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Coronavirus live news: cases surge in Europe; Melbourne delays easing of restrictions Coronavirus live news: cases surge in Europe; Melbourne delays easing of restrictions
(32 minutes later)
France, Italy, Austria and Greece report record increases in Covid-19 cases; Melbourne cluster grows. Follow the latest updates liveFrance, Italy, Austria and Greece report record increases in Covid-19 cases; Melbourne cluster grows. Follow the latest updates live
New South Wales has recorded no new locally-acquired cases for the third consecutive day. Hello, this is Helen Davidson here to take you through the next few hours of global updates. Thanks to Calla for everything so far. First, a quick look around the world for the latest top line developments, with more to follow:
It recorded seven cases in hotel quarantine. Some 12,465 tests were conducted in the past 24-hours. Italy reported a new daily record of 19,644 new coronavirus infections on Saturday as the government considered further measures to limit the surge in cases.
Andrews was asked what he would do if this outbreak had occurred after pubs and retail stores were reopened. Would Melbourne be locked down again? Isn’t dealing with outbreaks just the way it’s going to be? Algeria’s president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, has entered self-isolation after several senior officials displayed coronavirus symptoms, the presidency has said in a statement.
Andrews initially didn’t respond, saying he was doing “exactly what we intend to do”. Then he said he would “not necessarily” put the state back into lockdown if an outbreak like this occurred after the state had opened up. Austria has reported a record daily rise in coronavirus cases, with 3,614 infections in the last 24 hours. It is a significant increase from the 2,571 announced on Friday.
Reporter: So what is the lowest point possible? Brazil has registered 26,979 new cases and 432 additional coronavirus deaths over the last 24 hours.
Coronavirus cases have risen by the record figure of 862 in Luxembourg, while a further three deaths being reported.
The Metropolitan police have said they made 18 arrests at today’s anti-lockdown protest in central London.
Greece announced a record 935 new infections on Saturday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 29,992.
France reported 45,422 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, compared to 42,032 on Friday. The country has registered a total of 1,086,497 cases.
An investigation is underway in the Chinese region of Xinjiang after an asymptomatic coronavirus case was identified in the city of Kashgar on Saturday, the health commission said. It is the first local case in the region since 15 August.
The number of coronavirus deaths in the Czech Republic has doubled to 2,047 in two weeks, data from the health ministry showed on Saturday.
Angolan protesters defied coronavirus restrictions in the capital of Luanda on Saturday, taking to the streets to demonstrate against the government. Police fired tear gas and beat up demonstrators, some of whom had set up barricades and set fires.
The Australian state of Victoria has recorded seven new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24-hours.
With that, I’ll hand over to Helen Davidson who will take you through the day.
The press conference in Victoria has become a series of reporters putting agree/disagree statements to the premier, and Daniel Andrews rejecting the premise of the question and saying, on repeat: “That is not a question, that’s a statement.”
I won’t repeat them here, because there isn’t a lot of information to be gleaned.
The gist: reporters are attempting to get Andrews to comment on the frustration felt by business owners, and the broader community, that the roadmap is not being followed and that the end of the lockdown has not been announced on the day the announcement was promised. Andrews is getting frustrated, challenging the premise of questions, and then repeating the line of the day: we have to wait until the test results come back.
However the date of opening up has shifted forward. Andrews said he will have “more to say tomorrow and Tuesday” and “we will be opening up before the weekend”.
And, after 80 minutes, the press conference is over.
A clarification from the premier:
Just going back to a question James asked. I wouldn’t want anyone watching here to be in any doubt. November 1, absolutely, still well and truly on track to be able to have opening, have opening up before then, by on that day, in fact, earlier than then.
Reporter: Why didn’t you say that an hour ago, as directly as that?
Andrews, with a deep sigh:
The Victorian chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, was asked if it was awkward that his advice was that Victoria could not yet announce details of a reopening, when the former Victorian health minister, the Australian health minister, the NSW premier and the WHO were suggesting it could be reopened.
Sutton said:
Reporter:
Andrews:Andrews:
While the Victorian government has been holding its press conference, the former health minister Jenny Mikakos, who resigned last month following the premier’s appearance before the hotel quarantine inquiry and later hit back at premier Daniel Andrews and suggested she had been made a scapegoat, has tweeted that she thinks the easing of restrictions should go ahead. A reporter asked Andrews: “You said in your opening remarks that this is not a setback. People when they woke up this morning believed it would be at worst on November one but you are not committing to that so we have gone backwards today.”
Mikakos said that with the target of less than five cases per day met, and six of the seven new cases connected to known outbreaks, “the set reopening is gradual & safe so any delay is unnecessary”. Andrews:
The chief health officer, Prof Brett Sutton, said Mikakos was “entitled to that opinion”. Is it fair to call it a “cautious pause” when thousands of [businesses] have been closed for months?
Andrews refused to comment on it, becoming short with reporters. He said: Andrews said it was not his strategy that every outbreak should result in a new lockdown, but said Victoria has “an opportunity to essentially get ahead of this virus”.
One reporter said Andrews had promised that he would announce an easing of restrictions today every day for the past week, except for yesterday. “You dangled a carrot at Victorians and today it feels like you have produced a stick,” one reporter said. Asked if Melbourne was “just lucky” to already be under lockdown when this outbreak occurred, Andrews said:
Andrews said he rejected that characterisation. A reporter said that NSW had been open for months with daily average cases hovering around 10. “If our contact tracing is as good as they are and we have as much faith in the Victorian community as the New SouthWales government has, why can’t we reopen?”
Ducking to the UK for a moment, PA has this report: Officials on the UK government’s Covid-19 taskforce are understood to be examining the case for reducing the current fortnight period of isolation to between 10 days and a week. Andrews:
There were said to be concerns that the prospect of a lengthy period indoors if they are contacted by Test and Trace is deterring people from co-operating. Another reporter asked Andrews to acknowledge that “the way the public is feeling must be a rollercoaster. You have mentioned that you understand that people are frustrated, do not think it has gone past frustration today? Today is a different level for the community in terms of what they thought would happen and what has happened.”
The Telegraph quoted a No 10 source as saying: “Compliance is not as high as we would like and self-isolation is key if we are going to beat the virus.” Andrews said he knew that it was frustrating.
Last week Test and Trace hit a record low with just 59.6% of the contacts of people who tested positive for the disease being successfully contacted and told to self-isolate. Back to Victoria, where this press conference is still going on. Premier Daniel Andrews was asked to respond to his former health minister Jenny Mikakos’ comment that not going ahead with a planned easing of restrictions today was an example of “paralysis in decision making”. Andrews said:
Senior Tory backbencher Sir Bernard Jenkin launched a scathing attack on the performance of the system, saying public consent and co-operation was “breaking down”. Reporter: “She has been a respected member of your government.”
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, he said there was a “vacuum of leadership” at the top of the organisation and called for a change that was “visible and decisive” with a senior military figure being put in charge like they did with the foot and mouth crisis. Andrews:
In response, the Department of Health and Social Care acknowledged there were areas where the service needed to improve, but said people should be “talking it up, not down”, and the leadership had built “the largest diagnostic industry the UK has ever seen”. Another reporter asked if it would not have been “less unsettling for Melbournians” if Andrews had stuck to the initial roadmap dates, set out in September, rather than announcing they would be brought forward, then pushing them back again. The reporter called it a “rollercoaster effect”.
Weimar rejected the suggestion, made by Australian federal health minister Greg Hunt this morning, that the decision to delay the easing of restrictions was a sign of no confidence in the testing and tracing system, which he manages. Andrews:
Weimar said: What does Andrews think about federal health minister Greg Hunt’s comments, that the only reason you would hold off reopening if you didn’t have faith in the contact tracing system.
Asked if he recommended the delay to government, Weimar said: Andrews says that “is completely wrong”.
Weimar said there were five public health teams targeting the close contacts of known cases and of the East Preston Islamic College and Croxton specialist school communities. Those teams are knocking on the doors of known contacts and encouraging them to get a test. People who refuse to get a test have been ordered to quarantine for longer.
Weimar said public health teams contacted 250 close contacts yesterday to get those door-to-door tests, and have a list of 60 people to contact today.
There are now 20 households that are quarantined in alternative accomodation, the rest are quarantined at home.
Weimar said he needed several thousand people in the northern suburbs of Melbourne to get a Covid-19 test today.
Victoria’s commander of testing and community engagement, Jeroen Weimar, says almost 2,500 tests were conducted in the northern suburbs of Melbourne yesterday. He said there had been a “strong community response”.
Testing numbers are up 60% on last week, and he urged anyone in the northern suburbs with any symptoms, and anyone connected with the two schools even without symptoms, to get tested.
He added:
Weimar said they had set up a special testing station at Croxton Specialist school, in partnership with the Royal Children’s Hospital specialist paediatric team, to help test its 120 students.
Andrews did announce some changes for regional Victoria, which is already several steps ahead of Melbourne in terms of easing of restrictions.
From 11.59pm on Tuesday:
Gyms in regional Victoria will be open to a maximum of 20 people, with space rules applying.
A maximum of 20 people, again with spacing rules, will be allowed to attend a religious service with one faith leader.
Outdoor funerals will be allowed to have 50 attendees.
Indoor non-contact community sport for people under the age of 18 will be allowed.
Indoor swimming pools will be open for all ages, to a maximum of 20 people.
Greater Shepparton, which had a coronavirus outbreak earlier this month, will be brought back in line with the rest of regional Victoria from midnight tonight.
Daniel Andrews said they had found “linkages” and “chains of transmission” between new cases in the northern suburbs.
He also said hundreds who were under self-isolation orders have now been allowed to leave their home after testing negative.
He added: