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| Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria records eight deaths and 42 new Covid cases, with 10 in NSW – latest news | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| South Australia opens up to ACT and Brett Sutton gives evidence at Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry | |
| Andrew Liveris, the former Dow Chemical chief who sits on the board of a Saudi oil and gas company and is advising the government on kickstarting manufacturing in this country (spoiler - it involves gas) is the national press club guest today. | |
| Western Australia’s premier Mark McGowan has slammed deputy prime minister Michael McCormack for publicly demanding states increase their international arrival caps, calling the move “very directly outside the spirit of the National Cabinet”. | |
| McGowan didn’t rule out increasing Perth’s intake to 1025 arrivals per week - an increase of 500 requested by McCormack - but instead called on the federal government to open Commonwealth quarantine facilities as a way of increasing the arrival caps. | |
| McGowan said he was surprised by McCormack’s announcement he had sent letters to state and territory leaders demanding the increases: | |
| McGowan said increasing WA’s caps wasn’t as simple as allowing more returned Australians to quarantine in empty hotel rooms in Perth, as there were “management and quality” issues. | |
| OK, there has been a lot of questions about why the Queensland Chief Health Officer is the one making the decisions in Queensland, in terms of exemptions, directions and the rest. | |
| Well, it’s because that is the law in Queensland. | |
| Under the Public Health Act, the power to give directions sits with the CHO: | |
| Power to give directions | |
| (1) This section applies if the chief health officer reasonably believes it is necessary to give a direction under this section (a public health direction) to assist in containing, or to respond to, the spread of COVID-19 within the community. | |
| (2) The chief health officer may, by notice published on the department’s website or in the gazette, give any of the following public health directions— ( | |
| a) a direction restricting the movement of persons; | |
| (b) a direction requiring persons to stay at or in a stated place; | |
| (c)a direction requiring persons not to enter or stay at or in a stated place; | |
| (d)a direction restricting contact between persons; | |
| (e) any other direction the chief health officer considers necessary to protect public health. | |
| That is different to other states, but it is the law in Queensland - the CHO makes the rules. | |
| So that is a no from Victoria and a no, for now, from the ACT in response to Michael McCormack’s request to take on more returned travellers: | |
| Stepping outside covid to other ongoing issues involving Australians for a moment - there are reports the last of the Australian children living in Syria’s al-Hawl refugee camphave been moved by Kurdish Authorities and are now in an area advocates say means the Australian government could repatriate them | |
| Save the Children’s Mat Tinkler: | |
| The Parenthood, an advocacy group for parents, has called on the government to use next month’s budget to develop a plan to address “the pink recession gripping the country”. | |
| It issued the call after the Australia Institute, a progressive thinktank, released modelling showing that men would gain twice as much of the benefit as women if the Morrison government fast-tracks the next round of income tax cuts. You can read more about that modelling in our story from this morning. | |
| The Parenthood’s executive director, Georgie Dent, said rather than bringing forward the tax cuts, the government would be better off investing in universal, high-quality early learning services in order to help women back into the workforce.“The Morrison government prides itself on being sound economic managers yet in the throes of a ‘pink recession’, where women are disproportionately affected by unemployment and underemployment, they’re happy for tax cuts designed in a way that means women lose out.” | |
| Dent said it was time “to proactively design policies and packages that will deliver for women” or there was a real risk of “another generation of Australian women being relegated to life-long economic insecurity and poverty”.The comments follow a call from Natasha Stott Despoja last month for the government to apply a “gender lens” when it draws up the next federal budget. | |
| Australia’s candidate to the United Nations committee on the elimination of discrimination against women had urged the government to look beyond “shovel-ready” stimulus projects and to support female-dominated, low-paid sectors at the frontline of the pandemic response in the budget in October. | |
| Facebook has appeared at the joint standing committee on electoral matters, defending their handling of electoral misinformation on its platform. | |
| Simon Milner, Facebook’s Asia-Pacific vice-president, outlined what Facebook has done to combat misinformation including: | |
| Removing 1.5bn fake accounts | |
| Banning material that suppresses voting or misrepresents the process of voting such as how when and where to vote | |
| Fact-checking news stories; and | |
| Banning all foreign ads relating to Australian politics during the 2019 campaign. | |
| But he told the inquiry that in general Facebook does “not fact-check political advertising” with the only exceptions being if they could “lead to real world harm”. | |
| Milner said: | |
| “That’s pretty consistent with regulation around the world. It’s generally accepted that media companies should not interfere with that, because it is effectively interfering in a democratic process.” | |
| Milner put the onus on governments to improve regulation. | |
| “We’d like to see [the field] more thoroughly regulated, so it’s not a case of us as a tech company headquartered in the US making decisions” such as banning foreign ads about Australian politics, he said. | |
| Facebook fact-checked just 17 articles about Australian politics during the 2019 election, but Milner said AI is then applied to treat “thousands” of similar posts. | |
| Milner also called for the Australian election material blackout to apply to digital platforms: | |
| “We’ve taken the position in previous inquiries that if Australian policymakers consider the blackout remains the right policy approach, we would be supportive of extending it to online advertising. To ensure parity between those currently captured and those who aren’t.” | |
| The medical advisory panel to national cabinet never formally recommended hotel quarantine for returned travellers before the prime minister’s 26 March announcement, Victoria’s chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, has confirmed. | |
| When the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced what came to be known as the hotel quarantine program on 26 March following a national cabinet meeting between Morrison and the state premiers and territory chief ministers, he said the decisions were “based on the medical expert advice that we receive in terms of the restrictions that are necessary to deal with the management of the outbreak of the virus in Australia”. | |
| However, Sutton told Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry that the national committee of chief health officers, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee – on which he is a member and advised the national cabinet on Covid-19 – never made a recommendation for hotel quarantine prior to the announcement. | |
| “I think it’s fair to say that the specific question in terms of a recommendation to national cabinet didn’t come up,” Sutton said. | |
| It was a topic of discussion, but there was no formal recommendation, he said, and he wasn’t aware hotel quarantine would be brought in until the press conference. | |
| “It’s fair to say until national cabinet has decided an issue, it’s not a fait accompli ... So I guess no one should expect in advance of federal cabinet deliberations, what an outcome might be.” | |
| Sutton said he ultimately supported the decision to quarantine all returned travellers, and he said he took it “on face value” that it was true when Morrison said the decisions were based on medical advice. | |
| Victoria’s health commissioner, Brett Sutton, has confirmed at least one guest left hotel quarantine not knowing they had contracted Covid-19 and then subsequently passed on the virus to the person who picked them up. | |
| The Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry heard on Wednesday that although Victoria now extends hotel quarantine for an extra 10 days for returned travellers who refuse to be tested for Covid-19 on day 11 of their 14-day stay, the view of Sutton and the Victorian government was that testing should not be mandatory. | The Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry heard on Wednesday that although Victoria now extends hotel quarantine for an extra 10 days for returned travellers who refuse to be tested for Covid-19 on day 11 of their 14-day stay, the view of Sutton and the Victorian government was that testing should not be mandatory. |
| In late June, the government reported around 30% of the 18,000 travellers who came through hotel quarantine refused testing. | In late June, the government reported around 30% of the 18,000 travellers who came through hotel quarantine refused testing. |
| The inquiry heard one person who completed their quarantine at the Stamford Plaza Hotel left the hotel without being tested and was positive for Covid-19 with a genomic strain linked to the hotel as the source. They subsequently infected the person who picked them up and took them home. | The inquiry heard one person who completed their quarantine at the Stamford Plaza Hotel left the hotel without being tested and was positive for Covid-19 with a genomic strain linked to the hotel as the source. They subsequently infected the person who picked them up and took them home. |
| Sutton said this incident contributed to the decision to require an extended stay for those who weren’t tested on day 11. | Sutton said this incident contributed to the decision to require an extended stay for those who weren’t tested on day 11. |
| “I think that that has become part of the reflections on strengthening the testing regimen within hotel quarantine for that very purpose,” he said. | “I think that that has become part of the reflections on strengthening the testing regimen within hotel quarantine for that very purpose,” he said. |
| Sutton said while he was empowered to force testing, there was a view of the outbreak team that coercive powers to force testing would not help people be compliant. | Sutton said while he was empowered to force testing, there was a view of the outbreak team that coercive powers to force testing would not help people be compliant. |
| “The trust and rapport that is fundamental to being able to engage with people and have the honest provision of information, and also the willingness of people to come forward for testing with an understanding that if they test positive, they will need to go through a process of defining their close contacts constraining where they move to and constraining their behaviours,” he said. | “The trust and rapport that is fundamental to being able to engage with people and have the honest provision of information, and also the willingness of people to come forward for testing with an understanding that if they test positive, they will need to go through a process of defining their close contacts constraining where they move to and constraining their behaviours,” he said. |
| “There is always a trade off, if there is an individual who might not be providing that information, or who might not be compliant with advice, what the consequences might be for the broader community, going forward.” | “There is always a trade off, if there is an individual who might not be providing that information, or who might not be compliant with advice, what the consequences might be for the broader community, going forward.” |
| Now, just catching up on what else happened in that hour, NSW has reported 10 new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours. | Now, just catching up on what else happened in that hour, NSW has reported 10 new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours. |
| Four were locally acquired. | Four were locally acquired. |
| NSW Health: | NSW Health: |
| There were 19,566 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 8,835 in the previous 24 hours. | There were 19,566 tests reported in the 24-hour reporting period, compared with 8,835 in the previous 24 hours. |
| Of the ten new cases to 8pm last night: | Of the ten new cases to 8pm last night: |
| Six are overseas travellers in hotel quarantine | Six are overseas travellers in hotel quarantine |
| Four are locally acquired and linked to a known case or cluster | Four are locally acquired and linked to a known case or cluster |
| One of the new cases is a close contact of a previously confirmed case linked to the CBD cluster. They had completed self-isolation prior to becoming symptomatic and had previously tested negative. Contact tracing is underway. | One of the new cases is a close contact of a previously confirmed case linked to the CBD cluster. They had completed self-isolation prior to becoming symptomatic and had previously tested negative. Contact tracing is underway. |
| Three of the new cases are linked to a staff member from Concord Emergency Department. They include: | Three of the new cases are linked to a staff member from Concord Emergency Department. They include: |
| · a student at Blue Mountains Grammar School who attended school while infectious late last week | · a student at Blue Mountains Grammar School who attended school while infectious late last week |
| · a household contact of the above case who did not attend school while infectious. | · a household contact of the above case who did not attend school while infectious. |
| · a close contact of the above student who is not at school. | · a close contact of the above student who is not at school. |
| Contact tracing is underway. Blue Mountains Grammar School senior school (years 10, 11, 12) has moved to online learning until after the school holidays. | Contact tracing is underway. Blue Mountains Grammar School senior school (years 10, 11, 12) has moved to online learning until after the school holidays. |
| Two of the cases above visited the Springwood Sports Club, 83 Macquarie Road, Springwood, and anyone who attended on 12 September from 1 pm to 2 pm time is considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop. After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative test result is received. | Two of the cases above visited the Springwood Sports Club, 83 Macquarie Road, Springwood, and anyone who attended on 12 September from 1 pm to 2 pm time is considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop. After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative test result is received. |
| These cases also visited Lawson oval, Lawson. Anyone who attended on 13 September from 10:30 am to 12:45 pm is also considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop. After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative test result is received. | These cases also visited Lawson oval, Lawson. Anyone who attended on 13 September from 10:30 am to 12:45 pm is also considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop. After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative test result is received. |
| People who attended the above venues who are identified as close contacts are being contacted by NSW Health. Close contacts must immediately isolate and get tested for COVID-19 and remain in isolation for a full 14 days after their contact, even if the test result is negative. | People who attended the above venues who are identified as close contacts are being contacted by NSW Health. Close contacts must immediately isolate and get tested for COVID-19 and remain in isolation for a full 14 days after their contact, even if the test result is negative. |
| One of the cases reported today attended the Hunters Hill Bowling Club on Tuesday 8th September from 6:50pm to 9pm. NSW Health is contacting all patrons who were at the venue at this time to review their exposure and identify any close contacts. Anyone who was at the venue at this time should be alert for symptoms and immediately get tested if any develop or have developed since this exposure, and stay isolated until a negative test result is received. | One of the cases reported today attended the Hunters Hill Bowling Club on Tuesday 8th September from 6:50pm to 9pm. NSW Health is contacting all patrons who were at the venue at this time to review their exposure and identify any close contacts. Anyone who was at the venue at this time should be alert for symptoms and immediately get tested if any develop or have developed since this exposure, and stay isolated until a negative test result is received. |
| One of the cases reported today attended the JB HIFI Penrith Plaza on Sunday 13 September from 4pm to 4.30pm. Anyone who was at the venue at this time should be alert for symptoms and immediately get tested if any develop or have developed since this exposure, and stay isolated until a negative test result is received. | One of the cases reported today attended the JB HIFI Penrith Plaza on Sunday 13 September from 4pm to 4.30pm. Anyone who was at the venue at this time should be alert for symptoms and immediately get tested if any develop or have developed since this exposure, and stay isolated until a negative test result is received. |
| NSW Health is also advising that a previously reported case attended Anytime Fitness, Casula on Friday 11 September from 10:15am to 12pm. All people who attended the gym during this time are considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop. After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative test result is received. | NSW Health is also advising that a previously reported case attended Anytime Fitness, Casula on Friday 11 September from 10:15am to 12pm. All people who attended the gym during this time are considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop. After testing, they must remain in isolation until a negative test result is received. |
| That’s where the Daniel Andrews press conference ends. | That’s where the Daniel Andrews press conference ends. |
| On the issue of ‘permanent’ road blocks, that is what it sounded like and that is what the Tveeder transcript said and Andrews said something similar yesterday. I am checking whether it should be ‘prominent’. | On the issue of ‘permanent’ road blocks, that is what it sounded like and that is what the Tveeder transcript said and Andrews said something similar yesterday. I am checking whether it should be ‘prominent’. |
| No one is suggesting there will be a divide between metro Melbourne and regional Victoria forever - but just like for the moment there are fixed roadblocks set up at borders, there will be stronger static roadblocks between metro Melbourne and regional Victoria while restrictions are lifted in one area and not the other. | No one is suggesting there will be a divide between metro Melbourne and regional Victoria forever - but just like for the moment there are fixed roadblocks set up at borders, there will be stronger static roadblocks between metro Melbourne and regional Victoria while restrictions are lifted in one area and not the other. |
| Q: There’s been parents asking for, when metropolitan schools open up, for Grade 6 rather than Grade 2 to be allowed in first. Has there been medical advice that suggest why the younger levels compared to Grade 6 would be able to go back? | Q: There’s been parents asking for, when metropolitan schools open up, for Grade 6 rather than Grade 2 to be allowed in first. Has there been medical advice that suggest why the younger levels compared to Grade 6 would be able to go back? |
| Daniel Andrews: | Daniel Andrews: |
| Can Melbourne look at just locking down aged care, but opening up other areas? | Can Melbourne look at just locking down aged care, but opening up other areas? |
| Daniel Andrews: | Daniel Andrews: |
| There will be no changes to daylight saving in Victoria. | There will be no changes to daylight saving in Victoria. |