Coronavirus Australia live news: Daniel Andrews locks down nine Melbourne public housing towers, two more postcodes
Victoria’s Premier has ordered the lockdown of public housing and affected residents at a Sydney aged-care home test negative.
- Daily overseas arrivals cap set for NSW airports
- Australia urged to ditch lockdowns for immunity
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- 10,000 in Melbourne hotspots refuse testing
- Coronavirus bureaucrat made France’s new PM
Welcome to live coverage of the continuing coronavirus crisis. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has fronted the press after a day of crisis talks to confirm his state has had its highest increase in COVID-19 cases since March, with 108 cases. Mr Andrews has ordered the immediate lockdown of nine public housing towers in Melbourne’s inner northwest.
Agencies 10.14pm: World’s known death toll nears 530,000
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 526,663 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP at 9pm AEST on Saturday.
At least 11,103,630 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 5,715,100 are now considered recovered.
The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organisation, probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections. Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.
The US is the worst-hit country with 129,437 deaths from 2,795,163 cases. At least 790,404 people have been declared recovered.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 63,174 deaths from 1,539,081 cases, the United Kingdom with 44,131 deaths from 284,276 cases, Italy with 34,833 deaths from 241,184 cases, and France with 29,893 deaths from 203,367 cases.
China — excluding Hong Kong and Macau — has to date declared 83,545 cases (three new since Friday), including 4,634 deaths and 78,509 recoveries.
Europe overall has 198,878 deaths from 2,706,195 cases, the US and Canada 138,147 deaths from 2,900,189 infections, Latin America and the Caribbean 124,327 deaths from 2,804,894 cases, Asia 36,998 deaths from 1,431,419 cases, Middle East 17,289 deaths from 801,681 cases, Africa 10,891 deaths from 449,376 cases, and Oceania 133 deaths from 9882 cases.
As a result of corrections by national authorities or late publication of data, the figures updated over the past 24 hours may not correspond exactly to the previous day’s tallies
AFP
Staff reporters 8.28pm: Scare ends after Newmarch residents test negative
NSW Health has confirmed that four residents from Newmarch House tested for COVID-19 on Saturday, after displaying symptoms of respiratory illness, have all returned negative results.
Rosie Lewis 8.21pm: Virus caution adds to by-election count uncertainty
The coronavirus pandemic has heavily affected the vote count in the Eden-Monaro by-election.
A decisive result may not be known tonight as so many prepoll votes have yet to be counted. Applications for postal votes surged due to COVID-19, with 16,595 applications lodged.
Another 43,864 votes were cast at pre-poll.
With 115,000 people registered to vote in the by-election, it is possible half of the electorate voted before polling day.
FOLLOW TONIGHT’S COUNT: Live election blog
Agencies 8.09pm: Spain locks down 200,000 people in Catalonia
Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region on Saturday locked down an area with about 200,000 residents near the town of Lerida following a surge in cases of the new coronavirus.
“We have decided to confine the del Segria zone following data confirming a sharp rise in COVID-19 infections,” Catalonia’s regional president, Quim Torra, told reporters, adding that no one would be allowed to enter or leave the area.
The move came as the northern summer holiday season started in Spain and the country began re-admitting visitors from 12 countries outside the European Union, two weeks after allowing people from the EU’s visa-free Schengen zone and Britain to return.
Spain has been one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic with 28,385 deaths, Europe’s fourth-highest toll after Britain Italy and France.
It imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns to stop the spread of the virus and only recently began to open up.
AFP
Rachel Baxendale 6.44pm: Police union says not enough lockdown warning
Victorian Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt has slammed the Andrews government for giving police no warning that 500 of them would immediately be deployed to enact a lockdown of nine public housing towers in Melbourne.
“Today we have learned that our members will be deployed literally on the doorstep of this escalating health crisis,” Mr Gatt said.
“We were only advised of this move this evening and have demanded an urgent safety briefing from Victoria Police, given the obvious and substantial risk to the health and safety of our members.
“Our members will do everything in their power to protect the community from this virus, as they have done for the last four months, but to do work like this we expect our members to be supported.
“Health and safety protocols need to be put into place for this operation. Without them our members could become vectors for transmission of this virus in the community, like security officers have been in hotels.
“This safety planning must canvas all options, including how much and what assistance from the other capable agencies is required to support police in this task.”
Rachel Baxendale 6.24pm: Victoria’s active cases now up 305 in week
Victoria now has 509 active confirmed cases of COVID-19 — an increase of 305 since this time last week.
There have been 389 cases of COVID-19 in Victoria acquired through an unknown source, including 129 identified in the past week.
Of the 14 cases linked to known clusters on Saturday:
TWO new cases have been linked to the Stamford Plaza hotel quarantine outbreak, while four existing cases have been retrospectively linked, taking the total number in the outbreak to 40.
THREE new cases are linked to Al-Taqwa Islamic College in Truganina in Mebourne’s west, bringing the total in this cluster to 33. All staff and students have been quarantined and will be tested.
TWO new cases are linked to a family outbreak across at least eight households in Roxburgh Park in Melbourne’s outer north, taking the total in that cluster to 28.
ONE new case is linked to a gathering in Deer Park, in Melbourne’s west, taking the total number linked to the outbreak to 12.
TWO new cases are linked to an outbreak in Wollert, in Melbourne’s outer north, taking the total in that cluster to 17.
ONE new case relates to a North Melbourne public-housing apartments outbreak, taking the total in this cluster to 11 cases. Contact tracing, testing and deep cleaning is under way. The department’s outbreak squad has already visited the site.
FIVE in total COVID-19 cases linked to Optus’s Docklands head office, after two new cases were linked on Saturday.
A NEW outbreak has also been identified at the Flemington public-housing apartments, with 12 cases now linked to the site. “This includes nine residents and three extended family members from a separate household, with cases being notified and linked together by the department in recent days,” the department said. “A daily clean of all the directly affected floors at both estates has been put into place, and onsite testing began on Friday and will continue over the next few days.”
ONE new case has been identified at Ascot Vale Primary School in Melbourne’s northwest, in a known close contact of an existing case, taking the total cases in this new cluster to two.
ONE contracted healthcare worker in the Park Royal Hotel who is believed to have worked shifts while infectious has been confirmed as having COVID-19. The Victorian health department says the source of acquisition is “currently unknown and all avenues of transmission will be investigated”.
A TEACHER at Debney Meadows Primary School in Flemington in Melbourne’s inner northwest has tested positive and the acquisition source is being investigated.
THREE new cases have been linked to healthcare workers in the emergency department at Northern Hospital, Epping. The source of acquisition is currently unknown, and all avenues of transmission will be investigated. These cases were only recently notified to the department and as such are not reflected in today’s numbers. The emergency department is still open, but operating at reduced capacity.
TWO cases have also been notified to the department recently in vendors from the Preston Market. “While it is not thought that any customers have been exposed, this is a timely reminder to Victorians to maintain physical distance while in retail and shopping environments,” the health department said.
The two separate outbreaks in public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington prompted the Andrews government to lock down nine public housing towers in Flemington, Kensington and North Melbourne from this afternoon.
“Effective immediately the nine towers involved will be closed and residents will be required to stay in their homes at all times,” the health department said.
“This will be in place for at least five days to ensure we can test every single resident. The lifting of this restriction will be determined by our success in testing and tracking this virus.”
Jacquelin Magnay in London 6.20pm: State makes an extreme and rare move
Victoria’s immediate lockdown of an estimated 3000 residents in inner-city tower blocks in Melbourne has been seen rarely anywhere else in the world except China.
Premier Dan Andrews said no one would be allowed in or out of the tower blocks for the next five days because of a rise in coronavirus cases.
But in the Premier’s dramatic move to try to stamp out the virus — which hasn’t been achieved anywhere else in the world — he has begun a dsytopian experiment on the city’s most vulnerable people.
No other democratic country around the world has imposed such draconian house- arrest conditions, which inflicts high psychological stress and anxiety on its people.
Last week 700 meatworkers in North Rhine Westphalia, Germany, were confined to their camps but were able to leave after testing negative to coronavirus, yet the government measures still provoked a small riot.
Spain and Italy’s strong-arm approach to confine people to their homes for months, allowed one member of the household to go shopping once a day.
Yet the Spanish and Italian approaches resulted in no major differences to the death rates experienced by their European neighbours such as France, which had a slightly more relaxed approach, allowing people outside after 7pm or even Sweden, which had no lockdown, but a self-regulated social distancing.
Even during Moscow’s stay at home edict, people could seek medical help, access their closest food shop and walk their dogs no further than 100m from home.
Various studies have shown lockdowns at best only delay the spread of the virus and could make the situation worse especially if people have no access to fresh air and sunshine.
Scientists believe the enforced cabin quarantine on the Diamond Princess off Yokohama, Japan, in February was one such example. In the end 712 of 3,711 passengers (19 percent) were diagnosed with the virus, killing 13, most of them elderly with pre-existing conditions.
In Wuhan there was a total lockdown for two months but other parts of China had less stringent conditions including allowed food shopping every two days. More recently the Chinese government imposed tight restrictions across 27 suburbs of Beijing after a fresh spike of cases near a food market.
Angelica Snowden 5.40pm: New scare at Newmarch aged-care home
Four residents at aged-care home Newmarch House in Sydney have been tested for COVID-19 today after displaying symptoms of respiratory illness, according to NSW Health.
One resident has returned a negative result and the other test results were expected to be available later on Saturday night.
The western Sydney facility, where 19 residents died after an outbreak of the virus, has taken immediate precautions to try and avoid another spike in cases.
“All residents without flu-like symptoms are being encouraged to stay in their rooms and will be monitored for social distancing if they choose to leave their rooms,’’ a spokesman for Anglicare, which manages the home, said in a statement.
“We will continue to maintain regular phone and email contact with families of all residents.
“We will review all these measures over the next few days as we wait upon the test results from NSW Health.”
Newmarch House has dedicated staff exclusively to the residents who underwent testing on Saturday, and visitors have been asked to stay away, NCA NewsWire reported.
Hannah Moore 5.25pm: Overseas daily arrivals capped in NSW at 450
No more than 450 people will be allowed to enter Sydney after landing from an overseas flight each day under new caps that come into effect at midnight on Saturday.
The new caps, granted by the federal government, will limit incoming overseas flights to no more than 50 people per plane, and a maximum of 450 each day.
They were brought into effect after Victoria and Queensland announced they would be charging passengers for their hotel stay, causing many would-be travellers to redirect themselves to NSW for their mandatory two-week quarantine.
A daily cap of 450 international passengers arriving into #Sydney is now in place until 17 July inclusive. If you’re scheduled to âœˆï¸ into #Sydney during this time, contact your airline to check your travel plans.#beinformed #beprepared #Smartraveller
— Smartraveller (@Smartraveller) July 4, 2020
“It is crucial that the volume of returning passengers not overrun the capacity of NSW Health to meet and assess every international passenger at Sydney Airport and not exhaust health, police and ADF resources to manage our quarantine hotels,” NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
Travellers planning to return to Australia via Sydney have been encouraged to check their flights with the airline, signalling potential flight changes or cancellations for some passengers.
Greg Sheridan 5.14pm: Andrews’ four stupid virus mistakes
There is a desperate wish in Western societies that the worst be over. Such feelings were background to the dreadful mistakes of the Victorian government that led to Melbourne’s new spike.
READ Greg Sheridan’s full commentary piece here
Rachel Baxendale 5.05pm: Vic spike ‘bad decisions, not bad luck’
Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the spike in cases wasn’t down to bad luck, but “bad decisions”.
“Thousands more Victorians are now locked up because Andrews government ministers stuffed up and then covered up,” Mr O’Brien said.
“Victorians are again feeling the pain of lockdowns because Daniel Andrews refused to listen and act on expert advice that his hotel quarantine was a mess.”
Staff writers 4.44pm: The public housing towers to be locked down
The Melbourne public housing towers to be locked down under new orders today are:
FLEMINGTON, 3031
12 Holland Court
120, 126 and 130 Racecourse Rd
NORTH MELBOURNE 3051
12 Sutton St
33 Alfred St
76 Canning St
159 Melrose St
9 Pampas St
Housing Minister Richard Wynne said of the towers: “They are all characterised by having common lifts, common entrances and common walkways within the flats themselves so on the expert advice of the Chief Health Officer and we believe that they present an acute challenge going forward”.
Rachel Baxendale 4.14pm: Andrews locks down nine towers, more suburbs
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has fronted the press after a day of crisis talks to confirm his state has had its highest increase in COVID-19 cases since March, with 108 cases.
The only other day the state has had an increase of more than 100 was March 28, with 111 cases.
Mr Andrews has ordered the immediate lockdown of nine public housing towers in Melbourne’s inner northwest.
He has also added postcodes 3031 (Flemington and Kensington) and 3051 (North Melbourne) to the state’s list of locked down postcodes from midnight tonight.
Statement from the Premier on further local restrictions. pic.twitter.com/ZT9roaMwlP
— Dan Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) July 4, 2020
Victoria has now had a total of 2469 cases.
Of Saturday’s 108 new cases, just 14 are linked to known clusters.
A further 25 were detected through routine testing, and 69 are under investigation.
The state now has 509 active cases.
There are 25 people in Victorian hospitals with COVID-19, including three in intensive care.
A record 25,553 tests were conducted on Friday, contributing to a total of 906,574 tests since the pandemic began.
Mr Andrews described the lockdowns as “traumatic”.
“This is a very significant step,” Mr Andrews said.
“Nine public housing towers in those postcodes will be the subject of complete lockdowns immediately. The public health advice is to close those towers.
“There are 1345 units of housing and there are approximately 3000 residents … so it is a very significant cohort, a very large group of people.
“We will provide any and all support to those residents.
“No one will be allowed in those towers and no one will be allowed into those towers.”
Rachel Baxendale 3.28pm: Victoria records soaring rates of infection
The Andrews government is holding urgent “crisis council” meetings with health bureaucrats after Victoria registered it’s second-worst daily increase in coronavirus cases ever, with 108 new infections.
It is only the second time the state has had a daily increase of more than 100, with the only higher tally 111 on March 28.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has scheduled a press conference for 4pm.
A spokeswoman for the Premier told The Weekend Australian shortly before 3.30pm that “crisis council” meetings were ongoing.
As a result, acting federal Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly’s press conference, scheduled for 4.30pm in Canberra, may need to be postponed.
More to come …
Anthony Piovesan 3.10pm: Pressure mounts on health officials over Vic outbreak
Pressure is mounting on Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton after he was warned about the failures in Melbourne’s hotel quarantine system more than a month before the first outbreak was detected.
Professor Sutton and other top public health officials were told in April about inadequate supply of masks and gloves, poor infection-control protocols, and breaches of physical-distancing guidelines by hotel staff, security and medical personnel, Nine Newspapersreported.
Melissa Skilbeck, deputy secretary of Victoria’s Health Department, has subsequently been stripped of her responsibilities in the days after Premier Daniel Andrews announced a judicial inquiry into the quarantine program.
The failures have set off a chain of cases contributing to the lockdown of more than 300,000 Victorians across 10 Melbourne suburbs.
Nine Newspapers reported Ms Skilbeck was responsible for regulation, health protection and emergency management of the COVID-19 pandemic and hotel quarantine system.
Deputy secretaries can earn as much as $340,000 a year. She will retain the position but have her responsibilities redrawn.
Professor Sutton sits directly below Ms Skilbeck in the department’s organisational structure.
But the public face of the COVID-19 pandemic in Victoria, is remaining tight-lipped about revelations he was aware of the hotel quarantine failings as early as April.
READ MORE: Bureaucratic formula decides lockdown suburbs
Anthony Piovesan 2.45pm: Kmart stores closed as staff test positive
Two Melbourne Kmart stores were closed overnight after two team workers tested positive to coronavirus.
The two stores — Footscray and Barkly Square, Brunswick — have both been shut for deep cleaning, with Kmart confirming the situations are not linked.
“At Kmart, the health and safety of our team and customers is our highest priority,” a Kmart spokesperson said.
“As soon as we were made aware, we immediately closed the store as a safety precaution and commenced a thorough sanitisation of the store.
“We are working closely with the Department of Health and will continue to keep our team and customers informed.”
Victoria recorded 66 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday.
Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos yesterday confirmed the 3064, 3047, 3031 and 3060 postcodes had recorded the most cases since the government’s suburban testing blitz started last week.
Of the four postcodes, 3031, which covers Flemington and Kensington, was not included in the State Government’s priority list, sparking fears of more suburban lockdowns.
READ MORE: Cases surge outside closed suburbs
Joe Kelly 2.15pm: Open all borders, tourism bosses say
Scott Morrison and the national cabinet must open all state borders and sign international health deals to restart overseas travel by September, as tourism industry heavyweights warn federal and state leaders to “not go backwards in easing restrictions”.
A new Tourism Restart Taskforce plan, sent to the Prime Minister on Friday, calls for fresh guidelines to lead the next phase of economic recovery and for state governments not to wind back restrictions unless “serious and transparent health benchmarks are compromised”.
The taskforce leading the plan has cautioned state leaders to “live with the virus” and support reopening strategies, despite the fresh coronavirus outbreak in Victoria, where 66 new cases were recorded on Friday.
Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert also is pushing for international travel to resume as quickly as possible, declaring he was “getting daily calls from airports and airlines throughout Asia who are raring to restore travel links to Australia”.
Read the full story here.
Angelica Snowden 1.35pm: 200 infections added to Australia’s tally
Nearly 200 historic cases of COVID-19 detected in crew members on board the Ruby Princess have driven up the national coronavirus tally after they were reclassified as Australian cases.
A total of 189 cases in crew members on board the ill-fated cruise liner have now been included in the Australia wide COVID-19 case that was reported to be 8,255 on Friday.
NSW Health said the cases were reported at the time of diagnosis, but not included in the tally because “they were on board the ship and not in NSW when diagnosed”.
The health authority said the cases were not associated with any other transmissions in Australia because they did not leave the ship.
The ship has been linked to more than 20 COVID-19 deaths across Australia and more than 700 infections.
READ MORE: Cabin fever — the disaster on board the Ruby Princess
Joyce Moullakis 1pm: Bank prepares for ‘COVID loan deferral cliff’
Bank of Queensland is upping engagement with customers to manage COVID-19 loan repayment deferrals, alongside deepening its interaction with mortgage brokers as it navigates the economic turmoil.
BoQ’s retail banking boss Lyn McGrath told The Weekend Australian while some of the bank’s 5,000 home loan customers who had deferred repayments for up to six months, had unwound the arrangements within weeks, others required longer-terms of assistance.
“It’s quite a mixed bag of people at this stage but we are absolutely committed to keeping people in their homes,” she said. “We continue to have dialogue with people.”
Ms McGrath acknowledged that banks were managing a fragile situation as repayment pauses ended in September, in line with the cessation of federal government programs such as JobKeeper and pay as you go tax relief.
“The big one for us is September,” she said.
“When you’ve got all the stimulus coming off at that time, and I’ve got no doubt the government are now having lots of discussions about how they try to smooth, what has been widely speculated to be a potential cliff. That’s the time that is everybody’s concern.”
Read the full story here.
Agencies 12.40pm: Watch live: Donald Trump’s fiery Mount Rushmore speech
President Donald Trump is going ahead with a fiery speech at Mount Rushmore, claiming protesters have waged “a merciless campaign to wipe out our history” amid demonstrations against racial injustice and police brutality.
The sharp rebuke in a holiday address to mark the nation’s independence follows weeks of protests across the nation, sparked by the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis.
“This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore,” Trump will say, according to excerpts of his speech released by the White House. He will also add that some on the political left hope to “defame our heroes, erase our values, and indoctrinate our children.”
The event drew thousands of spectators, most of them without masks, even as coronavirus cases spike across the country. The president was set to speak before a big fireworks show, the first to be held at the site in over a decade.
Angelica Snowden 11.50am: Queensland down to just one active case
There is only one active COVID-19 case in Queensland, after the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed no new cases in the state overnight.
Saturday, July 4 – coronavirus cases in Queensland:
— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) July 3, 2020
• 0 new confirmed cases
• 1 active case
• 1,067 total confirmed cases
• 386,727 tests conducted
Sadly, six Queenslanders with COVID-19 have died. 1,055 patients have recovered.#covid19 pic.twitter.com/hGrdMzdRm7
There are a total of 1,067 confirmed cases.
The Queensland border will reopen to residents from all states except Victoria on July 10.
Queensland Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Gollschewski had a message for anyone that had been in Victoria in the past 14 days: “Don’t come to Queensland”.
“That’s very clear,” Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said.
“If you have been in Victoria for the past 14 days, don’t come to Queensland, and if you are in Queensland or anywhere else intending to go to Victoria in the next period, it will be 14 days before you are allowed back into Queensland or able to come into Queensland,” he said.
“So, please, for the community, work with us.”
READ MORE: Travel must resume, says airport boss
Angelica Snowden 11.40am: NSW records six new cases, student among them
NSW has recorded six new cases of COVID-19 overnight.
Five of the new cases were in returned travellers and are now in hotel quarantine.
NSW Health said the sixth case was a “possible case” reported yesterday, in an 18-year-old male student from Green Point Christian College on the Central Coast.
The health authority said the case was a past infection and not an active case.
Another previously reported case was also excluded after investigation from the state’s tally, which is now at 3216 cases.
After a Balmain Woolworths worker tested positive to coronavirus sparking long queues outside facilities in the inner west, a total of 16,556 tests were completed in the last 24 hours.
NSW has carried out more than 900,000 COVID-19 tests.
READ MORE: Curtin’s call — now this was real leadership
Jacquelin Magnay 11.35am: Australia pushed towards herd immunity
One of the world’s top epidemiologists has urged Australia to abandon a lockdown strategy against coronavirus and look to the Swedish model of developing herd immunity.
Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology in the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford, says Australia is adopting a “selfish’’ and “self-congratulatory’’ approach which is misguided and will have negative long-term consequences and urged the country to look at the latest evidence to decide its tactics.
She said if the Australian government changed its approach and let the virus — which 80 to 90 per cent of the population will only get asymptomatically — spread naturally, with intense protections for those most vulnerable, it would in the long term help protect all of Australians from future viral threats and also avoid the most damaging short-term economic impacts for the underprivileged.
Read the full story here.
Gerard Cockburn 11.15am: Retail surge as shoppers roam free
Retail spending has roared back to life as the easing of COVID-19 restrictions returns customers to the nation’s cafes, shopping centres and showrooms faster than economists anticipated.
Retail sales in May surged 17 per cent compared with April, the highest increase on record, almost reversing the near 18 per cent plunge in April when retailing fell off a cliff during a nationwide lockdown to combat the coronavirus.
The Australian Retailers Association said the spending rise was an indication of pent-up demand by consumers who were forced into household lockdown during the peak of the pandemic.
Read the full story here.
David Ross 11am: Supermarkets’ panic buying playbook revealed
When a new COVID-19 outbreak flared across Melbourne’s suburbs in recent weeks and people again began swarming shops, supermarket majors Coles and Woolworths reached for a newly minted playbook designed to quell panics.
Battle-hardened by the frightening scenes in early March of panic buying and frenzied shoppers snapping up everything, the two supermarkets acted in lockstep, putting in place restrictions on essentials in a move partly founded on consumer psychology.
Many will remember the chaos when coronavirus first hit as shoppers hoarded mountains of toilet rolls and kilos of flour, pasta and canned tomatoes.
Read the full story here.
Agencies 10.30am: Sex workers protest virus restrictions
Several dozen prostitutes armed with an inflatable sex doll have staged a protest in Berlin against coronavirus restrictions they say are preventing them from making a living.
The protesters gathered outside the Bundesrat upper house of parliament with red umbrellas and placards bearing slogans such as “Let us work,” “Open the brothels now” and “Our sector is being driven underground”.
Prostitution is legal and regulated in Germany, with sex workers entitled to employment contracts and social security benefits.
But sex work has been banned since mid-March as part of efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.
The Federal Association for Erotic and Sex Services said this was “incomprehensible in view of the developments in other sectors”.
“Hairdressers, massage parlours, beauty salons … fitness studios, tattoo shops, saunas, restaurants and hotels have been allowed to reopen,” it said in a statement, but sex workers “seem to have been forgotten by politicians”.
AFP
READ MORE: Bellwether election a test of leaders in times of crisis
Erin Lyons 10am: Melbourne-Sydney train passenger taken by ambulance
A passenger on board a Melbourne-to-Sydney train has been loaded into an ambulance and transported to hotel quarantine after displaying symptoms of COVID-19.
The man was on board an XPT train from Victoria with 59 others that arrived at Central Station on Saturday morning, the Today show reported.
The train arrived at 7.30am and the man was detained briefly before being taken to an inner-city hotel to isolate, according to The Daily Telegraph.
The passenger is believed to have boarded the train in regional NSW, according to Today.
NCA NewsWire has contacted NSW Ambulance, NSW Health and Transport for NSW for comment.
Passengers arriving on interstate trains to Central are being temperature checked by nurses before exiting the station.
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard lashed a Victorian man from a virus hot spot who arrived in Sydney by train on Friday, saying it should serve as a warning to others.
READ MORE: Greg Sheridan — In a war against humanity, COVID is winning
Erin Lyons 9.05am: Pair bogged trying to get out of Victoria
Two Victorian men have been caught trying to enter South Australia via a back road on Thursday in order to dodge the state’s COVID-19 border checkpoint.
But things went pear-shaped when the duo bogged their Volkswagen van on a dirt track near Pinehill Rd.
The pair allegedly tried to cross the South Australian border near Bordertown at 4am Thursday but were intercepted by authorities on the Dukes Highway.
The 23-year-old Tarneit man and 18-year-old Delahey man failed to complete a compulsory online application and were refused entry as their travel was deemed non-essential.
They were told if they wished to enter South Australia they would be required to isolate for 14 days. Police say the duo decided to return to Victoria.
However, just 12 hours later police spotted the same van bogged on a dirt road near Senior.
Police allege the two men had tried to re-enter South Australia by evading the border checkpoint and travelling along back roads.
They copped on-the-spot fines of $1060 each for failing to comply with a direction under the Emergency Management Act 2004.
READ MORE: Chris Kenny — Good governance on coronavirus is on show
Agencies 8.40am: US under siege from pandemic
The US posted a record 53,000 new coronavirus cases as the deadly pandemic accelerated across the Americas, but its slowdown in Europe led Britain to announce the first exemptions to its quarantine rules.
With Europe looking to turn the page on the biggest public health crisis in modern history, travellers arriving into Britain from Germany, France, Spain and Italy will no longer be required to self-isolate from July 10.
Touching almost every country on Earth, COVID-19 has hit at least 10.8 million people and killed 521,000 globally, shattering previously buoyant economies and bringing public life to a standstill.
Yet while much of the planet pursued a return to some semblance of normality, the US soared past 50,000 new infections on Thursday for the second time in two days, casting a grim pall over Independence Day celebrations.
Now the epicentre of the pandemic, the country has recorded nearly 129,000 deaths out of more than 2.7 million cases. It’s expected to record its three-millionth infection next week.
Read the full story here.
Agencies 8am: Former PM faces probe over handling of pandemic
A French court will open an inquiry into former prime minister Edouard Philippe and two cabinet ministers over their handling of the coronavirus crisis.
The inquiry will be led by the Law Court of the Republic (CJR), which deals with claims of ministerial misconduct, said senior prosecutor Francois Molins. The inquiry will consider whether Philippe, Buzyn and Veran neglected their duties in the face of a disaster.
The coronavirus outbreak has left 29,875 people dead in France so far, and has sparked anger against the government over a lack of protective equipment in the early stages of the pandemic.
Along with Philippe — who was replaced by right-wing opposition figure Jean Castex, 55, in the first stage of a government reshuffle — the ministers under investigation are former health minister Agnes Buzyn — who stepped down in February for an unsuccessful bid to become mayor of Paris — and her successor Olivier Veran. Veran was health minister during the peak of the crisis. It is not clear if he will keep his job in the reshuffle expected to be finalised in the coming days.
The CJR has received 90 complaints and examined 53 of them. It considered nine complaints admissible, which will form the basis of the inquiry.
The complaints were filed by private individuals, doctors, associations and even prisoners.
AFP
Angelica Snowden 7.30am: Silver lining as flu cases plummet
Cases of the flu have plummeted this year as social distancing measures and work-from-home regimes have kept people apart as part of the response to COVID-19.
Department of Health data showed just 20,743 cases of influenza were confirmed across the country to June this year — compared with 132,424 cases in the same period last year.
The data showed 169 people contracted the flu in June compared with the same period last year, when 57,937 cases were recorded — equivalent to a 99.7 per cent drop in infections.
Read the full story here.
Robyn Ironside 6.45am: Virgin only had weeks to live
Virgin Australia would not have been able to continue to operate until the August 22 creditors’ meeting if administrators had not negotiated a sale and interim funding by June 30.
Documents filed in the Federal Court this week outlined the urgency of the situation facing the airline, which went into administration on April 21 with debts of $6.8bn.
An affidavit by administrator Vaughan Strawbridge also revealed an initial 85 groups were approached or registered their interest in buying Virgin Australia.
As the process unfolded, 19 parties considered “potential purchasers” were given access to the data room, with the group whittled down to the final two — Bain Capital and Cyrus Capital Partners — over six weeks.
“The administrators formed the view the sale process needed to be conducted on an expedited time frame due to the significant cash restraints facing Virgin, the impact of COVID-19 on the business and the need to retain key contracts, assets, employees and regulatory approvals,” the affidavit said.
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Yoni Bashan 6am: Balmain bug sparks virus testing surge
Residents of Sydney’s densely populated suburb of Balmain rushed to be tested for COVID-19 on Friday amid fears of an outbreak caused by an infected man arriving from Melbourne.
Long queues formed outside testing facilities in the inner west suburbs of Balmain and Rozelle in response to a call from health officials that residents should be vigilant of any flu-like symptoms.
Friday also marked an escalation in the policing and screening of incoming arrivals into NSW from Victoria, particularly among travellers hailing from postcodes identified as COVID-19 hotspots.
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Rachel Baxendale 5am: 10,000 refuse to be tested in Melbourne hotspots
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has warned he may have to widen his government’s lockdown of coronavirus hotspot suburbs, as it emerged that more than 10,000 people in those areas had refused tests, with some saying COVID-19 was a “conspiracy theory” or would not affect them.
Conceding that the formula he has relied upon to lock down 310,000 Melburnians may need to be reviewed, Mr Andrews said health bureaucrats and his government would spend the weekend poring over case data to determine how best to tackle the second wave of the virus.
Of Victoria’s 442 active cases on Friday, 213, or 48 per cent, were outside the local government areas which cover the 10 postcodes in Melbourne’s north and west that the Andrews government subjected to stay-at-home orders for four weeks from Wednesday night.
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Agencies 4.30am: Coronavirus bureaucrat is France’s new prime minister
President Emmanuel Macron has named the senior bureaucrat who drew up the policy for easing France out of its coronavirus lockdown as his new prime minister.
The move followed the resignation on Friday of Edouard Philippe — and his entire government — as Mr Macron’s ruling party reels from dire local election results and the President prepares to tackle the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Philippe, who held the prime ministership for three years, will hand over to Jean Castex, 55, officially a member of the right-wing opposition but who has risen to prominence while overseeing the country’s emergence from lockdown.
Mr Macron had said he wanted to set a “new course” for the government. A wider cabinet reshuffle was expected overnight.
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