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Australia coronavirus updates live: Scott Morrison provides update on Covid-19 response – latest news
Australia coronavirus updates live: restrictions on some elective surgery lifted – latest news
(32 minutes later)
As Australia’s infection rate falls, state and federal leaders will discuss lifting ban on elective surgery at meeting on Tuesday. Follow all the latest news, live
As Australia’s infection rate falls, state and federal leaders will discuss lifting ban on elective surgery at meeting on Tuesday. Follow all the latest news, live
Morrison announces National Cabinet has agreed to lift some restrictions on elective surgery, including IVF, after Anzac Day.
Morrison stonewalls a question about former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s interview on the ABC last night.
On privacy concerns raised by the government’s Covid-19 tracing app, Morrison says the government is “moving to make sure they are addressed”.
Morrison says there has been a “slowing” in the increase in the jobless rate since the beginning of Covid-19 restrictions.
“But the levels of claims are still very high-end they are obviously deeply concerning to me because every one of those half-a-million Australians who has processed for jobseeker claims is an Australian who has lost their livelihood,” he says.
He’s now asked about China’s criticism of foreign minister Marise Payne’s calls for an investigation into the spread of the virus.
Morrison is asked about an increase in racist attacks on Australians of Asian backgrounds in the wake of Covid-19 including what his message is to people who commit them and whether we need a new anti-racism campaign.
Given the low infection rate, Morrison is asked whether other restrictions, including on community sport, will be lifted.
He says not yet.
Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy says the resumption of elective surgery is a “gentle, carful start of normalising” the general healthcare of the community.
Health minister Greg Hunt is now speaking. He says today is an important day on the road back after the announcement of a resumption of some elective surgery.
Morison says since 16 March the government has processed 517,000 jokseeker claims.
“By the end of this week we will have processed as many jobseeker claims in six weeks than we would normally do in the entirety of the year,” he says.
“There is still work to do but having now eclipsed more than half a million people, that is obviously of great concern, that is half a million people who need that payment and support.”
Morrison says national cabinet has provided “in principle” support for the government’s Covid-19 tracing app. He says it will be released in the “not too distant future” but doesn’t give a date.
He says that also relates to “older people” who are self-isolating in the community.
Morrison says in cases where states have imposed restrictions on all visits to aged care homes, they will be lifted so that there can be two visits per day by close relatives and support people.
Morrison says the lifting of those restrictions will see a re-opening of around 25% of activity in elective surgery in private and public hospitals.
Other areas where the restrictions will be lifted include post-cancer reconstructive surgeries, all procedures for children under the age of 18, all joint replacements, andcataract and eye procedures.
Morrison announces national cabinet has agreed to lift some restrictions on elective surgery, including IVF, after Anzac Day.
He says cases where states and territories have gone beyond the recommendations of the national cabinet in terms of restrictions could make decisions to ease them earlier.
He says cases where states and territories have gone beyond the recommendations of the national cabinet in terms of restrictions could make decisions to ease them earlier.
Morrison starts by acknowledging the lockdown are testing the patience of Australians but we need to “stick to our plan”. He says restrictions will be eased once certain markers are met, including a rate of transmission of less than one.
Morrison starts by acknowledging the lockdown are testing the patience of Australians but we need to “stick to our plan”. He says restrictions will be eased once certain markers are met, including a rate of transmission of less than one.
Scott Morrison is speaking now.
Scott Morrison is speaking now.
Major sports in Australia are facing the possibility of multimillion-dollar revenue hits after Virgin Australia entered voluntary administration.
Virgin holds lucrative major sponsorship deals with the AFL and Supercars. The airline is also in partnership with the AFL clubs Carlton, GWS and Gold Coast.
The AFL deal is reportedly worth between $5m and $10m per year.
But the sponsorship agreements are now under the microscope with the extent of the financial damage to be determined by administrators and contractual obligations.
The federal government will relax regulations on Australia Post to give it flexibility to adjust its operations during the coronavirus crisis. In a statement issued just now, the government has announced three key “temporary” changes that will apply until June next year:
Australia Post’s required delivery time for regular letters within the same state will be extended to five days after the day of posting;
it will be permitted to adjust its delivery frequency, in metropolitan areas only, from every business day to every second business day; and
it will have greater freedom in managing post offices while there is a pandemic, but will take all reasonable steps to keep outlets open.
The finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said Australia Post had experienced sharp downturns in letter volumes and international business but big increases in parcel deliveries.
He said the changes would allow Australia Post to redeploy its workforce to critical areas experiencing increases in volume, such as parcels and essential services. The communications minister, Paul Fletcher, said demand for e-commerce had “skyrocketed as people stay home to combat the coronavirus health crisis”.
Fletcher said the flexibility would allow posties to continue to deliver essential products and services to Australians, including pharmaceutical and grocery products.
The government emphasised that post offices were expected to remain open, including in regional, rural and remote parts of the country, but retail outlets would be able to close during exceptional circumstances to protect health and safety.
Delivery frequency in regional, rural and remote Australia was also expected to remain the same.For more on the big challenges facing Australia Post – include a jump in parcel volumes – see the report we published last week:
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is due to address the media in about five minutes following the latest meeting of national cabinet. I’ll bring it to you as soon as it starts.
As we reported earlier, there have been six additional cases of Covid-19 in New South Wales overnight. The NSW health department has also confirmed for the first time that 1,755 of the state’s 2,969 cases have recovered.
There is one additional case in the Newhaven House aged care home, where two people have died. There are now 42 confirmed cases at the facility.
An 84-year-old woman from an independent living retirement village in Dee Why has also been hospitalised with COVID-19. One of her family members has also tested positive.
And a Centrelink call centre in Tuggerah on the state’s Central Coast where a staff member was diagnosed with Covid-19 will close the office for eight days. Five close contacts in the workplace with symptoms are also being tested.
The health department has also released some preliminary data about recovery times in the state. NSW Health staff interviewed more than 2,000 people three weeks after their illness to ask about symptoms.
Older people were found to take longer to recover than younger people, while there were differing recovery times generally:
50% of cases had recovered after 16 days
75% of cases had recovered after three weeks
95% of cases had recovered after six weeks.
The ACT has recorded another day with no new cases of Covid-19.
The ACT’s total is still 104. Of those, 92 have recovered. There is currently one person being treated at Canberra Hospital. The ACT has recorded three Covid-19 deaths.
Somehow, despite not having played a match since March, the NRL has managed to remain deeply entertaining during its hiatus. Yesterday, the league’s chief executive, Todd Greenberg, fell on his sword after months of speculation that he was on the outer.
In this piece, my colleague Nick Tedeschi explains why Greenberg’s cards have been marked since September when he unsuccessfully worked to stop Peter V’landys become the league’s new chairman.
“Already widely regarded as a strongman with enormous political clout and a penchant for imposing his will, the knock on him was that he would struggle to run both Racing NSW and the NRL. Greenberg saw this as an opportunity to assert his power in the game. He canvassed behind the scenes to stop V’landys’ ascension. It was a play that was reckless and ignorant. A train was powering at full steam and he failed to heed the warning.”
The Queensland state development minister, Cameron Dick, is speaking now on the ABC about Virgin Australia. The company is based in Queensland, and the state government there had offered the government $200m in assistance on the proviso it remained based there.
Dick calls it “a very disappointing day”, and says the state government is seeking a meeting with the new administrator this afternoon.
The former union leader and Labor minister Greg Combet will head a new working group aiming to improve safety in workplaces and help resolve industrial relations disputes during the coronavirus crisis.
The National Covid-19 Coordination Commission (NCCC) - a body set up by Scott Morrison last month to give the government advice on reducing the economic and social impacts of the pandemic - has announced a few more details about how it is navigating its task this morning.
Combet was already one of the commissioners on the overarching body, which is headed by Nev Power, but will now also lead the new industrial relations working group.
Guardian Australia reported last week that state-based agencies have already received at least 175 workers’ compensation claims or notifications that relate in some way to Covid-19, prompting fresh warnings that employers must take heed of their employees’ health and safety during the pandemic.
Combet vowed to work closely with unions and employer groups. In a statement issued today, he said the working group would focus on helping employers put in place safe working practices and be ready to respond quickly to any Covid-19 issues in their workplaces.
Combet said the group would also “help employers and employees nip issues in the bud before they can threaten jobs, business livelihoods and the further spread of coronavirus in our workplaces”.
The working group’s members include two former senior members of the Fair Work Commission: Jenny Acton, a former senior deputy president, and Graeme Watson, a former vice president.
Other members are employment lawyer Josh Bornstein, Clayton Utz partner Saul Harben, deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd, and Safe Work Australia acting branch manager Bianca Wellington.
Moving briefly away from Covid-19, Tony Abbott was stopped outside his home this morning and, complete in bicycle riding gear (what do you call it? Spandex?), responded briefly to Malcolm Turbull’s interview on the ABC last night.
He didn’t respond to all of Turnbull’s criticisms, choosing instead to defend his former chief of staff Peta Credlin.
Calling Credlin an “extraordinary person”, he said she “was an important part of the Abbott government”.
“[She was] comparable in my government to someone like Arthur Sinodinos in the Howard government, a fine thinker, a great organiser and she was a trusted colleague and I think she deserves a great deal of credit for what she did,” Abbott said.
Keen for something lighter over lunch? Me too. My colleague Brigid Delaney curated her own three-day isolation arts festival over the weekend. It is a uniquely Brigid piece of writing, which is to say, very funny and good.
