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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria records six deaths and 384 Covid-19 cases and NSW 14 new cases – latest news Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria records six deaths and 384 Covid-19 cases and NSW 14 new cases – latest news
(32 minutes later)
State suspends non-urgent elective surgery as Covid-19 cases in nursing homes rises, while NSW announces 14 new cases. Follow live updatesState suspends non-urgent elective surgery as Covid-19 cases in nursing homes rises, while NSW announces 14 new cases. Follow live updates
Our data team has pulled together a map of the aged care homes in Melbourne associated with the biggest numbers of positive Covid-19 cases.
It’s important to remember that the cases linked to aged care are split about 50-50 between residents and staff.
The Covid-19 Senate inquiry will shortly turn to the government’s university funding package, but first heard from the Australian Council of Social Services about the adequacy of jobkeeper and jobseeker payments.
Acoss chief executive, Cassandra Goldie, said the doubling of jobseeker with the coronavirus supplement had helped welfare recipients to feed themselves three times a day, provide a roof over their head and clothing for their children.
But she said the government’s plan to cut payments by $300 a fortnight is “so distressing for so many” and recipients want certainty about the supplement, which is technically due to expire in December.
Goldie said she was “heartened to hear there is an intention to lean in – to deliver a permanent increase to jobseeker” – which seems to be overstating the government’s position, which is only that they are likely to extend the (now reduced) coronavirus supplement beyond December.
In South Australia, premier Steven Marshall is announcing changes to his cabinet after losing three ministers to an expenses scandal.
He is adding the speaker of the house, Vincent Tarzia, to cabinet, as well as David Basham and Stephen Patterson.
I’ve just spoken to organiser Paddy Gibson, outside the Domain, who says he was arrested, fined and released by police.
Earlier, other organisers who were detained said they weren’t arrested, only fined.
Gibson said:
He said he was not given a notice to attend court.
I’m free to go.
He said he would challenge the fine in court.
Seth Dias, another organiser, said he was given a move on order and fined, but not arrested when police broke up a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney’s Domain today.
Collins said the aged care sector in Australia was “in crisis prior to Covid-19”.
But she said the failures of individual providers to respond properly would be a matter for the royal commission into aged care.
Labor’s aged care spokesperson, Julie Collins, has been speaking in Hobart. She says the federal government should have learned the lessons of the New South Wales outbreak and responded more quickly.
She’s contradicting Greg Hunt’s claim that the federal government has learned the lessons from Newmarch.
She said many aged care providers still did not have adequate PPE, and the government should have conducted an audit after the mask began.
Hunt said the intervention in the Victorian aged care sector would continue for “long as there is a serious public health outbreak in Victoria”.
Hunt agreed that the aged care outbreak was foreseeable – in that if you have mass community transmission it will get into aged care, not in that he anticipated the mass community transmission event in Victoria.
He said that because it was forseeable to some extent, that’s “why we were able to step in”. He says just because you could foresee it, doesn’t mean you could prevent it.
Hunt was asked about his own experience with private aged care facilities in Victoria, as his father lived in one.Hunt was asked about his own experience with private aged care facilities in Victoria, as his father lived in one.
A reporter asked another question, but Hunt repeated:A reporter asked another question, but Hunt repeated:
Hunt said the key concerns are making sure staffing is covered, if aged care workers need to self-isolate, and to ensure that residents who need to be moved to a hospital can be moved.Hunt said the key concerns are making sure staffing is covered, if aged care workers need to self-isolate, and to ensure that residents who need to be moved to a hospital can be moved.
He said he had received a “concerning report” of aged care providers being turned away when they tried to move residents into hospital – and he again says that’s a state decision.He said he had received a “concerning report” of aged care providers being turned away when they tried to move residents into hospital – and he again says that’s a state decision.
Asked if the federal government has dropped the ball on managing the aged care outbreak, given the earlier experience with Newmarch House in Sydney, Hunt said it was “exactly the opposite”.Asked if the federal government has dropped the ball on managing the aged care outbreak, given the earlier experience with Newmarch House in Sydney, Hunt said it was “exactly the opposite”.
It’s precisely because of the experience we’ve had that we’re able to set up an aged care response centre.It’s precisely because of the experience we’ve had that we’re able to set up an aged care response centre.
Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, Alison McMillan, said she worked in St Basil’s Home for the Aged, the site of the biggest aged care outbreak in Melbourne at the moment, and one which has been identified as having had significant failures.Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, Alison McMillan, said she worked in St Basil’s Home for the Aged, the site of the biggest aged care outbreak in Melbourne at the moment, and one which has been identified as having had significant failures.
She urged nurses not to be afraid of working in aged care settings.She urged nurses not to be afraid of working in aged care settings.
She added:She added:
Hunt said the federal government will send an Australian Medical Assistance Teams (Ausmat team) into Victoria to help manage the outbreak, and would also request staff come in from interstate.Hunt said the federal government will send an Australian Medical Assistance Teams (Ausmat team) into Victoria to help manage the outbreak, and would also request staff come in from interstate.
Hunt said the Australian government was also allocating a further five million masks from the national medical supply to the aged care sector in Melbourne, and would also provide 500,000 face shields – the first time that level of PPE has been provided to the aged care sector.Hunt said the Australian government was also allocating a further five million masks from the national medical supply to the aged care sector in Melbourne, and would also provide 500,000 face shields – the first time that level of PPE has been provided to the aged care sector.
Hunt said the aged care outbreaks are, like the rest of the second wave in Melbourne, “a consequence of major outbreak at hotel quarantine”.Hunt said the aged care outbreaks are, like the rest of the second wave in Melbourne, “a consequence of major outbreak at hotel quarantine”.
Hunt said the biggest challenge in aged care is that, if one staff tests positive, a “significant number of staff, or all staff, may need to isolate”.
Hunt said there are now 1,463 ADF members working in Victoria, particularly in contact tracing. He implies that Victoria’s contact tracing team had not been meeting the national standard of contacting every active case, every day.
Hunt is now giving the “context” of the Victorian outbreak.
You may have noticed that, just as Victorian premier Daniel Andrews said he was not interested in blaming anyone for failures in aged care but did repeatedly say it was a commonwealth responsibility, Greg Hunt is staring by outlining all the ways in which it’s Victoria’s fault.
It is perhaps an example of collegiality that they’re both doing it.
Hunt is giving some global context on coronavirus numbers, against which backdrop the outbreak in Melbourne can’t help but look better.
Globally, he says, there have been one million new cases recorded in four days, bringing the total number of cases globally to 16.4m, with 651,000 deaths.
Victoria is the eighth state.
The federal health minister Greg Hunt is speaking in Melbourne about the response to the outbreaks in aged care.
He begins by thanking again “our extraordinary nursing staff, our medical staff, our aged care staff, for their commitment to managing the outbreak in Victoria. Their actions have saved lives and protected lives”.
NSW police are holding a press conference about the Black Lives Matter rally, or “unauthorised public assembly” as they put it, at 2pm.
In other Sydney news:
Leetona Dungay, the mother of David Dungay Jr, says the family will present a petition to parliament at 3pm today after a protest was broken up by police earlier.
Dungay, whose son died in Long Bail Jail in 2015, had offered to call the protest off if the NSW government ordered an investigation by Worksafe or the DPP into his death.
Dungay family member Lizzie Jarrett said that no people had been arrested – contrary to media reports – only fined.
Leetona Dungay said:
Jarrett said there were more police than protestors, and police issued move on orders and fines, but did not arrest anybody to her knowledge.
The Australian Capital Territory is not adding to those growing case numbers. It has recorded no new cases of coronavirus again, and now only has one active case.
Despite this good record, the ACT’s chief health officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman, has urged Canberrans to “remain vigilant”.
I just wanted to pull out that last point.
Australia only reached 10,000 coronavirus cases on 13 July.
Today, just 15 days later, Victoria alone is at 9,049 cases – some 5,082 more than on 13 July – and the national total is expected to top 15,000 when today’s numbers are added in.
Sutton was then grilled on delays in people being contacted by the contact tracing teams. He says people may have missed a call or visit from contact tracers for “a number of reasons” including phone numbers being transcribed incorrectly, people not answering the phone, or not being home when the ADF come knocking.
Sutton:
In response to criticisms that close contacts, including workplaces, were not being notified, sometimes for days, and that sometimes individuals were taking on the job of directly contacting people themselves, Sutton said:
He added:
Sutton also dismissed criticism that some people who had been identified as close contacts, and were in self-isolation, had not been able to get a test. Sutton said they only tested close contacts if they showed symptoms, because he said that if a close contact got tested soon after their exposure, when they had no symptoms, it could create a false sense of confidence.