Latest updates
Victoria records 11 new cases, two deaths
Coronavirus cases in Victora are continuing to fall, with just 11 infections recorded today. It's a good start to the week on that front and comes after 14 cases were reported on Sunday and 21 on Saturday.
Sadly, another two Victorians have lost their lives to the virus.
We'll bring you more on these figures as the information comes to hand.
Britain at COVID-19 tipping point, second lockdown possible, Health Minister says
Let's turn our attention overseas, where Britain is at a tipping point on COVID-19. More than 4000 cases are now emerging each day in the UK.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has called it a second wave and stricter lockdown measures have been introduced in areas across the country - with London possibly next in line.
Health Minister Matt Hancock went a step further on Sunday saying a second national lockdown could be imposed.
"The nation faces a tipping point and we have a choice," Hancock told Sky News. "The choice is either that everybody follows the rules ... or we will have to take more measures."
Hancock later told the BBC that a second national lockdown was a possible option.
"I don't rule it out, I don't want to see it," he said.
Johnson announced fines of up to 10,000 pounds ($17,700) on Saturday for people in England who break new rules requiring them to self-isolate if they have been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19.
In addition to tighter rules on social gatherings across the country, several cities and regions in Britain have had 'local lockdowns' imposed, limiting even more strictly when, where and how many people can meet up socially.
Asked about comments from London mayor Sadiq Khan, who said on Friday new restrictions were increasingly likely in the capital, Hancock said: "I've had discussions this week with the mayor of London, and the teams are meeting today to discuss further what might be needed."
Front pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald
Today's papers tell the inside story of Australia's JobKeeper action plan.
- The biggest collapse in Australia’s population growth since World War I will drive a huge fall in new home construction that could hold back the nation’s recovery from the coronavirus recession. About 60 per cent of the nation’s population growth in the past decade has been driven by net overseas migration, which totals 2.7 million residents. But the closure of the border, as well as concern globally among people moving between nations, is expected to lead that to collapse, senior economics correspondent Shane Wright reports;
- Doctors are raising the alarm about the rationing of N95 masks among healthcare workers in Victoria. "We have had N95 masks taken out of our hands before going into positive COVID patients," one Victorian hospital physician tells health reporters Aisha Dow and Dana McCauley;
- In Sydney, a pedestrian zone on George Street is set to be extended for another kilometre at a cost of about $35 million, to entice people back to the CBD;
- John Farnham’s long-time manager has condemned the use of the song, You’re The Voice, by anti-lockdown protesters who sang it during a small flash mob at Chadstone Shopping Centre yesterday; and
- Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran says quarantine-free travel between Australia and New Zealand is unlikely to resume for at least another six months, bursting hopes of a "trans-Tasman bubble" opening before March next year.
Qld records two new cases as Premier hits out at critics
By Stuart Layt
Queensland recorded two new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, both of them detected in people already in quarantine.
The cases emerged as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk again hit out at critics of her government’s coronavirus policy, this time on the issue of Hollywood movies filming in Queensland and actor Tom Hanks.
Tom Hanks, with wife Rita Wilson, was quarantined in Australia earlier this year before returning to the US. Now Hanks is back to film the "Elvis" biopic.
News Corp reported on Sunday that Hanks is staying at a lavish estate in the Gold Coast hinterland at a cost of more than $6000 a night.
Hanks and his entourage were granted entry to the country by federal agencies and were allowed to quarantine under their own arrangements and at their own expense.
Ms Palaszczuk said she had been told Hanks was in quarantine in "a hotel" ahead of resuming filming on Baz Luhrmann's Elvis biopic.
The Premier then went on the attack, saying other people had travelled from LA to Sydney but were not getting the same media coverage.
"They would have had to get the exemptions and the Border Force checks as well for them to come into NSW," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"But unfortunately, we’re not hearing anything about that in NSW; all we are hearing is about Queensland."
Ms Palaszczuk said because of Queensland’s tough measures to stop the spread of COVID-19, productions like the Elvis movie were able to go ahead.
"Very few places are producing movies at the moment, but Queensland is able to do that; we’re able to support the industry and get people back into work," she said.
"Scott Morison, the Prime Minister, flew up to the Gold Coast. Remember when Melbourne was having its second wave, he was here on the Gold Coast talking about how good the film industry is. So I’m not going to cop this negativity."
One on Sunday's new cases was an international traveller who had returned to Queensland and the other was a known contact of an existing case from the corrective services cluster.
Fears of Sydney taxi driver super-spreader
By Laura Chung
It's a race around the clock for contact tracers in Sydney after a taxi driver worked nine shifts while he was infected with COVID-19.
The man's infection was reported last week. It is believed he was driving passengers for nine days while infected around the west and south-western suburbs of Sydney.
Early investigations indicate his infection may have been acquired at Liverpool Hospital.
People who caught a taxi on September 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 in the following suburbs must get tested as soon as they develop any symptoms: Moorebank, Bankstown, Chipping Norton, Liverpool, Lidcombe, Warwick Farm and Milperra.
The driver also visited venues in Campbelltown and on the South Coast. Anyone who visited the venues during certain times should self-isolate.
On Sunday morning NSW reported its first COVID-related death in five weeks when a man in his 70s died on Saturday. His infection was linked to the Sydney CBD cluster.
One of the two new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Saturday night was a returned traveller in hotel quarantine, while the other was locally acquired.
NSW workers will now have access to the federal government's paid pandemic leave program after Premier Gladys Berejiklian opted in to the scheme that pays people without sick leave $1500 when they are required to self-isolate.
Andrews raises hopes of easing restrictions sooner than planned
Now to Victoria, where the weekend's warm sunshine and blue skies also brought some much-needed good news on the COVID-19 front.
Daily cases figures plummeted below 30 on Saturday and Sunday, with Premier Daniel Andrews raising hopes of easing coronavirus restrictions sooner than planned.
Victoria recorded its lowest daily rise in COVID-19 cases in almost three months on Sunday with 14 new cases. Mr Andrews declared the figure and declining numbers overall was "cause for great optimism and positivity".
The Premier flagged he would make "significant announcements" on September 27 as Melbourne is set to move into step two of the road map out of lockdown, but urged Victorians not to become complacent.
Nine of the new cases announced on Sunday have been linked to known outbreaks. The Casey cluster in Melbourne's outer south-east has now grown to 43 people, 30 of whom are active cases.
The new cluster had raised fears that it could compromise the city's road map out of lockdown, when Melbourne moves into step two at midnight on Sunday, September 27, allowing child care centres to reopen, some students return to school, and permitting up to five people to gather together outdoors.
Mr Andrews said the Casey outbreak had been "expertly handled", and he was confident all of the close contacts had been traced and were being monitored for coronavirus symptoms.
"This is a good day, though," the Premier said. "A day where Victorians can be proud of the work that they've done, their commitment, their resolve to see this off; to defeat this virus in its second wave properly, comprehensively and sustainably. We can hope to keep numbers low, and that's where the trend is going."
Global cases pass 30.8 million
First off, let's take a look at the global figures according to Johns Hopkins University this morning.
Tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases are now emerging in Europe each day, with the global tally now passing 30.8 million, while the death toll has exceeded 958,000.
On a positive note, more than 21.1 million people have recovered from the virus. You can explore our data centre (below) for the latest figures across the world:
Good morning
Good morning, it's Marissa Calligeros here, joining you for our coronavirus coverage on this Wednesday. For those of us who are counting, Melbourne is 50 days into its extended stage four lockdown.
Here's a tune for those feeling Mondayitis today ...
Most Viewed in National
https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5
2020-09-20 21:19:00Z
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
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus updates LIVE: Andrews raises hopes of easing Melbourne lockdown sooner; Sydney taxi driver worked for nine days while infected with COVID-19 - The Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment