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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria premier Daniel Andrews addresses press conference as NSW authorities chase taxi contacts
Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria premier Daniel Andrews addresses press conference as NSW authorities chase taxi contacts
(32 minutes later)
NSW conducts major contact-tracing exercise after a driver worked while potentially infectious as Covid testing rates drop across Australia
NSW conducts major contact-tracing exercise after a driver worked while potentially infectious as Covid testing rates drop across Australia
On the testing, is Daniel Andrews worried it is not high enough?
On that, Daniel Andrews says:
Q: In terms of tracing apps, where will they feed their information into that system?
Andrews:
Andrews:
Q: You say 11 new cases is great but there were only 7000 tested when the aim is 20,000.
Just as with the regional model, they will be live and be a service point or touch point of the central system that we are building. So they become a branch office of the centre. In real-time, their data will be visible and actionable by everybody else who is in that loop.
Q: Everyone across the country?
Andrews:
Andrews:
Q: It was 20,000?
The trip Victorian health authorities took to Sydney to study NSW’s tracing system will be kept secret, under national cabinet rules.
Andrews:
Q: On aged care, have you landed on a policy position about visits by family and friends in stage four.
Q: Are you nervous about having a lot of people out and about?
Daniel Andrews:
Daniel Andrews:
Q: You are not nervous about that?
I have to be honest, and I preface this by saying I am very uncomfortable with the fines and penalties we have seen emerge across Australia during the pandemic (it’s the eastern European in me) but I am quite confused by the argument some of the personal liberties or death people are taking - asking for more people to be fined, to make up for how unfair it is that some people have been fined.
Andrews:
Not the first time I have been confused during all of this, won’t be the last.
OK, time for the questions.
Moving on.
Q: Can we just ask, the step at the end of October, the whole lot of things are due to happen on either the date or when you reach the marked cases. Is there any thought of separating out some of those things, like the curfew or the 5k? Is it possible beyond a different timetable?
So will that same attitude be applied to school holiday families?
Daniel Andrews:
Daniel Andrews:
School camps are back for regional Victorian students.
Will families with kids on school holidays receive the same allowances as families in Hallam who were not fined for breaking social distancing rules.
Education minister, James Merlino announces a bit more of normal life is returning for regional Victorian school students:
(Andrew Bolt has been particularly Andrew Bolt about this, this morning. You can guess the line he has taken. I’m not going to be repeating it, because I like to spend as little time as possible thinking of Andrew Bolt, despite the amount of time Andrew Bolt dedicates to thinking on people and issues who have offended his very privileged existence.)
They’ll be single school camps and there will be covid plans in place:
Back to Andrews:
Q: Restaurant owners in the regions say the couple of day’s notice they were given when restrictions were lifted there wasn’t enough to get their businesses back up and running as quickly as possible.
Daniel Andrews:
Daniel Andrews:
There were only 7,164 tests processed in the last 24 hours.
Q: On rewards, do you need to give people a bit of a reward to ensure you maintain compliance?
That’s pretty low but acceptable, apparently:
It is critically important that we keep the test numbers up as high as they can be.
Anybody who has symptoms needs to come forward and get tested. Don’t put it off for a day or wait two days. Get tested today.
Daniel Andrews:
Daniel Andrews:
Daniel Andrews is addressing the media. A woman in her 80s and a woman in her 100s died, both diagnosed with Covid, died in the last 24 hours.
Q: On that point would you open up testing to people who are not showing symptoms, potentially from hotspot suburbs, industries, just so you get a better picture of what is really going on?
There have been 763 deaths due to this global pandemic.
Daniel Andrews:
Of today’s 11 cases in Victoria, five are linked to known outbreaks and six remain under investigation.
Will the date for opening up be brought forward?
Daniel Andrews is about to hold his 81st consecutive press conference.
Daniel Andrews:
Here’s how the first 77 days went down:
Will Daniel Andrews announce further steps on Sunday than what is slated in the roadmap?
Today’s international Covid blog is up and running with Helen Sullivan:
Andrews:
Daniel Andrews will hold his press conference at 10am.
Testing rates are also down in Queensland. The chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, says she expects that is a normal reaction to people breathing a sigh of relief after coming to the end of the latest cluster (west of Brisbane) but she would like more people to come forward to make sure there are no rogue cases.
Queensland’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, says talks are under way with the hotel industry to expand the hotel quarantine program and accept more returned travellers.
Queensland has reported one new case of Covid – a teenager in hotel quarantine.
For more information on the impact of the supplement cut, you can head here:
Just a reminder that with almost a million people out of work, the Covid supplement for the jobseeker unemployment benefit will be cut from $550 a fortnight to $250 a fortnight from 24 September.
That takes the payment from just over $1,100 to $815 a fortnight.
Australians and New Zealanders have long pinned their hopes on an eventual trans-Tasman bubble that would allow travel between the two countries to resume without a fortnight in government-run quarantine at either end.
But the chief executive of Air New Zealand has told an Australian newspaper he doesn’t expect the “bubble” to be in place for at least six more months.
Greg Foran, who heads New Zealand’s flag carrier airline, made the comments to the Sydney Morning Herald, adding that: “It’s hard to believe it would be before March next year and could well be longer.”The prime ministers of both countries have frequently been asked about the proposed “bubble” since the idea was floated, but neither would commit to a timeline before the coronavirus was brought under control.
There are 909 active cases of the virus in Australia and Melbourne remains in lockdown. New Zealand has 71 active cases.
Has Dr Nick Coatsworth seen any modelling on when borders may reopen across the country?
On the NSW taxi driver who was diagnosed with Covid, Dr Nick Coatsworth says:
