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Coronavirus live news: 53,000 more cases in US as WHO gives new virus timeline Coronavirus live news: pubs reopen in England, as Victoria announces 'hard lockdown'
(30 minutes later)
Fourth of July holiday weekend set to start with continued rise in infections; Brazil cases pass 1.5m; Boris Johnson defends decision to reopen pubs on Saturday. Follow all the developments liveFourth of July holiday weekend set to start with continued rise in infections; Brazil cases pass 1.5m; Boris Johnson defends decision to reopen pubs on Saturday. Follow all the developments live
Andrews warns that Victoria will not return to life as normal until a vaccine is developed and administered to the whole community. So: we don’t know when.
He says returning to business as usual before a vaccine is developed “will only see us finish up with wave after wave after wave of unacceptably high case numbers and on and off restrictions for the foreseeable future. We don’t want to get to that.”
He urges anyone who is a close contact of a known coronavirus case, and anyone who has symptoms, or has tested positive to the virus, to remain at home.
There will be shifts of 500 police officers assigned to ensuring the nine towers remain under a hard lockdown.
That’s 500 police at any one time.
Andrews has been using the term a “hard lockdown,” but not really defined it.
It means a lockdown where you really cannot go outside for any reason.
This order is the first time Australia has implemented that kind of lockdown, anywhere and at any stage in the pandemic. The lockdowns Australia have experienced to date have ordered that people stay at home unless they are leaving the house for exercise, work or study that cannot be done remotely, care or caregiving, or essential grocery shopping. In Victoria, that’s officially called stage three stay-at-home orders.
In Melbourne, as of right now, we have 10 postcodes under those stage three stay-at-home orders, two more postcodes that will be under those orders from midnight tonight, and nine public housing towers that are under the “hard lockdown” and cannot go out at all, for any reason.
Andrews is asked if he should take responsibility for this outbreak, given the link to the mismanagement of hotel quarantine.
He says he won’t comment on that — he’s called an inquiry and is now “exclusively focused on, is dealing with this challenge”.
He repeats that if this strategy of localised lockdowns does not work, the alternative is to lock down the entire state again.
As well as pubs, hair salons have reopened in England. Many of them let customers back in on the stroke of midnight for those desperate to have some personal grooming after months of lockdown.
Here’s a full report:
Victoria police are in charge of managing the lockdown, informing residents and ensuring they return home as soon as possible. Andrews says they are the most appropriate people to be doing that work, and says they played a similar role in the bushfires.
Although that supposes that those living in inner-city public housing towers have the same relationship to police as do the mainly white coastal communities affected by bushfire this summer. I’d suggest they don’t.
Daniel Andrews is explaining how the hard lockdown for those nine towers will work. He says it will be similar to how an outbreak in an aged care home is managed.
Wynne said earlier:
Victorian housing minister Richard Wynne is listing the nine towers subject to the hard lockdown.
In Flemington, they are:
12 Holland Court
120 Racecourse Road
126 Racecourse Road
130 Racecourse Road
Says Wynne:
In North Melbourne:
12 Sutton Street
33 Alfred Street
76 Canning Street
159 Melrose street
9 Pampus Street
Says Wynne:
Those postcodes again are 3031 and 3051.
They cover the suburbs of Flemington, Kensington, Hotham Hill and North Melbourne.
Andrews says the public health order regarding the hard lockdown of the towers is made for 14 days, because that’s the timeframe listed in the legislation.
But he says the hard lockdown will be for at least five days, because that’s how long it will take to test all 3,000 residents in those nine towers and get the results back from the lab.
Andrews says the new numbers show “evidence of sufficient cases to see the public health team advise me only a short while ago to take these steps”.
He said all those living within the now 12 restricted postcodes “have our gratitude”.
Andrews says:
Andrews puts out a plea to media and to the general public to be “as sensitive as we possibly can as to the privacy and the fragility that many of those people will be experiencing right now”.
He says the police presence will be “unprecedented”.
Andrews says they are working through the logistics of providing food to the 3,000 residents of those towers. He says he does not underestimate “how hard, how challenging” that will be.
Public housing units are not large. Five days locked inside will be very tough.
Andrews says they have “unacceptably high” case numbers recorded in two new postcodes, they are 3031 and 3051. That lockdown will begin at 11.59pm tonight.
That brings the number of postcodes locked down to 12.
Andrews also said:
Andrews says that because there are recorded cases in there, and there are shared facilities and it’s high density housing, the public health advice is that they be subject to a “hard lockdown” immediately. That lockdown is effective for five days.
That covers 1,345 units and 3,000 residents.
Victoria has recorded 108 new coronavirus cases, the highest single day total since 28 March.Victoria has recorded 108 new coronavirus cases, the highest single day total since 28 March.
On 28 March, Victoria recorded 111 new cases in a single day. That was also the Australian national incidence peak for the whole pandemic, so going back to similar figures is, to put it mildly, extremely not good.On 28 March, Victoria recorded 111 new cases in a single day. That was also the Australian national incidence peak for the whole pandemic, so going back to similar figures is, to put it mildly, extremely not good.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is speaking now.Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is speaking now.
I am handing over the blog to my esteemed colleague Calla Wahlquist now.I am handing over the blog to my esteemed colleague Calla Wahlquist now.
We will have an update on the numbers from Victoria at 4pm, and then a national press conference at 4.30pm.We will have an update on the numbers from Victoria at 4pm, and then a national press conference at 4.30pm.
We still have yet to have a reported case of an unknown close contact identified through Australia’s Covidsafe contact tracing app, despite about 110 downloads from people who tested positive.
At a Black Lives Matter protest in Brisbane today, organisers were frustrated that fewer than 1,000 people turned up, after 30,000 turned up for a similar rally last month.
Via AAP:
The pubs in England are now open. We will update when we hear how it is going, or if we get some photos.
New South Wales is capping the number of international arrives coming in to Sydney every day at 450, or 50 people per flight, from midnight tonight.
NSW police minister David Elliott said it was to ensure the hotel quarantining system put in place is not stretched to breaking point.
Currently in Australia, people returning from overseas need to go into hotel isolation for two weeks. In NSW, the police and defence force are overseeing the quarantine system, but Victoria until recently had been using private security guard companies, which have been blamed for the recent spike in cases.
Hazzard said given Victoria’s problems, and because Queensland had started to charge returning travellers for hotel quarantine, NSW was seeing an influx of people picking Sydney as their port of entry.
Here’s more on US president Donald Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech.
Western Australia has reported no new cases of coronavirus overnight.
The WA health department has increased the state’s total case count by one to 612 after a historical case was identified through serology testing.
The historic case relates to a woman in her 60s who is a returned overseas traveller and was a former passenger on the cruise ship Zaandam.
There are three active cases of coronavirus in WA.
There are reports saying sources have said senior Trump campaign official Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is also the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr, has tested positive for coronavirus.
Donald Trump Jr reportedly tested negative.
It comes as the US president, Donald Trump, railed against “angry mobs” that tried to tear down statues of Confederate leaders and other historical figures, warning thousands of supporters at Mount Rushmore that protestors were trying to erase US history.
Via Reuters:
The ABC is reporting 120 passengers travelling back to Australia as part of repatriation efforts by the federal government have arrived in Adelaide where they will be quarantined in hotels for two weeks and tested for Covid-19.
After failures over hotel quarantine in Victoria lead to the second spike, each state is taking no chances now to ensure the virus is contained.
As restrictions in the UK are lifted, people are getting married again.
Tourism operators in Australia are working to figure out how to get their industry started again after the pandemic forced closures.
Via AAP: