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Coronavirus Australia update latest: Victoria to test 100,000 people in two weeks as 1 million download tracing app – live news
Coronavirus Australia update latest: Victoria to test 100,000 people in two weeks as 1 million download tracing app – live news
(32 minutes later)
Western Australians wake up to loosened restrictions as Queensland and NT also prepare to relax rules. Follow live
Western Australians wake up to loosened restrictions as Queensland and NT also prepare to relax rules. Follow live
Josh Garlepp has that little piece of levity the ABC just had to apologise for broadcasting (the perils of a live outside broadcast).
And on that note, I shall hand you over to Michael McGowan, with the same energy.
Thank you again for joining me today. I very much appreciate it, and your messages. I’ll be back tomorrow morning. Please – take care of you.
Liberal senator, David Fawcett, a member of the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security has strongly backed the government’s hard line in rejecting China’s threats over an investigation into Covid-19.
Fawcett told Guardian Australia:
WA is also pushing to increase the number of flu vaccinations in the state. Health minister Roger Cook was asked what his message to anti-vaxxers was and responded:
For those wondering, this time around, Mark McGowan responded to the exuberant constituent hanging out of what I assume was his best friend’s ride, trying to holler at him, with
AAP reports that the “swim and go” and “surf and go” beach openings will be extended to Bondi beach tomorrow morning:
It is a public holiday in WA, so Mark McGowan is in a polo shirt.
These are the sorts of things which keep me amused at the moment.
As does West Australians driving past and yelling “I fucking love you” out their window. Which just happened, making McGowan laugh almost as half as he did when he said “we are not making it unlawful to go for a run and eat a kebab”.
Memories. They light the corner of my mind.
Western Australia joins the list of jurisdictions with no new cases in the past 24 hours
But the chief medical officer again warns people not to get too excited too quickly:
And his advice to people who began gathering in large numbers again this weekend just gone?
Brendan Murphy says there doesn’t have to be zero cases of Covid-19 to convince national cabinet to relax restrictions:
On New Zealand, which went harder than Australia in an attempt to eliminate the virus, the professor says:
Chris Knaus and Ben Smee have just published this story:
Chris Knaus and Ben Smee have just published this story:
The app only takes note of someone you have been around for 15 minutes. Professor Brendan Murphy says there is a reason for that - privacy, being one:
The app only takes note of someone you have been around for 15 minutes. Prof Brendan Murphy says there is a reason for that – privacy, being one:
The source code for the tracing app (as much as the security agencies will allow to be released) will be available within two weeks.
The source code for the tracing app (as much as the security agencies will allow to be released) will be available within two weeks.
The chief medical officer does not want to comment on NRL players breaking physical restriction measures to go camping, and then posting it on social media.
But professor Brendan Murphy again reminds people that life will not be going back to what we knew as normal, until there is a vaccine:
The chief medical officer once again urged Australians to download the tracing app:
He says everyone in his family (including him) all the doctors he knows, and he assumes journalists have downloaded the app as well.
It’s voluntary, so read up on it and make your own decision, based on what you are comfortable with.
Professor Brendan Murphy is giving the national update on where Australia stands, today:
From the chatter I have seen on social media, it seems being able to order take away food is the thing our trans-Tasman cousins are most excited about.
I wish them all the dumplings in the world.
Jacinda Ardern says there is “no widespread underlying community transmission in New Zealand. We have won that battle,” as the country prepares to relax some of its restrictions.
AAP has some more on that press conference we touched on a little while ago:
Ardern said about 400,000 Kiwis would return to their workplaces on Tuesday with the lessening of the country’s clampdown from level four to level three.
The shift has only a small effect on the social lives of New Zealanders, who are still being asked to stay home and to practice social distancing.
But the change is vital for business, with many industries severely sidelined over the last month.
Ardern has maintained a health-first approach to fighting Covid-19, arguing a drastic short-term action would benefit the economy in the long run.
The result has produced remarkably low case numbers.
On Monday, health officials reported the country’s 19th death from 1,122 confirmed coronavirus cases.
The latest death was a woman aged in her 90s, linked to the St Margaret’s residential aged care facility in Auckland.
All of New Zealand’s deaths have been elderly people, with a majority from clusters linked to either the St Margaret’s home or Rosewood rest care home in Christchurch, with 10 deaths.
Hospitalisation rates have shown the strength of New Zealand’s public health response; fewer than 90 people have been to hospital with the disease.
The federal education minister, Dan Tehan, has signalled he will look at providing help to childcare centres that rely on migrant workers who are excluded from the jobkeeper wage subsidy.
As Amy mentioned earlier today, Tehan has announced $27m will be spent on grants of up to $10,000 per service to keep childcare centres open.
In an interview on Sky News, Tehan acknowledged the government was having to step in to deal with some unintended consequences of the “completely new” funding system that it had put in place extremely quickly.
“There will always be some unintended consequences,” he said. Interestingly, Tehan said childcare centres that relied on migrant workers – who are ineligible for the jobkeeper payments that were meant to go hand in hand with the broader childcare relief package – would be considered as part of the imminent review into how the system is working.”
That’s one of the things we’re going to be looking at when we do the one-month review ... that we are starting next week.” As it stands the childcare relief package – with its promise of free childcare – is due to expire at the end of June (three months), but the government has always suggested it could be in place for six months, in line with other economic support measures.
Tehan said childcare services were currently running at 40-60% of normal capacity.
He said hopefully as the country continued to flatten the curve and more restrictions were lifted, attendance rates would increase and the old system could come back into effect, but “we don’t think we’re there yet”.
On schools, Tehan reaffirmed his previous call for all states and territories to have classroom instruction back to normal for all age levels by the end of May.
The ACCC has released its interim report as part of its inquiry into Australian home loans. It found that there wasn’t a lot of transparency in the cost of loans, or difference in the mortgage rates for the four big banks.
It also found that the banks only dropped their rates when the RBA slashed the cash rate. And it could take a while to do even that, meaning the banks picked up revenue in the lag time.
You’ll find the whole report here
Chris Bowen, who has downloaded the app, says it is one more step towards whatever new normal will greet Australia once the restrictions begin being relaxed:
ACT Health has released its daily update – there have been no new cases of Covid diagnosed in the territory in the last 24 hours, which is becoming quite the trend (as it is for the NT and South Australia).
There have been no new cases of Covid-19 recorded in the ACT in the past 24 hours. The ACT’s total is still 106.
A total of 100 cases have recovered from Covid-19 and have been released from self-isolation.
There is currently one (1) Covid-19 patient in a Canberra hospital. They are in a stable condition.
The remaining cases are isolating at home with ACT Health support.
The ACT has recorded three (3) deaths.
The number of negative tests in the ACT is now 7,996.
