restrictions were relaxed back to the conditions in place before the Black Rock outbreak in December.
From 11.59pm on Friday they can now host up to 30 people in their home per day and 100 people can gather outdoors.
READ MORE: Melbourne’s luxury estates reclaim crown
Lachlan Moffet Gray9am:Companies dig in on JobKeeper payments
Corporate Australia is digging in over repaying billions of dollars in the JobKeeper wage subsidy payments, despite booking booming profits and paying dividends to investors.
Many top executives have argued that the safety net, which also has the effect of lowering wage bills, was crucial as the pandemic hit, while shareholders are relying on dividends in the face of ultra-low interest rates.
An analysis of company reports by The Weekend Australian reveals that 56 of the largest listed companies received more than $1.5bn of taxpayer money in the first half of the financial year, with a majority paying dividends to the tune of at least $1.39bn.
Read the full story here.
Adeshola Ore8.40am:Aviation sector may receive post-JobKeeper support
Josh Frydenberg has flagged targeted financial support for aviation sector when the wage subsidy JobKeeper scheme ends next month.
Last week, Qantas reported a half-yearly net loss of $1.03bn amid the coronavirus pandemic. Chief executive Alan Joyce said he believed the federal government would axe JobKeeper payments at the end of next month, potentially exposing the aviation industry to a new round of mass job cuts.
“The domestic tourism market is going to pick up, particularly as the vaccine is rolled out confidence comes back, and we don’t see those borders closing as frequently as we saw, over the course of last year,” the Treasurer told Sky News.
“With respect to the government support. We are looking at other measures that we can put in place – post JobKeeper — to support a range of industries including the aviation sector.”
The Australian has reported the country’s tourism industry has demanded nearly $8bn in wage-subsidy payments for more than 100,000 of the worst-affected businesses once JobKeeper ends in March, warning that without a replacement scheme there won’t be an industry left.
READ MORE:The man who found the secret to motivating workers
John Stensholt8.15am:Pratt pledges $2bn spend in Australia with green focus
Billionaire Anthony Pratt will spend $2bn expanding his Visy box-making and recycling business in Australia, which he says will create thousands of new green manufacturing jobs.
Mr Pratt’s pledge adds to the $1bn deal he clinched late last year to purchase the Australasian assets of glassmaker Owens-Illinois, which gives Visy a 90 per cent share of the beer bottle manufacturing market.
Visy will spend the $2bn over the next 10 years, with the manufacturing magnate revealing that $380m of the spending has been brought forward over the next 18 months because of the federal government’s accelerated depreciation policy.
“The pledged investment will be spent increasing the recycled content of glass bottles from 30 per cent to 70 per cent, reducing landfills by building another clean energy plant in Victoria that runs on paper mill rejects,” Mr Pratt said while announcing the new spending initiative alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Penrith in Sydney’s western suburbs on Friday.
Visy will also make its Brisbane paper mill more environmentally friendly, and will better use waste paper that was previously going to landfill in Victoria.
Read the full story here.
Agencies7.50am:Biden urges quick Senate action on huge stimulus package
US President Joe Biden has welcomed the overnight passage by the US House of Representatives of an enormous $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, saying it moves the country closer to full COVID-19 vaccination and economic recovery.
The package passed the House overnight in a 219 to 212 vote, with not one Republican vote, and moves next week to the Senate.
“I hope it will receive quick action,” Biden said in a brief address from the White House.
“We have no time to waste. If we act now, decisively, quickly and boldly, we can finally get ahead of this virus.” The vote in the House meant that “we’re one step closer to vaccinating the nation, we are one step closer to putting $1,400 in the pockets of Americans, we’re one step closer to extending unemployment benefits for millions of Americans who are shortly going to lose them.” He said the bill — which would be the second-largest US stimulus ever, after a $2 trillion package approved in March — would also help schools reopen safely and allow local and state governments to avoid “massive lay-offs for essential workers.” The House vote came just days after the COVID-19 death toll surpassed 500,000 in the United States, the world’s worst total.
– AFP
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Agencies7.15am:NZ lockdown to hit T20 cricket, America’s Cup
Auckland’s snap lockdown has forced New Zealand cricket bosses to hastily reschedule two Twenty20 matches against Australia as other affected sports assessed their options.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has ordered Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city and the centre of the outbreak, into a seven-day lockdown from Sunday, requiring people to stay at home except for essential shopping and work.
The remainder of the country faces Level Two restrictions which limit the size of public gatherings.
A New Zealand Cricket spokesman said the third match in the current T20 series, to be played in Wellington on Wednesday, will go ahead but without spectators.
Game four, scheduled for Auckland on Friday, has been moved to Wellington and, again, will be played behind closed doors.
The spokesman said they would wait for government advice on whether crowd restrictions are to be lifted before deciding if there will be spectators at the final game of the series in Tauranga on Sunday, March 7.
Sport is not allowed under Level Three and Ardern’s snap decision meant it was unlikely the start of the America’s Cup final between holders Team New Zealand and Italian challengers Luna Rossa would go ahead on March 6.
In Super Rugby Aotearoa, the Waikato Chiefs play the Otago Highlanders in Hamilton on Friday, while the Canterbury Crusaders host the Wellington Hurricanes on Saturday with both matches presumably in empty stadiums.
– AFP
READ MORE: Craven leaders show no mental agility in face of a complex pandemic
Agencies7am:Ardern orders fresh lockdown after isolation breach
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern ordered New Zealand’s largest city back into lockdown from Sunday as COVID-19 cases continued to be detected in the community.
The latest restrictions in Auckland will last at least seven days and come less than two weeks after a three-day shutdown in the city.
Ardern said a new coronavirus case confirmed on Saturday could not be directly connected to other positive tests over the last two weeks, although a school in South Auckland was a common link.
From Sunday morning the city’s 1.7 million residents must stay at home except for essential shopping and work.
Schools and non-essential shops will close, and entry in and out of the city will be restricted.
The remainder of the country will be under level two restrictions which include limits on the size of public gatherings.
Ardern said there was “cause for concern” that the latest case involved a person who had been infectious for a week but had not been in isolation.
Since the latest outbreak first emerged in a family of three, several people have reported symptoms, with the school in South Auckland the connecting factor.
Ardern blamed the creeping spread of community infection on people not isolating when they should have been.
In the latest case the person visited a doctor on Friday and then went to the gym.
“It’s frustrating,” Ardern said.
Authorities have the ability to take enforcement action against rule breakers but that needed to be balanced with ensuring people with symptoms came forward, the prime minister added.
“We will always weigh up, are we creating an environment where people will be open and honest?” she said.
“We are dealing with young people here and what we ask them to do is share with us their entire lives, and it’s very important that we have a situation where people are able and willing to do that.” New Zealand has been widely praised for its handling of the pandemic, with just 25 deaths in a population of five million.
– AFP
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Staff writers6.30am:Qld refusal to pay hotel bill hits a snag
Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles’ vow to tear up a $30m hotel quarantine bill sent by NSW has been dealt a blow, after it was revealed the state’s former treasurer Jackie Trad agreed to pay the cost during national talks just weeks before losing her job last year.
According to The Sunday Mail, Ms Trad was among the nation’s treasurers who, at a Board of Treasurers meeting on April 1, 2020, agreed that states would fund the costs of hotel quarantine accommodation.
Mr Miles has since reneged, filming a video of himself ripping up the bill and saying Queensland won’t pay until the Commonwealth develops a national approach to quarantine.
Citing meeting minutes, The Sunday Mail reports Ms Trad agreed costs would be reconciled among states and shared according to residency of people in quarantine.
READ MORE:Debt collectors chase 5000 over unpaid quarantine
Frances Vinall6am:Virus tests urged for 11 Melbourne suburbs
COVID-19 fragments have been detected in wastewater in Melbourne’s outer west, with residents urged to get tested.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the viral fragments were “weak” but residents and recent visitors to the area with “even mild symptoms” should arrange a coronavirus test immediately.
The suburbs in the wastewater catchment area are Taylors Hill, Plumpton, Hillside, Sydenham, Delahey, Caroline Springs, Burnside Heights, Kings Park, Albanvale, Burnside and Deer Park.
Professor Sutton said the viral fragment was from a sample collected on February 22.
“Anyone who has been in these suburbs and has any symptoms of COVID-19 from 20 to 22 February is urged to get tested,” he said.
Read the full story here.
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