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Former AMA president criticises Victoria's symptoms-focused testing
By Rachael Dexter
People with sore eyes and ears and other abnormal symptoms should be able to get tested for coronavirus, according to a leading Melbourne doctor concerned about Victoria’s drop in testing rates.
Former Victorian President of the Australian Medical Association and Altona GP Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, said his clinic had tested 60 people who were positive for COVID-19 since the start of June – some with irregular symptoms.
“We’ve heard last night about people with a red eye, for instance could have COVID, people with a sore ear could have COVID,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
“And so anything that’s not right we need to think COVID like we would any other time."
Currently the coronavirus symptoms listed by the Victorian Department of Health are a loss or changes in sense of smell or taste, fever, chills or sweats, cough, sore throat, shortness of breath or a runny nose.
The department also states headaches, muscle soreness, a stuffy nose, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea “may also be considered” as signs of COVID-19.
The general public can only be tested if they display symptoms, or a close contact of a confirmed or suspected case.
The Victorian Premier and Chief Health Officer have this week urged people to come forward for testing after the state has seen a 17 per cent drop in daily tests.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton ruled out asymptomatic testing stating it would not be an efficient use of resources, but Dr Haikerwal said testing of people who seem relatively well was useful for aged care and healthcare settings.
“We now have 2000 plus healthcare workers who have come down with this . we were under 1000 ten days ago,” he said.
The Altona GP said there were still pockets of the community that still were scared to come forward due to the financial ramifications. He also said there was an obvious social stigma against healthcare workers who caught the virus which wasn't helpful.
“I do believe there’s a stigma in my sector of healthcare, you’re always blamed for getting ill, you get blamed for bringing it to work,” he said.
“You shouldn’t be blamed for illness, you should be supported.”
Premier not keen for NRL grand final to attract 50,000 crowd
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said she is not keen for stadiums to increase their capacity, as the NRL indicates a desire to host 50,000 people at its grand final in Sydney later this year.
The NRL has opened discussions with the NSW government about easing COVID-19 restrictions to increase the crowd from 10,000 to 50,000 for this year's grand final at ANZ Stadium, Michael Chammas reported this morning.
ANZ Stadium at full capacity for the 2019 grand final.Credit:NRL Photos
Speaking at her press conference today, Ms Berejiklian said she felt the current caps were "appropriate".
"We are still at risk of the virus at the moment in NSW, so we allow up to 10,000 in sporting venues so ANZ Stadium can take up to 10,000, fans," she said. "I think that is a pretty good balance at this stage."
WA Premier flags monitoring bracelets for 'flight risk' people in hotel quarantine
By Fran Rimrod
West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has revealed plans to force people in hotel quarantine to wear monitoring ankle bracelets in a move to beef up security.
Two days after news broke that two women who had travelled from South Australia on a plane without having a valid exemption to enter WA escaped from their quarantine hotel in Perth’s CBD, Mr McGowan said he wanted to force people who presented a flight risk or had a criminal history to wear the bracelets.
“If we identify people who are potential flight risks or who might have a criminal history, we are looking at applying monitoring bracelets to them,” he said.
“So what that means is if someone is identified as a risk, we have the legal power now to put an ankle bracelet on, that’s what police will look to do.”
Mr McGowan also flagged the establishment of a dedicated hotel with beefed up security.
“We may well have one hotel that has the people who are identified as a flight risk or danger, that they are specially kept in during their period of quarantine, and there may well be beefed-up security in this specific hotel,” he said.
Mr McGowan has also sent a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison asking for 140 defence force personnel to help manage the 24-hour security of hotel quarantine in WA.
“We have 240 security staff dealing with hotel quarantine. We had about 11,000 people go through hotel quarantine over the course of the last six months or so, we’ve had a handful of incidents and we had no community spread of the virus for 131 days,” he said.
“But any assistance we can receive to help us manage the hotels 24 hours a day would be welcome.”
The news of the women allegedly fleeing hotel quarantine to a party in Perth’s southern suburbs comes just days after another man fronted a Perth court accused of leaving hotel quarantine several times to visit his girlfriend.
A Perth court heard on Tuesday the two Adelaide women managed to evade security and escape hotel quarantine to attend a party with a local rapper and allegedly giggled and hung up when police called them.
'Tweaks', not big changes, possible for Victorian border: Berejiklian
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said her state is managing the Victorian border "as best we can", as her deputy prepares to present possible improvements to the permit system to her later this week.
Deputy Premier John Barilaro told reporters in Albury this morning that there was "an argument" for border restrictions to be relaxed, after speaking with community groups.
"Everything we do is to protect our community, to keep our community safe," Ms Berejiklian stressed. "I appreciate the challenges that are involved, but consider the alternative; consider the virus seeping into our regions – that is something that I don't stand for."
The Premier flagged that "tweaks" to the border permit system, like the additional permit announced for agricultural workers this week, were possible in the immediate term, but she was not going to predict when the border would reopen completely.
"We're trying our hardest to get the right balance, but we appreciate, along the way, that certain communities will suffer more than others because of the consequences of our decisions. And our job is to identify them and support them specifically, which is what we're doing."
Ms Berejiklian confirmed Mr Barilaro's announcement this morning that a financial support package for border community business was being "finalised".
"We'll have more to say about that soon," she said.
More than 115,000 take up free NSW TAFE courses
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has revealed more than 115,000 people have enrolled in the state's no-fee TAFE courses, introduced earlier this year.
"I'm pleased to say the highest number of courses that were taken up related to medical administration, which is very relevant, given we need more health workers at the moment," she said.
"And pleasingly, we've seen a number of people reskill and be able to boost their CVs to either get new careers, to reskill in the hope of getting a new job or else thinking about new pathways forward."
Skills Minister Geoff Lee said more than 30 per cent of the people taking up the courses had never taken a TAFE course before.
Mr Lee flagged future packaged for online learning, remarking that the pandemic had changed "the world of work".
New Zealand records five new cases
New Zealand has recorded five new cases overnight, bringing the country's total number of active cases to 101.
All five of the cases are linked to the Auckland cluster. The country conducted 18,091 during the latest 24-hour reporting period.
New Zealand Health Minister Chris Hipkins said more than a million more people have registered for the country's contact tracing app this week. The country of around five million people now has 1,626,500 people registered for the app.
Asked about the cold storage facility investigation, Mr Hipkins said the Americold sites have no virus, based on the swabs taken at one of the sites.
Four out of 35 swabs showed some virus but there wasn't enough virus for genome sequencing, he said. No virus was found in food packaging. The investigation is still ongoing.
with Stuff
NSW records five new cases
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said the state has "pleasingly" recorded just five cases in the latest 24-hour reporting period, from 28,767 tests.
"None of which are linked to the security guard who tested positive a few days ago, which is good news, but, of course, we're on high alert to make sure that there aren't any additional transmissions that we're not picking up," she said.
Two of the new cases are in hotel quarantine, and three were locally acquired in south-west Sydney.
Of the three locally acquired cases, one is the Liverpool Hospital outpatient mentioned in yesterday's press conference, one is a household contact of a person associated with the Bankstown funerals cluster and one is a man in his 20s whose source of infection is unknown. His close contacts have been identified and directed to self-isolate.
Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said the state was in an "incredibly critical phase" of its pandemic response.
"We are seeing these continual low levels of transmission, particularly in south-western Sydney, but also popping up in western Sydney from time to time," she said, noting it was critical that testing rates remained high and people continued to adhere to social distancing restrictions.
It brings the total number of cases in the state since the start of the pandemic to 3782.
WATCH: NSW Premier gives a coronavirus update
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Minister for Skills and Tertiary Education Geoff Lee, Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant and Police Assistant Commissioner Joe Cassar will provide an update on COVID-19 at 11am.
In Year 12? The Herald wants to hear your story
To year 12 students, their parents, friends and teachers: The Sydney Morning Herald wants to hear from the Class of 2020 about how you are coping with COVID-19.
We know you are facing many challenges, but we also know you’re a resourceful bunch.Please tell us about the ways you are overcoming hurdles, and how you are finding motivation and joy in this otherwise bleak year.
Whether it’s a study club, teacher or a new routine that’s getting you through – we’d love to hear from you.
Brisbane's inner east urged to come forward for testing
By Lydia Lynch
Unwell residents in Brisbane’s inner east have been urged to come forward for testing after a Japanese woman who visited the area tested positive for COVID-19.
The woman, who was granted a border exemption to visit her unwell father in Brisbane, quarantined in Sydney for two weeks prior to her arrival in Queensland.
“She travelled from Japan to Australia in the middle of July,” Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said. “She had two tests done [in quarantine] and both of those were negative.”
The woman visited her father in the “Morningside/Bulimba area”, suburbs in Brisbane’s inner east, before flying back to Tokyo on Tuesday, via Sydney.
Health authorities are now working to trace the woman’s movements through Brisbane.
“We're aware of six who we have tested and we should get their results late today,” Dr Young said.
“We also have been able to speak to her to find out where else she has been. She identified she went to the Jam Pantry in Greenslopes on Sunday morning for breakfast.”
Opening hours at fever clinics on the city’s southside have been extended to accommodate extra testing.
“If anyone who lives in that area becomes unwell, with any symptoms, they should come forward and get tested,” Dr Young said.
“We're not sure where she's acquired the infection but we believe that risk is very low.”
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2020-08-20 01:40:00Z
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