Coronavirus live news Australia: Berejiklian blasts Queensland ahead of NSW-Victoria border reopening
NSW Premier accuses the Queensland government of ‘making stuff up as they go’ ahead of border reopening with Victoria.
- Border wars resume as Gladys blasts Qld
- One new SA case amid ‘tracing on steroids’
- What’s changed in Victoria
- Caps lift as Andrews outlines shape of Vic Christmas
- G20 grapple with vaccine rollout
- Trump meets, tweets and leaves final G20
- The Victorian restrictions to be lifted today
- Doctor credited with stopping outbreak disaster in SA
Welcome to The Weekend Australian’s live coverage of the coronavirus crisis. Border wars resume as NSW Premier says Queensland government is ‘making stuff up as they go’ ahead of border reopening with Victoria. Finance Minister Simon Birmingham says a revival in international travel is “not impossible” in the first half of 2021. SA has one new case as its residents emerge from an aborted lockdown, Victorians have learned which restrictions will be lifted ahead of Christmas. Meanwhile, leaders of the G20 are meeting at a virtual summit, where the pandemic is top of the agenda.
AFP 11pm: Virus has put ‘enormous strain’ on UK economy: minister
The British economy is under “enormous strain” because of the coronavirus, Finance Minister Rishi Sunak has warned, but he ruled out a return to austerity measures.
Economic forecasts to be released alongside his Wednesday spending review would show “the enormous strain and stress that our economy is experiencing”, Mr Sunak told Sky News on Sunday.
The findings of independent forecasters the Office for Budget Responsibility — as well as the 750,000 job losses from coronavirus — would have to be taken “in the round as we consider the best way to fight the virus”, he said.
Despite the profound impact of the coronavirus on Mr Sunak’s spending review, he rejected a possible return to austerity measures on the economy.
Government spending would continue to increase on last year’s day-to-day public spending, he said.
“There’s absolutely no way in which anyone can say that’s austerity.”
However, he refused to rule out a widely expected public-sector pay freeze. It was fair to “think about what is happening with wages, with jobs, with hours, across the economy when we think about what the right thing to do in the public sector is”, he said.
Britain has suffered more than any other country in Europe from the coronavirus, recording more than 54,000 deaths from 1.4 million cases.
READ MORE: Johnson failing to deliver leadership country deserves
David Penberthy, Rosie Lewis 10.15pm: Iso hotel workers face ban on second jobs
Steven Marshall will consider banning hotel quarantine workers from holding second jobs after requesting advice from health experts — as federal Labor, the Greens and union movement ramp up pressure on the states to pay these employees more.
In a new row over the future of the country’s hotel quarantine schemes, Labor employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor said states and the Morrison government should “bear the costs” so there was no incentive for those employees to work elsewhere. ACTU secretary Sally McManus went further, saying security guards in COVID-19 quarantine hotels should be paid more than the award minimum because it was a more complex, riskier job.
Tessa Akerman 9.30pm: Andrews rings in the changes
As of midnight Sunday Victorians can enjoy the outdoors without a face mask, but must carry one at all times in case of sudden inability to social distance.
Premier Daniel Andrews unveiled a raft of new steps for Victoria’s COVID normal on Sunday, including the need to wear a mask if waiting in line for a snag at Bunnings, but not while walking across the car park.
“If you are outside in the open now, and you believe you can keep your distance from people, you do not need to wear it,” Mr Andrews said.
“But carry it with you, because those circumstances can change.”
David Penberthy 8.45pm: ‘No regrets’ over lockdown on a lie
Steven Marshall says he has no regrets about plunging South Australia into lockdown and that he had “no choice” but to act on the advice of police and health chiefs — even though it later emerged the state’s response was based on a lie.
The South Australian Premier hit back at criticism from business leaders about the handling of the lockdown, saying the impact on jobs and the economy would have been “absolutely devastating” if a second wave had taken hold.
Mr Marshall told The Australian there would be no immediate resumption of international flights into SA, saying their suspension until November 30 would continue as the state’s quarantine hotels remained at capacity.
Robyn Ironside 8pm: Travel reboot off to a flying start
After four months of next to no flying activity, what is traditionally Australia’s busiest air route, Melbourne-Sydney, will roar back into life in the “start of the restart” for the aviation industry.
The reopening of the NSW border to Victoria will see a welcome 42 flights a day between Melbourne and Sydney, up from just four.
The services will carry about 8000 people a day between the cities, still a long way from the route’s pre-COVID peak of 25,000 travellers a day.
Peter Conradi, Louise Callaghan 7.25pm: Second wave forces rethink in Germany and Sweden
When COVID-19 struck Germany in the northern spring, Chancellor Angela Merkel won plaudits for the calm determination with which she dealt with the pandemic.
Across the Baltic Sea, Sweden’s way of life was barely interrupted as the country became a beacon for libertarians across the world who opposed national lockdowns.
The practical north Europeans seemed to be proceeding confidently, while Britain, France, Italy and Spain floundered in the face of an ever-mounting death toll. Now, however, their magic touch seems less convincing.
As Merkel grapples with a second and more powerful wave of the virus — with new cases hitting a daily record of 23,648 on Friday — she is struggling to win the backing of Germany’s regional leaders for tougher curbs.
Those who argue that even the “lockdown lite” in force since the start of the month goes too far are protesting on the streets, claiming infringement of their civil liberties.
While Germany ponders tougher measures, they are already being implemented in Sweden, one of the few countries in the developed world not to impose a formal lockdown during the first wave. Sweden relied instead on an appeal to folkvett — good manners and respect for fellow citizens.
AFP 6.40pm: US approves Regeneron treatment given to Trump
A COVID-19 antibody therapy used to treat President Donald Trump has been approved by the US drug regulator for people who are yet to hospitalised but are at high risk.
The green light for drugmaker Regeneron came after REGEN-COV2, a combination of two lab-made antibodies, was shown to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalisations or emergency room visits in patients with underlying conditions.
“Authorising these monoclonal antibody therapies may help outpatients avoid hospitalisation and alleviate the burden on our health care system,” Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said on Sunday (AEDT).
Leonard Schleifer, Regeneron’s president and CEO, added the move was “an important step in the fight against COVID-19, as high-risk patients in the United States will have access to a promising therapy early in the course of their infection.”
Regeneron’s antibody treatment is the second synthetic antibody treatment to receive an emergency use approval from the FDA after a similar therapy developed by Eli Lilly was granted the status on November 9.
The human immune system naturally develops infection-fighting proteins called antibodies — but because not everyone mounts an adequate response, companies like Regeneron and Lilly have manufactured lab-made solutions.
They work by binding to a surface protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and stopping it from invading human cells.
The FDA said the data supporting Regeneron’s EUA came from a clinical trial in 799 non-hospitalised patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.
The company said it expects to have doses ready for 80,000 patients ready by the end of this month and approximately 300,000 patients in total by the end of January.
These will be available to US patients at no out-of-pocket cost under the terms of a US government program.
READ MORE: Second wave pours cold water on German and Swedish strategies
Sarah Baxter 6pm: How will Joe Biden manage sulky predecessor Trump?
Joe Biden has been waiting patiently for the cathartic “Hallelujah” moment when all of America finally acknowledges his election victory. In a rational world, Donald Trump and the Republican Party would accept, however ungraciously, that there is no legal way to overturn a free and fair election, and that the disputed states will confirm their original results.
By now the president-elect knows Trump will never let that happen. For the first time, Biden showed a flash of anger last week.
“Let me choose my words,” he steadied himself, before unleashing a battery of criticism. Trump was behaving with “incredible irresponsibility” and sending “a horrible message about who we are as a country”.
AFP 5.15pm: Key US Senate contender in quarantine
A US Republican senator contesting a closely watched runoff election in Georgia is quarantining after possibly being infected with COVID-19, her campaign says.
Kelly Loeffler had campaigned with Vice-President Mike Pence on Friday as well as David Perdue, another Republican Georgia senator up for re-election in the January 5 runoff vote.
The election will decide whether Republicans or Democrats control the Senate, with both facing Democratic challengers.
Senator Loeffler’s campaign team said she took both a rapid test and a PCR test on Friday.
“Her rapid test results were negative and she was cleared to attend Friday’s events,” the statement said.
“She was informed later in the evening after public events on Friday that her PCR test came back positive, but she was retested Saturday morning after conferring with medical officials and those results came back inconclusive on Saturday evening.”
She was not showing any symptoms and will continue to quarantine until she receives a conclusive test, the statement said on Sunday (AEDT).
Senator Loeffler is running against Democrat Raphael Warnock in the runoff vote.
READ MORE: How will Biden manage sulky predecessor Trump?
Debbie Schipp 4.25pm: No community transmission, but we’re not there yet: Hunt
There are no cases of community virus transmission across Australia today, but the nation can’t drop it’s guard, says federal Health Minister Greg Hunt.
Celebrating the milestone on Twitter, Mr Hunt warned theres is “still a long way to go”.
Advice from the National Incident Centre - zero cases of community transmission across Australia today. We are always watching out for additional cases & there’s still a long way to go - but important continued national progress. Please keep up the testing if you have symptoms.
— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) November 22, 2020
Agencies 4pm: Boris Johnson urged not to cut foreign aid for Covid
Two former British prime ministers on Saturday warned the country’s current leader Boris Johnson against cuts to foreign aid spending.
David Cameron and Tony Blair urged Johnson not to commit to a proposed 0.2 percent cut to the UK’s £15 billion ($20 billion)international development budget.
The UK has proposed the cuts to pay for coronavirus costs but Cameron and Blair cautioned the move would jeopardise Britain’s “soft power” status around world, the Daily Telegraph reported.
The two former prime ministers also warned Johnson risked undermining the UK’s presidency of the G7 before it begins next year.
Blair praised the impact of British spending abroad in recent decades which he said was “measured literally in millions of lives”.
“This has been a great British soft power achievement. It isn’t about charity. It’s enlightened self-interest,” he said.
Cameron called abandoning Britain’s overseas aid spending a “moral, strategic and political mistake”.
“I hope the PM will stick to his clear manifesto promise, maintain UK leadership and save lives,” he added.
AFP
READ MORE: Navy big winner in Johnson’s $29bn defence spending spree
Josh Glancy 3.30pm: Little scope for Thanksgiving in united states of Covid
After an exhausting and isolated year, Americans are longing for this week’s sacred national holiday of Thanksgiving. But with Covid-19 surging across the land, a government stimulus bill stuck in Congress and a president still challenging the election result, there is not much to be thankful for. In fact the Centres for Disease Control is recommending that people do not travel home to spend Thursday’s holiday with their families.
There are two months to go before Joe Biden becomes president, when his first challenge will be to bring coherence to the fight against the virus. What does he intend to do?
America has become the world capital of Covid, home to 4 per cent of the world’s population and more than 20 per cent of its coronavirus deaths, passing the unwelcome landmark of 250,000 last week. Even Donald Trump’s son, Donald Jr, has tested positive.
The new caseload is heading in the wrong direction, approaching 200,000 per day. “The numbers speak for themselves,” Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
“What frustrates me more than anything is the divisiveness in the country. You have people who vehemently think all of this is nonsense and there’s nothing to worry about, so don’t even talk to them about masks and physical separation.”The virus is everywhere, but particularly prevalent in Midwestern states such as North and South Dakota, which have some of the world’s highest fatality rates.
Despite the terrifying surge in South Dakota, its governor, Kristi Noem, a gun-toting populist tipped for high office, is refusing to encourage mask-wearing or social distancing.
READ MORE: Camilla Long — Pariah Trumps abandoned ina New York minute
Paige Taylor 2.30pm: Lib leader quits in face of ‘flawless’ virus handling
West Australian Liberal leader Liza Harvey has stepped down as the party edges towards annihilation at the March election.
Ms Harvey, who was police minister and deputy premier in the Barnett government, intends to remain in parliament but she has been under pressure to quit the leadership from parliamentary colleagues who believe they can do a better job of courting business donors for the state election campaign.
The McGowan government came to power in a landslide that ousted premier Colin Barnett in 2017. The state opposition has grown fearful that Labor could get control of both houses of parliament in March. Mr McGowan’s early handling of the pandemic was seen as flawless and in late April he had an approval rating of 89 per cent, according to Newspoll.
Read the full story here
Andrew Gregory 2pm: Gene team keeps an eagle eye on virus mutations
British scientists are monitoring 4,000 mutations of the coronavirus amid concern that new strains may resist vaccines and treatments.
Ministers are investing millions of pounds to study different types after learning that a vaccine could cause an explosion in mutations. This is a natural reaction as the virus tries to avoid extinction. Experts say some variations that try to fend off antibodies are already spreading across the country.
In her first interview as director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium, a body set up to deliver fast genetic analysis of the virus to the NHS, Professor Sharon Peacock said it was vital to step up surveillance because many of the vaccines target the same spike protein on the virus surface. This protein is the needle-like part of the virus that enables it to invade human cells.
The first two vaccine candidates to show promise, from Pfizer and Moderna, work by causing cells in the body to make a version of the spike protein for the immune system to recognise. “Once we start to use vaccines in the general population, that will put an evolutionary driver, a selection pressure, on viruses,” she said. “Viruses are going to want to escape the effect of vaccines, because that’s what evolution is about.”
READ MORE: The gene geniuses who’ll crush COVID-19
Ben Wilmot 1.20pm: Victoria’s holiday home boom goes viral
Holiday houses and lifestyle change properties are well and truly back on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, with activity at the top end of the market stretching from Flinders to Portsea.
The traditional holiday boltholes on both Port Phillip and Western Port bays that are the usual summer playgrounds of Melbourne have taken on a new popularity in the wake of the city’s coronavirus lockdowns.
While some people decamped to holiday homes to wait out Melbourne’s stage four lockdown, the shock of spending so much time at home and the likelihood that overseas leisure travel is off the cards has driven a surge in these markets.
Veteran Melbourne buyer’s agent David Morrell says price rises are running at about 10-20 per cent above pre-crisis levels.
He is seeing activity right across the upper end, ranging from classic holiday homes in the $3m to $4m bracket to clifftop mansions that will approach $30m at the height of this summer’s mansion market.
Read the full story here.
Imogen Reid 12.40pm: Queensland make stuff up as they go: Berejiklian
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said can not fathom how Queensland comes to make their decisions COVID-19 border restrictions, saying “it’s beyond my level of understanding”.
“I don’t even understand how they make their decisions up there,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“I really don’t get it.”
She then criticised the Queensland government of “making stuff up as they go”.
“They keep changing the rules,” she said. “They keep espousing advice I’ve never heard of.”
It comes as NSW kept its streak of no new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, registering its 15th day without a locally acquired infection.
Ms Berejkilian said she had hoped Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk would have considered arrangements to allow families enough time to make plans over Christmas should border restrictions be eased at the end of the month.
“I think all of us have had a really difficult year and you don’t want to see, especially at this time of year, families not being able to reunite because they didn’t have enough notice to get flights booked and things like that,” she said.
“We know that by giving people notice, they can make those arrangements, and I just wish that other Premiers would think the same.”
She said the border closure had cost millions of dollars but it had been done to keep the community safe.
“We never want to see this ever again, we hope this is the last time that in our lifetime this border is closed,” she said.
READ MORE: Janet Albrechtsen — Gladys a cool head in a pack of panicking fools
Tessa Akerman 12.25pm: ‘Sense of optimism returning to Victoria’
Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Sally Capp said Sunday’s easing of restrictions was the first step towards welcoming back city workers.
“It’s been a long hard year but we’re now starting to see people back in Melbourne’s streets and a sense of optimism returning to Victoria,” she said.
She said she had met with major city employers over many months and she was confident workers could return to the city safely with a phased approach, thanks to everyone following the advice of health experts.
“More workers in the city means cash registers ringing and more Melburnians staying in jobs,” Ms Capp said.
“Prior to COVID-19 restrictions, more than one million people came into the city each day. Safely returning workers and visitors to the city will bring a greater sense of vibrancy and activity to our streets.”
She said Christmaas was the most important time of the year for the business community and the easing of restrictions would allow small businesses to welcome more customers in time for the season.
Just to reiterate:
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) November 22, 2020
Inside Bunnings = mask
Bunnings carpark if you can keep 1.5m apart = no mask
In the Bunnings sausage sizzle line = mask
Onions = on top of the sausage
I can't be clearer than that.
Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Paul Guerra heralded the return of office workers, the increase in indoor hospitality caps and return of events as a win.
He said VCCI had been campaigning strongly on the three issues and was pleased that the government had now gone beyond the original roadmap steps in the interests of Victorian businesses and the Victorian economy.
“With 23 consecutive days of zero infections and zero deaths, today’s announcement will further add to the strong sense of optimism and positivity which will guide us on the path to restore our status as the economic powerhouse of Australia,” he said.
READ MORE: Dementia in sport — why are we still turning a blind eye?
Imogen Reidett 11.40am: Berejiklian ‘confident’ with tonight’s NSW-Vic border reopening
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said she is more confident today with the decision to reopen the NSW-Victoria border than when she first announced it, saying the risk that was there when the borders were closed no longer exists.
“I made a commitment to the communities, but to our residents across both states, that we would lift the border as soon as we thought it was safe to do so,” she said on Sunday in Albury.
“So I feel more confident today than when we actually made the decision. But it does take hard work. I know that the residents of New South Wales will continue to be COVID-safe, that’s what sets us apart from the rest of the country.”
Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said officers working on the border operations had completed a successful task and were treated well by the community.
“We’ve had more than 5 million cars cross through the border checkpoints,” he said. “We’ve only had a handful of people doing the wrong thing.
“But I think the fact that police were so well received here meant that they put their hands up to come back. I think that speaks volumes, that, yes, the communities were frustrated, they understood what the Premier was trying to achieve, but they also understood that police and defence were here to protect them. They were treated so well.”
The border between New South Wales and Victoria reopens at midnight tonight.
READ MORE: How Covid-19 reshapes domestic travel
Christine Kellett 11.30am: ‘No regrets’ for SA lockdown based on lie: Spurrier
South Australia’s chief public health officer is standing by the decision to lock down the state, despite it being partly based on a lie to contact tracers by a man working at a pizza bar.
“I have no regrets on my advice and decision-making last week,” Professor Nicola Spurrier told a press conference on Sunday.
“I feel very confident that it was the right thing to do. When you work in medicine, you don’t just take one piece of information. You take a range of information and you put it together and that’s, I guess, what my training has been — to be able to put all those bits of information together and then provide what I believe is the best advice at the time.”
Authorities yesterday identified a 36-year-old Spanish man on a graduate visa as the person who had misled contact tracers about his employment at a pizza bar as well as a medi-hotel, which had sparked unfounded fears of the virus spreading through the community, possibly via pizza boxes.
A task-force has been set up to get to the bottom of the matter.
Professor Spurrier said she was “absolutely stoked” that more than 77,000 South Australians had been tested for COVID-19 this week.
READ MORE: Pizza porky leaves SA Premier red-faced
Christine Kellett 11.20am: One new case as SA reopens amid ‘tracing on steroids’
Premier Steven Marshall has thanked South Australians for their patience, as the state reopens after a short-lived lockdown.
SA chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier has told a press conference the government’s contact tracing system has been “supercharged” to suppress an outbreak that has gripped the state this week.
Just one new case has been detected overnight, a woman in a medi-hotel.
In defending the snap lockdown – which was quickly aborted after it emerged false information had been provided to contact tracers — Professor Spurrier said modelling showed the state would likely be dealing with up to 100 cases a day by December if the government had not acted.
“This is contact tracing on steroids,” Professor Spurrier said of the efforts of SA Health.
“You have no idea the number of people that are in our department all focusing on phoning people and doing that contact-tracing. So if you do get an SMS from somebody in our department to say, “You have been identified”, can you please go into quarantine and we’ll have someone phoning you, please follow those instructions because this is a pretty critical time for us in South Australia to make sure that we’re locking all of those end parts of these chains down.”
Imogen Reid 11.10am: NSW hits 15 days without locally acquired case
NSW has recorded its 15 consecutive day without a locally acquired case of COVID-19, but 11 infections were reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine.
In a statement, NSW Health said residents should avoid non-essential travel to South Australia’s capital, while people from Adelaide have been urged to refrain from travelling to NSW.
Health officials have called upon anyone who has been in South Australia since Friday 6 November to regularly check the SA Health alert page for areas of concern and follow the advice of health authorities.
“To further improve our ability to control the spread of COVID-19, NSW Health is asking people arriving in NSW from South Australia, by whatever mode of transport, to complete a declaration form to make it easier to check if they have visited any of the areas or venues of concern identified by the South Australian authorities and provide contact details if follow-up is required. This also applies to people arriving in NSW who have been in South Australia within the past 14 days,” NSW Health said.
“If they have been to any of the areas or venues identified as higher risk, they must immediately self-isolate and get tested if even the mildest of symptoms appear. For those who have been to venues assessed as posing lesser risk, they should get tested immediately, isolate until they receive a negative result and continue to monitor for symptoms and get retested immediately if they develop.”
There were 12,012 tests reported in NSW to 8pm last night, compared with 16,329 in the previous 24 hours.
NSW recorded no new cases of locally acquired #COVID19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) November 22, 2020
Eleven cases were reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine. This brings the total number of cases in NSW to 4,349 since the start of the pandemic. pic.twitter.com/NnCMNv4MNC
Richard Ferguson 10.59am: PM shares Australia’s pandemic fight with G20
Scott Morrison and G20 world leaders are gathering to plan a way forward on an international coronavirus vaccine rollout and kickstarting a global economic recovery.
The Prime Minister told other world leaders of Australia’s relative success in cushioning the economic blow of the COVID-19 pandemic on Saturday night. He will meet with leaders again on Sunday night.
Government sources told The Australian that developed countries were called upon in the pandemic G20 meeting to fill the vaccine funding gap and increase their contributions to the COVAX Facility Advanced Market Commitment, which Australia has already done.
G20 leaders also discussed the need to resist protectionism, keep supply chains open, and resume safe international travel. There were also calls for reforming the World Trade Organisation.
The Australian understands G20 leaders also discussed the need for greater pandemic preparedness and early warning systems, with fears the next pandemic could be more contagious.
US president Donald Trump – in his last major international appearance – only appeared briefly in the G20 virtual meeting.
The outgoing US president left early and played golf during one of the summit video conferences.
READ more here.
Debbie Schipp 10.55am: What’s changed in Victoria as restrictions ease
Premier Daniel Andrews will make more announcements on December 6, but for now, he has outlined the following changes:
From midnight tonight:
– 15 visitors, including dependants, in your home each day
– Outdoor gatherings increased to 50 people
– Masks required inside in all scenarios. They will not be required outside, but will need to be carried and worn of distancing is not possible.
From November 30:
– 25% of staff will be able to be in offices.
– 30 visitors in a home each day.
– Hospitality can have up to 300 patrons, (maximum of 100 indoors, 200 outdoors)
– Gyms can have up to 150 people: one person per four square metres. Indoor sports and gym groups can have up to 20 people, with one person per four square metres.
– Indoor pools can host 150 people, outdoor pools can host 300 people.
– Holiday accommodation can have up to 15 people in the one household.
– Religious ceremonies can have 150 people indoors, and 300 outdoors.
– Weddings and funerals can have 150 people indoors and outdoors.
– Cinemas and small galleries can open up to 150 people per space, with larger facilities able to use 25% of their space.
– Community venues up to 150 people indoor, and 300 outdoor.
– Gaming venues up to 150 people, but every second gaming machine will be turned off.
Tessa Akerman 10.45am: Mask restrictions ease in Victoria from midnight
Victorians can breathe the outside air without masks from midnight, with new restrictions mandating masks outside only when physical distancing can’t be maintained, such as at a farmers market.
People will be required to carry a mask at all times.
“The key message is Victorians have done an amazing job and built something precious but it is so fragile,” Premier Daniel Andrews said in announcing the new restrictions.
He said the state was working towards a normal that was different from the past.
“It can only be Covid normal and it must be Covid-safe,” he said.
Melbourne’s CBD will welcome back workers from November 30, with up to 25 per cent of workers able to return to the office.
READ MORE: Revelation about SA lockdown ‘liar’
Tessa Akerman 10.35am: Caps lift as Andrews outlines shape of Covid Christmas
Victorians can host up to 30 people for Christmas Day lunch, with easing of restrictions coming into effect from midnight December 13.
From midnight Sunday, the number of visitors to homes will increase from 2 to 15 per day.
Other immediate changes include outdoor gatherings, in parks and at the beach, will increase to 50.
Weddings, funerals and indoor religious ceremonies will also have a new cap of 150 people.
Hospitality limits will increase to 50 patrons, one person for every two square metres, and QR code record keeping will be required.
Larger venues will have the same density limit but a high cap.
Contact and non-contact sport will also restart for adults as well as kids.
Imogen Reid 10.35am: Doctor who ‘saved’ SA from mass outbreak
The president of the Australian Medical Association in South Australia says the actions of one doctor “saved” the state from a mass outbreak of COVID-19 cases.
Speaking on ABC Breakfast, Dr Chris Moy said the situation in South Australia was a lesson for all of Australia and a “sliding doors moment” in the state’s response to fighting the virus.
“The thing that saved us is actually the actions of one particular doctor in a hospital who had individual responsibility and follow-through despite the fact we had not seen a case of COVID-19 for so long in South Australia and that probably is a lesson for all of us in Australia but it turns on a dime, in terms of what people decide,” he said.
Dr Moy said had the doctor not insisted an elderly lady who had symptoms that were not clearly associated with coronavirus be tested “we might be two weeks down the line without knowing that this cluster existed”.
“It would have spread through the community and the contact tracing would have been probably five or six generations down with nobody knowing so really it turned out it was a sliding doors moment for South Australia and probably a lesson for all of Australia that we as individuals need to be on guard and not complacent because our individual actions make a big different but also as a community we do need to be on a war footing until we find a solution,” he said.
READ MORE: Cops shut down secret rave
Richard Ferguson 9.40am: Pay guards extra so they won’t work second jobs: Opposition
Governments should consider paying quarantine guards extra to ensure they do not work in multiple jobs, opposition employment spokesman Brendan O’Connor says.
South Australia’s limited lockdown and the Victorian shutdown were both partly sparked by hotel quarantine security spreading the disease through other jobs — or in the case of South Australia, a falsely claimed second job.
Mr O’Connor said federal and state governments should consider spending more to stop quarantine guards holding second jobs.
“State and federal governments may have to bear the cost. A combination of governments,” Mr O’Connor told ABC News.
“It seems to me, it is better to spend a dollar and save $100. That’s what should be happening here for public health reasons most importantly, but also for economic reasons.”
READ MORE: G20 grapples with vaccine rollout
Richard Ferguson 9am: Overseas travel ‘not impossible’ in early 2021
Finance Minister Simon Birmingham says a revival in international travel is “not impossible” in the first half of 2021, but admits it will be a challenge.
As a third wave of coronavirus rages across the United States and Europe, Senator Birmingham said on Sunday that Australians travelling overseas would depend on the success of a vaccine rollout.
“It’s not impossible and I would like to see some success in terms of the development of the vaccine,” he told Sky News.
“The first half of the year might be challenging but let’s just see how we go in terms of how we quickly we can secure, distribute, get that take up in relations to vaccines.”
The Sun-Herald reported on Sunday that NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian wants to use hotel quarantine — currently used to house returning Australians – to be used to bring in foreign students and working migrants.
Senator Birmingham downplayed the idea, and said Australians stranded overseas remained the federal government’s priority.
“The priority has to remain on returning Australians … we don’t want to see them left stranded or isolated, because of state Labor leaders wanting to stop arrivals altogether, or other places are unduly displaced going to other places.”
Meanwhile, Mr Birmingham has singled out China’s embassy in Canberra as a factor in the government’s deteriorating relationship with the communist superpower.
After the Chinese embassy released a list of 14 grievances with Australia amid growing threats from Beijing this week, Senator Birmingham said the embassy in Canberra has not been helpful.
“I certainly don’t think that a number of the actions from China’s embassy in Australia have been particularly helpful this year. Comments of the ambassador at the start of the year that essentially were threats of coercion,” he told Sky News.
“These actions in terms of providing lists of documents of claimed grievances, even though they are the types of things that, as I say, any country rightly does in terms of providing for rules around foreign investment to make sure it’s in the national interest, rules to protect critical infrastructure and security provisions in nations.
“That’s something that China does as much as Australia does”
READ MORE: Paul Kelly — Australia not blameless in China drama
Agencies 8.10am: G20 under pressure to plug $4.5bn vaccine hole
G20 nations have contributed more than $21 billion to combat the pandemic, which has infected 56 million people globally and left 1.3 million dead, and injected $11 trillion to “safeguard” the virus-battered world economy, organisers of the summit said.
But the group’s leaders face mounting pressure to help stave off possible credit defaults across developing nations.
Last week, its finance ministers declared a “common framework” for an extended debt restructuring plan for virus-ravaged countries, but campaigners say the measure is insufficient.
The ministers had extended a debt suspension initiative for developing countries until June next year but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has pushed for a commitment to push it until the end of 2021.
International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva has warned that the global economy faces a hard road back from the COVID-19 recession, even as vaccines are now in sight.
G20 nations must help plug the $4.5-billion funding gap in the so-called ACT-Accelerator, Norway’s prime minister, South Africa’s president and the heads of the European Union and the World Health Organization demanded in a joint letter to the group.
The program promotes an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines including poor countries to rein in the pandemic.
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Agencies 7.30am: Trump boasts of ‘incredible job’ during G20
G20 nations emphasised the need for global access to coronavirus vaccines at a Saudi-hosted virtual summit Saturday dominated by efforts to tackle the pandemic and the worst global recession in decades.
World leaders, including US President Donald Trump who is refusing to concede a bitter election, popped up in multiple windows across a flickering screen, in a high-stakes webinar held amid the raging pandemic.
The leaders are huddling online for the two-day gathering as international efforts intensify for a large-scale rollout of coronavirus vaccines after a breakthrough in trials, and as calls grow for G20 nations to plug a $4.5-billion funding shortfall.
“Although we are optimistic about the progress made in developing vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics tools for COVID-19, we must work to create the conditions for affordable and equitable access to these tools for all people,” said Saudi King Salman, the summit’s host.
Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke of the need to build a “global firewall against COVID-19” as he called on G20 nations to help distribute vaccines “fairly and efficiently”, according to state news agency Xinhua.
US President Donald Trump went golfing after making a brief appearance at the cyber summit, during which it is believed he was tweeting about the election result during the Saudi King’s opening remarks.
A source with access to the virtual sessions, which were closed to media, reported that Mr Trump had “said that he had done an absolutely incredible job during his term, economically and with the pandemic”.
After his moment in the virtual limelight, Mr Trump was substituted by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin as the other world leaders had their say.
Many G20 leaders have already congratulated his rival, President-elect Joe Biden.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is due to join the summit later today.
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Staff writers 7am: Rules to ease in Victoria ahead of Christmas
Victorians can look forward to large family gatherings in their homes on Christmas Day with coronavirus restrictions likely to be eased again in the next month, the Sunday Herald Sun reports.
Also, the state government will announce that masks will no longer be necessary outdoors from Monday as long as people keep a safe distance from each other, the Sunday Herald Sun says. But masks will still have to be used indoors where infection is possible.
Changes to be announced on Sunday also include increases to gathering limits allowing up to 10 visitors in a home and groups of 50 outdoors.
But authorities are confident that they will be able to increase the limit on gatherings in home further in time for Christmas, with up to 20 expected to be allowed at indoor gatherings.
Premier Daniel Andrews will announce that pubs and cafes will have their capacity constraints lifted to 100 people indoors and 200 people outdoors, subject to density requirements, while cinemas and theatre caps will also be boosted.
Weddings and funerals will be allowed to hold up to 100 members of the public, with one person for every four square metres at venues.
It is understood the state’s one remaining positive coronavirus case is set to be discharged from hospital in the coming days, a significant milestone in Victoria’s efforts to contain the disease.
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Christine Kellett 6.30am: Junior doctor credited with preventing SA disaster
An Adelaide doctor has been credited with preventing a coronavirus outbreak disaster in South Australia.
Lyell McEwin Hospital emergency room doctor Dr Dharminy Thurairatnam examined an 81-year-old woman who had been brought to the hospital by her family while feeling weak, the Adelaide Advertiser reports.
Despite displaying no typical COVID-19 symptoms, the junior doctor heard the woman cough twice and ordered a throat swab as a precaution. The woman tested positive, leading SA health authorities to discover the Parafield cluster.
Dr Dharminy’s actions earned praise from the South Australian government yesterday and the nation’ chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly said she was “absolutely essential in picking up that first case”.
South Australia’s six-day lockdown was aborted from midnight last night after the government blamed a 36-year-old part-time pizza worker for lying about his movements.
Stay-at-home orders were lifted and businesses have begun reopening, though some restrictions will remain until December, after one new case of COVID-19 was reported yesterday.
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