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Coronavirus Australia update LIVE: Victoria awaits new numbers after 723 COVID-19 cases, face masks mandatory across state, QLD border to close to Greater Sydney, Australia death toll at 189 - The Sydney Morning Herald

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Summary

  • Victoria is awaiting new numbers on Friday after 13 deaths and 723 new cases on Thursday.
  • NSW recorded 19 new cases on Thursday and also closed several schools due to COVID-19 positive tests.
  • There are health alerts for 11 sites in Brisbane after two women who travelled to Queensland from Melbourne via Sydney did not adhere to self-isolation directions and tested positive. A close contact has already tested positive.
  • US death toll passes 151,000 people.
  • The world has recorded over 17.1 million cases and 669,000 deaths so far.

Latest updates

Fair Work Commission rejects Deakin Uni cuts

The Fair Work Commission has rejected Deakin University's plan to cut 400 jobs.

The National Tertiary Education Union said the Fair Work Commission has rejected Deakin University management’s plan to cut 400 jobs, "forcing it back to the drawing board".

The NTEU said the university announced a plan in May this year to cut 100 jobs and make 300 staff redundant.

The Fair Work Commission had failed to provide an opportunity for meaningful consultation on its proposal and how to manage staffing.

NTEU Deakin President Dr Kerrie Saville said staff at Deakin University "are navigating a difficult and stressful time".

"This was made worse by the University’s attempt to impose its will without properly consulting staff," she said.

“We are fighting tooth and nail to save every job we can at Deakin University. Robust and genuine consultation is critically important to that process.

“Deakin University management must come back to the negotiating table in good faith. But they should do so with the right motivation – to save as many careers and livelihoods as we possibly can.”

Dr Chant says NSW COVID-19 cases all linked to Victoria

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said the active COVID-19 cases in NSW are all linked to strains circulating in Victoria.

In some cases, like the Crossroads Hotel Cluster, health officials have been able to locate the exact source of the infection, she told 2GB.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant.Credit:Edwina Pickles

Health officials believe the Thai Rock restaurant in Wetherill Park and Potts Point outbreaks originated from the same source and were waiting for further results from genetic sequencing to confirm the link to the Apollo restaurant, also in Potts Point.

Dr Chant said the border restrictions on those travelling between NSW and Victoria had been a difficult decision, but one that had been essential in preventing further outbreaks.

"We don't want people coming unknowingly infecting and the setting off chains of infections in NSW," she said.

"Health officials all recognise the preventing of movement of people from an area where you have high rates of disease to low rates of disease is one controls you need to put in place."

Dr Chant urged the community to minimise contact with others, practice good hand hygiene and wear a mask when unable to socially distance while NSW Health is “putting out spot fires”.

She also said anyone who had symptoms should not go out into the community, rather they should go and get tested.

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Another person caught trying to lie to get through QLD/NSW border after three women charged

A matter of hours after police laid charges carrying hefty fines and possible jail time against three women accused of lying to border officials, another person has tried to pull the same trick at the Queensland/New South Wales border.

Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski says it is "incredibly difficult" to check where people have been and whether they are being truthful, before allowing them across the interstate border.

“Even as early as this morning when a person trying to get through on a false declaration at Coolangatta, they were given a $4000 fine and turned around after coming out of Fairfield in Sydney," he tells ABC Radio Brisbane.

"The system is working, but there is always going to be people who try to deceive us."

It comes as ABC News reports Queensland detectives are looking into whether three young women at the centre of the state's COVID-19 scare were coached by an organised crime syndicate to cover their tracks at the border.

"That’s absolute news to me," Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski tells ABC Radio Brisbane in response.

"There are ongoing investigations but these are the sorts of things we deal with every day, so I’m not going to comment further."

Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski says all three women have cooperated with detectives and disclosed their true movements interstate and upon their return to Queensland.

One of the women was not cooperating on Thursday.

Herman Cain, one-time Republican presidential candidate, dies from coronavirus

Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has died after battling the coronavirus. He was 74.

A post on Cain's Twitter account announced the death on Thursday morning, US time.

Herman Cain was hospitalised with coronavirus earlier this month.

Herman Cain was hospitalised with coronavirus earlier this month.Credit:AP

It was not clear when or where Cain was infected with the virus, but he learned of his diagnosis on June 29, nine days after attending President Donald Trump's campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He spent most of July in an Atlanta hospital.

The former pizza company executive had been an outspoken backer of the President and was named by the campaign as a co-chair of Black Voices for Trump.

AP, Bloomberg

Click here to read the story.

Queensland’s virus wake-up call: honesty is essential to stop spread

Queensland's COVID-19 cluster should serve as a "wake-up call" and reinforces the risk of people giving "false details" to authorities which slowed down contact tracing, experts warn.

Queensland has recorded six new COVID-19 cases in two days, three of which are linked to a group of young women who travelled to Melbourne and then allegedly lied about where they had been on their return to Brisbane.

Dr Jeannette Young says the next few days are crucial in getting ahead of a potential second wave of the virus in Queensland

Dr Jeannette Young says the next few days are crucial in getting ahead of a potential second wave of the virus in QueenslandCredit:Jack Tran/Queensland Government

Queensland Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said contact tracing and testing was under way, and she was happy that out of 6800 tests carried out across the state on Wednesday, none had come back positive on Thursday morning.

"We need to have a lot more testing over the next 48 hours before we can say we’ve got it in hand," Dr Young said.

"It’s reassuring we’ve not got any more positives but it’s far, far too early to be complacent."

Click here to read the story.

Opinion: Alone on the podium, Premier faces the music - and it's the blues

If a Premier is supposed to be in tune with the people, Daniel Andrews was on song on Thursday.

It wasn’t a merry sort of tune, however. More of a solemn slow march. Or the blues. Suitable for a people grown bone-tired of hearing bad news while locked up and wearied of adjusting face masks to walk their streets.

Premier Daniel Andrews during his daily briefing on Thursday.

Premier Daniel Andrews during his daily briefing on Thursday.Credit:Getty Images

The Premier looked and sounded exhausted, as if he would rather be doing anything but delivering the latest record figures of new coronavirus infections, knowing the graph that would appear on every news outlet would look akin to an engineer’s drawing of an unfinished Eiffel Tower.

He appeared dispirited at lecturing those who, having tested positive, were still going to work, and positively burdened when apologising to country Victorians for finding it necessary to require them to mask up.

He had no one but a very busy Auslan interpreter to share his burden for most of the long, long press conference.

Click here to read the full article.

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PM, Victorian Premier talking about more extreme lockdown measures

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews have canvassed further extreme lockdown measures following the largest single day of positive COVID-19 results on Thursday.

Mr Morrison and Mr Andrews held emergency talks on Thursday night, which included the possibility of further restrictions on movement within Melbourne and potentially shutting down all non-essential industries, leaving only supermarkets, petrol stations, pharmacies and medical providers open.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews.

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews.Credit:Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Several sources told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that Friday's numbers would be critical to any further decisions made which could see the city adopt New Zealand-style lockdown for a number of weeks.

The nation's expert medical panel, the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, is expected to have updated advice for leaders on the Victorian situation as early as today.

State and territory leaders will join Mr Morrison on a long-planned phone hook-up on Friday to discuss security matters.

The meeting is not an official national cabinet discussion as is not expected to directly canvass further lockdowns.

WHO warns partying youngsters are partly driving COVID-19 spike

Geneva: Young people letting down their guard to enjoy holidays are partly driving a spike in new COVID-19 cases in some countries, the World Health Organisation says.

A fresh jump in cases in parts of Europe, the United States and Asia has fuelled fears of a second wave of new coronavirus infections and prompted some countries to impose new restrictions on travel.

Barcelona's bars and clubs have been restricted, but young people are gathering in the streets instead.

Barcelona's bars and clubs have been restricted, but young people are gathering in the streets instead.Credit:AP

"We've said this before and we'll say it again: young people are not invincible," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing in Geneva.

Evidence suggests that recent spikes of cases in some countries are being "driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the northern hemisphere summer", he said.

Reuters, AP, Bloomberg

Click here to read the full story.

ABF rejects reports a senior officer allowed Ruby Princess passengers to disembark

UPDATED: The Australian Border Force has rejected last night’s ABC 7:30 report that a senior ABF officer allowed 2,700 passengers to disembark the Ruby Princess cruise ship after mistakenly believing passengers displaying ‘flu-like symptoms’ had tested negative to COVID-19.

“No ABF officer had authority to make biosecurity decisions in relation to the Ruby Princess, including about pratique,” a statement from ABF said.

“The ABF responsibility does not include preventing the disembarkation of passengers or crew for human health reasons.”

“Any misinterpretation by ABF officers of test results did not make a difference as to whether passengers were cleared to disembark the Ruby Princess. Human health is not the responsibility of the ABF.”

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant told 2GB she was not in a position to comment on the report and would await the results of the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Ruby Princess.

Opposition MP says Victoria on 'brink of catastrophe'

Victorian Liberal MP Tim Smith said the state is on “the brink of a catastrophe” as the number of positive cases continues to grow.

On Thursday, the state recorded 723 new cases and 13 deaths.

Mr Smith, who holds the opposition planning, housing, population and local government portfolios, told radio station 2GB: “If Victoria was a country, we would be in the top 20 countries in the world for coronavirus infection. Only the US and Israel have worse infection rates per capita in the entire world. This is a crisis.”

He added “no one had confidence” in Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ ability to manage the situation, and should instead hand the situation over to Canberra.

“He needs to refer his powers to Scott Morrison and Greg Hunt because people have confidence in them, but they’ve got no confidence in Andrews. We need federal intervention and we need it now because Victoria is on the brink of a catastrophe.”

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2020-07-30 21:03:00Z
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