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Cases on the rise in India, Pakistan
India has cancelled the planned reopening of the Taj Mahal, citing the risk of new infections in the northern city of Agra.
Local authorities issued a new advisory late on Sunday ordering an extension of lockdown curbs on monuments in and around Agra.
Indians labourers sit on boxes of medicines and wait for markets to open early morning in Jammu, India on Wednesday.Credit:AP
Agra, one of India's first big clusters of the virus, remains the worst-affected city in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state.
India's coronavirus infections are rising at the fastest pace in three months.
On Sunday, officials reported a record single-day spike of 24,850 new cases and more than 600 deaths. That pushed India's overall tally to 673,165 cases, closing in on Russia, the third-most affected country globally.
But the government has been lifting a vast lockdown of India's 1.3 billion people that has left tens of thousands without work and shuttered businesses.
While international flights remain suspended, domestic travel has been opened up, and the government is hoping visitors will start to trickle back to some popular destinations.
Containment zones, areas identified as most affected by the virus, remain under strict lockdown, with restricted access and movement of only essential goods and services.
In neighbouring Pakistan, there have been 93 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, increasing the country’s fatalities to 4712 since the end of February.
According to Sunday’s government statement, as many as 3191 new cases were reported in 24 hours, increasing the country’s overall cases to 228,474. It also indicated a steady reduction in coronavirus cases in recent days, apparently stemming from a decline in testing.
Officials say COVID-19 tests were decreasing because many people preferred to quarantine themselves at home after developing symptoms.
Council provides supplies for towers as concerns rise CBD could be closed
By Craig Butt
Melbourne's city council has swung into action to provide food, supplies and services to public housing residents who have been locked down in the city's north, the city's mayor has said.
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said she spent Sunday loading pallets with supplies for the 3000 residents of nine locked-down towers, who have been told they cannot leave their homes.
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said she spent Sunday loading pallets with supplies for the 3000 residents of nine locked-down towers.Credit:Arsineh Housipan
"For anybody from the towers in hard lockdown, please know we support you and are doing everything we can to support you," Cr Capp told radio station 3AW.
"There's no doubt we are in an extreme situation and we are responding as best we can," she said.
Residents of 12 postcodes in Melbourne are subject to "stay-at-home" orders to stem the spread of coronavirus, meaning they can only leave home to go to study or work, to get exercise, to provide care or to buy groceries.
"Nobody likes seeing more suburbs go into lockdown or the number of cases rise," she said.
Two new postcodes (3031 and 3051) were locked down on Saturday, both within Melbourne's city council boundaries, leading to concerns the central business district could be next to be placed under tightened restrictions.
"We really hope it doesn't come to that," she said.
Airline crew to work in Melbourne hotel quarantine
Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has confirmed some airline staff will be working as "residential support officers" in quarantine hotels after a job ad was posted by the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety on Sunday.
Qantas and Jetstar cabin crew, baggage handlers and pilots will be taking on some of the positions after Corrections Victoria took over management of the hotel quarantine program from independent contractors following infection control breaches, Seven reported today.
"I understand that there may be some of the pilots and flight attendants from airlines involved in some of the quarantine," Professor Kidd told the Nine Network this morning, adding that recruitment for the roles is a decision for the department.
He said airline workers have been involved in repatriation flights bringing Australians home from overseas over the past week months and, thus, many have been "very trained in infection control".
The Transport Workers Union has expressed concern airline staff will not be appropriately trained for the roles.
“The Victorian government must ensure that workers safety is paramount,” TWU Victorian Branch Secretary John Berger said in a statement.
“We stress the need to ensure that workers who are understanding the position of residential support officers receive proper and adequate training by health care professionals prior to entering into quarantine hotels."
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Scientists urge WHO to consider possibility of airborne spread
More than 200 scientists from more than 30 countries are urging the World Health Organisation to take more seriously the possibility of the airborne spread of the novel coronavirus as case numbers rise around the world.
In a forthcoming paper titled "It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19," 239 signatories attempt to raise awareness about what they say is growing evidence that the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, can spread indoors through aerosols that linger in the air and can be infectious even in smaller quantities than previously thought.
Until recently, most public health guidelines have focused on social distancing measures, regular hand-washing and precautions to avoid droplets. But the signatories to the paper say the full potential of the virus to spread via airborne transmission has not been fully appreciated even by public health institutions such as the WHO.
The paper, which was shared with the Washington Post ahead of publication this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, comes as the WHO faces criticism over its coronavirus response, calls for reform and a US threat to cut funding and withdraw completely.
The fact that scientists resorted to a paper to pressure the WHO is unusual, analysts said, and is likely to renew questions about the WHO's messaging.
The Washington Post
People in towers have not done anything wrong: Deputy CMO
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has stressed people in tower blocks placed in lockdown in Melbourne on the weekend have not done anything wrong, saying the towers present a unique situation where there is a high risk of transmission.
"Many of the people in the towers, of course, have been doing exactly the right thing – as people have right across Australia – but the environment that they're living in is such that these measures are needed," he told Sunrise this morning.
Professor Kidd said the AHPPC was "very, very concerned" about the spread of the virus in the towers, given many of the residents are vulnerable people, and hoped it would remind all Australians that the virus is still a threat.
"I think that what's happening in Melbourne at the moment has come as a bit of a jolt to most people across the country," he said.
He said he was unable to comment on the likelihood of further lockdowns as they would be a matter for the Premier, but the strategy of mass testing and contact tracing is in place to prevent that from occurring.
Public housing residents told lockdown could last longer than five days
By Craig Butt
Residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne fear they will be in lockdown for longer than the five days originally stated by Victoria's Premier, after receiving a health department document stating the measures may be in place for a fortnight.
About 3000 residents at nine tower blocks in Melbourne's inner-north cannot leave their homes, as Victoria's health department tries to stop a cluster of 27 coronavirus infections in the buildings from spreading.
A resident looks out their window while under lockdown in a North Melbourne housing tower on Sunday.Credit:Darrian Traynor
The restrictions are the strictest imposed in Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic and residents cannot currently leave their homes, with police stationed in the buildings enforcing the lockdowns.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Saturday that restrictions would be in place for "at least" five days, but a health department document handed out to residents has led to uncertainty the measures may be in place for a fortnight.
The "detention directions" document signed by the state's Deputy Health Officer lays out the lockdown measures and states residents will be detained for an initial detention period of 14 days and that anyone who refuses to be tested for coronavirus will be held for a further 10 days.
But the document notes that health authorities will review whether the measures are necessary once a day.
Pressure on states to reopen compromising COVID response: AMA President
A "competitive tension" between states to reopen their economies has compromised Australia's coronavirus recovery, Australian Medical Association President Tony Bartone has said.
"Anxiety to get back to pre-COVID normal behaviour has seen things like we saw on the weekend, [at] Queensland nightclubs when social distancing went right out the window," Dr Bartone said on ABC television this morning.
Dr Bartone said measures such as hand washing, keeping distance and staying home when feeling unwell were falling out of fashion.
"If we forget that and become complacent we will see what happened in Victoria happen in other parts of the country," he said, adding that he believes this is an "appropriate point" to stop easing restrictions and look at how the hotspot outbreaks are brought under control.
"We can't be in lockdown forever, absolutely not," he admitted. "But let's not have to go back in reverse and then absolutely run the risk of a second wave and all the unnecessary harm and damage it will do to the society as a whole here in Australia."
NSW Labor calls for border closure
NSW opposition leader Jodi McKay has called for the state's border with Victoria to be closed in light of an increase in coronavirus cases.
At present, NSW has instituted a travel ban on people from locked down Victorian postcodes, but Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said she does not plan to extend this to a statewide ban.
"I am calling for [the Premier] to be prudent and take this step," Ms McKay tweeted this morning. "While we have confidence in the actions of the interstate authorities, our priority must always be the public health of NSW."
US cases soar in July
In the first four days of July alone, 15 US states have reported record increases in new cases of COVID-19, which has infected nearly 3 million Americans and killed as many as 130,000.
Florida's cases have risen by over 10,000 for three out of the last four days, including climbing by 10,059 on Sunday alone, surpassing the highest daily tally reported by any European country during the height of the outbreak there, Reuters reports.
Cases are also soaring in Arizona, California and Texas and trending upwards in Midwest states that once had infections declining, including Iowa, Ohio and Michigan.
In Texas alone, the number of COVID-19 patients currently hospitalised rose to a record 7890 on Saturday compared with 3247 just two weeks ago. The Democratic mayor of Austin, Texas warned during an interview with CNN that his city's hospitals could reach capacity in two weeks and run out of intensive care unit beds in 10 days.
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