Summary
- The NSW Supreme Court ruled that Saturday's Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney should not go ahead, although large crowds may ignore the order. There are also rallies planned for Queensland.
- Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton urged Victorians not to attend a rally planned for Melbourne on Saturday. Organisers urged protesters to take face masks and hand sanitiser, and said community safety was paramount.
- Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt warned the rallies could endanger the lives of Indigenous people if coronavirus was taken back to remote communities. Indigenous health leader Pat Turner rejected this, saying protesters the pandemic wasn’t a reason to stop people exercising their political rights.
- Queensland restaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs can now open to more than 20 customers if they have an approved COVID plan.
- A primary school in Melbourne's north closed after a prep student contracted COVID-19, one of three new cases confirmed in Victoria. NSW has recorded four new cases.
Latest updates
Is Australia set for a post-COVID film boom?
Australia's early emergence from the worst of COVID-19 means its attractiveness has stepped up a notch as Hollywood looks for production sites.
Is more Hollywood headed Down Under?
In the post-COVID world, Australia could be poised for a boom in foreign film production. Ausfilm boss Kate Marks says the agency has more than $900 million worth of potential deals on the table linked to 18 Hollywood-backed features and TV series.
Read Karl Quinn's article: Australia could be poised for boom in Hollywood production, says Ausfilm boss
UK death toll passes 40,000
The UK has become the second country to officially record more than 40,000 coronavirus-related deaths.
The grim milestone on Friday coincided with more than 100 scientists writing to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government urging it to reconsider lifting lockdown restrictions.
England's Brighton Beach and other popular holiday spots have been busy since coronavirus restrictions were eased.Credit:Getty Images
The government said another 357 people who had tested positive for the virus have died in the UK. That takes the total to 40,261, the world's second-highest pandemic death toll after the US.
The UK's actual COVID-19 death toll is considered to be higher as the total only includes those who have tested positive for the virus.
In an open letter, the scientists urged the government to postpone any further easing of the lockdown. The scientists, many of whom work in infectious disease, biology and immunology, are particularly vexed by the level of community transmission.
"Despite a two-month lockdown, we are still experiencing unacceptable daily numbers of deaths, still in the hundreds, and an estimated 8000 new infections a day in England alone," they wrote.
"There is a very high probability that relaxation of lockdown, coupled with a potential breakdown in public trust, will bring us back into a situation where the outbreak is once again out of control."
Steps to ease the lockdown in England have included the reopening of some schools and allowing groups of six people from different households to meet. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have also relaxed lockdown, but at a slower rate.
AAP
Packed stadiums as football returns in Vietnam
Thousands of fans poured into stadiums in Vietnam on Friday as the country resumed top-flight soccer without social distancing measures or curbs on crowd sizes.
The stadium in Nam Dinh was close to its 30,000 capacity as the home side lost 2-1 to visitors Viettel in one of three opening V. League matches.
Spectators stood shoulder-to-shoulder with few face masks in sight. Hand sanitiser was available and stewards performed temperature checks on fans.
Matches in Vietnam's professional league were suspended in March, but with no coronavirus deaths and just 328 confirmed cases, the country is eager to get its economy back on track.
Vietnam has won praise for its aggressive coronavirus testing and a mass, centralised quarantine regime.
The V. League's decision to pick up exactly where it left off bucks a global pattern of countries preparing to restart leagues without supporters.
Leagues in Spain, England and Italy are set to resume later this month, while the German Bundesliga has already restarted with empty stadiums and muted goal celebrations.
Australia's A-League is scheduled to restart mid-July, but there is still doubt over Australian teams finishing the Asian Champions League season. Football is, however, back on track in Darwin.
Reuters
Virus to punch $500b hole in federal budget
The coronavirus pandemic and measures to stop its spread are forecast to punch a half trillion dollar hole in the federal budget over the coming decade and weigh on any possible new spending measures planned by the Morrison government or the Labor Party.
Special analysis of the virus' impact on the budget by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office suggests Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is on track for a deficit of at least $170 billion in 2020-21. He had hoped to deliver a surplus of $6.1 billion after a $5 billion surplus in the current financial year.
Read Shane Wright's full report: Virus to punch $500b hole in federal budget over coming decade: PBO.
Greta Thunberg takes on Jair Bolsonaro
Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg has slammed Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Brazil on Thursday reported a record rise in deaths, with 1437 lives lost in a 24-hour period. The total death toll now stands at more than 34,000.
Greta Thunberg.Credit:AP
Bolsonaro, who has repeatedly downplayed the threat of the virus, dismissed the mounting death toll, saying that death is "everyone's destiny".
Thunberg, however, hasn't dismissed it so easily.
"The Bolsonaro government has definitely failed in tackling the coronavirus pandemic as many other governments have also done," the 17-year-old Swede said on a video conference with journalists.
Thunberg was speaking during the launch of a crowdfunding campaign to buy medical supplies and provide telemedicine services to residents in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, where there is a lack of robust health services.
Governments around the world, including Brazil, have "failed to save lives and because of that we have seen many deaths that could have been prevented," Thunberg said.
Bolsonaro has fiercely criticised measures to shut down non-essential businesses and keep residents indoors to slow the spread of the coronavirus, saying the economic damage being done is worse than the health risk itself.
Thunberg has sparred with Bolsonaro before, with the Brazilian President calling her a "pirralha," which roughly translates as "brat." Thunberg responded by changing her Twitter bio to "Pirralha."
Reuters
Australian scientists slam hydroxychloroquine fiasco
The WHO trial reboot coincided with British scientists halting their own trial on Friday after initial results showed no evidence of benefit.
"We reviewed the data and concluded there is no evidence of a beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine in patients hospitalised with COVID, and decided to stop enrolling patients to the hydroxychloroquine arm with immediate effect," said Martin Landray, an Oxford University professor who is co-leading the so-called RECOVERY trial.
"This is not a treatment for COVID-19. It doesn't work. This result should change medical practice worldwide. We can now stop using a drug that is useless."
Kate Aubusson's report: 'This is not how science works': setback in COVID-19 treatment search.
A quiet and lonely D-Day
Colleville-sur-Mer: Today marks the 76th anniversary of the D-Day landings, but France's northern coast will remain mostly silent thanks to coronavirus.
D-Day veteran Charles Norman Shay is one of relatively few Americans in France to mark D-Day this year. He is pictured here on the dune overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy.Credit:AP
France has only just come out of lockdown, with bars and restaurants slowly opening their doors again after the government lifted final restrictions on Tuesday.
Saturday's anniversary will be one of the loneliest remembrances ever, as COVID-19 keeps almost everyone away – from government leaders to frail veterans who might not get another chance to farewell comrades who were left behind.
"The sadness is almost too much because there is no one," said local guide Adeline James.
Locals all along the Normandy peninsula come out year after year to show their gratitude for soldiers from the US, Britain, Canada and elsewhere who liberated them from Adolf Hitler's Nazi forces.
Some 160,000 soldiers made the perilous crossing from England on the morning of June 6, 1944, storming dunes that were heavily defended by German troops. The Allies succeeded, but left thousands of comrades behind.
This year will stand in stark contrast to 2019 commemorations, which saw US President Donald Trump join his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron at the American cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach.
Tens of thousands came from across the globe to pay their respects to the dead and laud the survivors. The acrid smell of wartime-era jeep exhaust fumes and the rumble of old tanks filled the air. The tiny roads were clogged for hours.
This year, a sense of desolation hangs across the region.
"Last year this place was full with jeeps, trucks, people dressed up as soldiers," said Eric Angely, who sat on a seawall, dressed in a World War II uniform after taking his restored US Army jeep out for a ride. "This year, there is nothing. It's just me now, my dog and my jeep."
AP
Welcome to our coronavirus coverage for Saturday
Welcome to our live coronavirus coverage for Saturday.
Here's a recap of where we were on Friday night:
- The NSW Supreme Court ruled that Saturday's Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney should not go ahead, although large crowds may ignore the order.
- Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton urged Victorians not to attend a rally planned for Melbourne on Saturday. Organisers urged protesters to take face masks and hand sanitiser, and said community safety was paramount.
- There are also rallies planned for Queensland.
- Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt warned the rallies could endanger the lives of Indigenous people if coronavirus was taken back to remote communities. Indigenous health leader Pat Turner rejected this, saying protesters the pandemic wasn’t a reason to stop people exercising their political rights.
- Queensland restaurants, cafes, pubs and clubs can now open to more than 20 customers if they have an approved COVID-safe plan.
- A primary school in Melbourne's north closed after a prep student contracted COVID-19, one of three new cases recorded in Victoria overnight. NSW recorded four new cases.
You can catch up on all of Friday's events on yesterday's blog.
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2020-06-05 18:04:00Z
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