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Victorian Premier to address the media at 10.30am
Majority of residents infected at Melbourne aged care facility
Victoria recorded seven more coronavirus deaths today. As Aisha Dow explains, the reason why the state's death rate remains so high compared to new cases is that many of these cases are still linked to aged care.
For example, outbreak at Estia Health facility in Keilor Downs, in Melbourne’s north-west, has become Victoria’s largest active COVID-19 cluster after the coronavirus spread to 45 people linked with the facility, claimed three lives and put 20 residents in hospital.
More than 60 per cent of residents at the have been infected at the facility since the first case was detected on September 11.
While Victoria’s daily coronavirus count continues to fall, with just five new cases reported on Monday, about 30 aged care facilities are still reporting active infections, resulting in 23 deaths over the past week.
Australia 'very, very open' to accept NZ travellers by Christmas
By Rachael Dexter
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has revealed more detail on plans underway for a trans-Tasman travel bubble.
Asked this morning on Nine's Today show if it was likely to see the travel bans lifted between the two countries by Christmas, Mr Hunt replied: "Yes, we are very, very open and keen to work with New Zealand."
But there is a caveat to the plans – they would likely only be one-way in the first phases. "We are looking to allow New Zealanders into Australia, potentially in a travel bubble, as soon as possible. We're not requiring that New Zealand allows Australia back immediately, but they are working towards it," Mr Hunt said.
"So we'd like to be able to allow friends, family, tourists to come to Australia. We think that the situation in New Zealand is very safe.
"We understand they'd have to consider Australia's position, so we're happy to do it as a one-way to start, but we would expect that given the numbers in Australia, New Zealand would be in a position to accept Australians shortly without having to quarantine."
Mr Hunt said he had met with the NZ Health Minister and High Commissioner last week to nut out further details for the plan before the NZ government goes into caretaker mode ahead of their election on October 17.
Hospitality industry serves up plan to put dining back on Melbourne's menu
By Chip Le Grand
Victoria's hospitality industry has delivered a detailed blueprint to the Andrews government for safe, post-lockdown dining in the hope that COVID-stricken cafes and restaurants will be allowed to open sooner than planned on October 19.
Under a regulatory framework being assessed by Victoria's health authorities, restaurants would keep for 28 days the names and contact details of everyone they have served, table condiments and shared plates would be off the menu and menus themselves would be laminated to meet the industry's “COVID-normal” standards.
Where possible, patrons would be greeted at one door and shown to a separate exit at the end of their meals. If they are showing any COVID symptoms or refuse to wear a mask before seated, they would not be served at all.
The provisions are detailed in a 30-page COVID-safe industry plan that the industry association Restaurant & Catering has developed based on an operating model used in Queensland for the past four months.
NSW Premier to address the media at 12.30pm
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will be stepping up to address the media at 12.30pm alongside Health Minister Brad Hazzard.
The pair will be in Goulburn to speak about the redevelopment of the town's hospital, but we are expecting that line-up will be fielding more than a few questions about the state's virus response – and when restrictions will next ease after a week with just one local infection.
NSW's daily case numbers are generally released around 11am.
Victoria moves closer to next stage target
As we just reported, Victoria has recorded 10 new coronavirus cases today.
For the state to move to its next stage of eased restrictions on October 19, the 14-day case average and number of mystery cases must both be under five. Craig Butt has updated his graphs to show how things are tracking:
Victoria records 10 new cases, seven deaths
By Rachael Dexter
Victoria has recorded 10 new cases of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, up from five cases yesterday.
Sadly, another seven lives were lost over the past day.
Today's numbers bring the state rolling average to 18.9 - that's a combination of the average for metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria plus an additional COVID-positive person from a non-Victorian address who has contributed 0.1 to the average.
'It feels like punishment': JobKeeper recipients hurt by lower rate
By Tom Cowie
Kyle Pasalskyj is thinking about how to stretch his family's finances a little bit further: from this week, there will be $600 less to rely on over each fortnight, after he and his partner's JobKeeper payments were cut from $1500 to $1200.
A report from the McKell Institute found the federal government would save $1.52 billion every two weeks under the changes. Using federal Treasury data, the think tank estimated 3.48 million Australians are on JobKeeper.
Kyle Pasalskyj is one of many Victorians who have had their JobKeeper payments cut.Credit:Simon Schluter
"Our rent is two-grand a month, already we're taking up a good chunk of our income," said Mr Pasalskyj. "Food, we still eat healthy, which is costly in itself. I've definitely taken to piggybacking off the Netflix accounts of friends who are still working."
Originally due to end this week, the JobKeeper payments will continue on a reduced rate until March, with part-time workers having their payments slashed to $750.
The cuts are certain to hit Victoria the hardest. Treasury has forecast more Victorians will be on JobKeeper in December than all other states combined. Currently, there are more than 1 million Victorians on the wage subsidy.
How are case numbers tracking against Melbourne's step three reopening targets?
By Craig Butt
Melbourne has successfully reached its step two reopening target, intensifying the focus on driving down the crucial 14-day average so the step three target can be met.
When Melbourne moves to step three, some of the changes would include the five-kilometre movement limit being lifted, cafes reopening for outdoor dining, and up to 10 people being allowed to meet in public.
Melbourne's step three target for reopening is twofold: the 14-day average for all of Victoria has to drop below five and there must be fewer than five mystery cases statewide over the previous fortnight. These graphs show how things are going.
NSW looking for 10,000 tests a day
NSW Deputy Chief Health Officer Jeremy McAnulty has provided an insight into how the state sets its testing target, saying it can depend on how much respiratory illness other than coronavirus is in the community.
Speaking on Sunrise, Dr McAnulty said the state was looking for 10,000 daily tests as a baseline, but moves that figure up if there are other viruses circulating which would prompt people to get tested.
"We've seen a really unusual year this year with just about no flu around – but there are some other respiratory viruses around which we think may have been driving some testing as well," he said, citing rhinovirus as one virus which may have driven tests earlier this year.
Yesterday, NSW recorded just 6353 tests, a low for the past couple of months.
"We don't want to miss a single case of COVID so we really depend on everyone's cooperation in coming forward and getting tested for even mild symptoms" Dr McAnulty said.
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2020-09-28 21:54:00Z
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