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The Sydney suburbs experiencing a cafe spending boom during COVID-19
By Pallavi Singhal
At Cafe Sorelle, in Sydney's east, sit-down lunches have made way for take-home dinner packages, as the amount of money people are spending at their local cafes has doubled in some suburbs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Salvatore Gallifuoco, who has owned the Waverley cafe for 16 years, said support from residents and the local council has helped, partially, make up for losses from social distancing requirements in cafes and restaurants.
'Locals stay local and help spend at local cafes,' owner of Cafe Sorelle in Waverley Salvatore Gallifuoco said.Credit:Jessica Hromas
"Obviously we've had a lot more people around because more people are working from home," he said. "We've had a few take-home dinner packages that we try to put together, cafes have had to adapt to the situation and they've done well, especially around here."
Spending at cafes has increased significantly across suburbs outside the inner city, as working from home shifts consumption patterns, the latest figures from Accenture's analytics firm AlphaBeta and credit bureau illion show.
Per capita spending in cafes in the Blue Mountains, North Sydney and Mosman local government areas has increased by more than 90 per cent between November 2019 and July 2020.
Experts warn Melburnians could be given an inch but take a mile
By Tom Cowie
Beware the bolters out of lockdown. That's the message for Melburnians as they take their first sips of freedom in six weeks under the initial easing of stage four restrictions.
The allowances on Monday were only slight but were an important psychological step for a city that has been trapped inside for months under harsh measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.
However, Dr Terry Bowles, associate professor of psychology at Melbourne University, said easing some restrictions could mean a fall in compliance with the rules that remain in place.
"The lockdown was pretty solid. For most people, coming out of COVID-19 will be very stepped, but it's difficult to manage the bolters," he said. "Some people that are highly impulsive don't work on a gradient. [They think], 'OK, we've been in lockdown, now we're not.'"
Jakarta heads into second lockdown
Continuing the overseas news this morning, just as life in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta was starting to return to normal, the city’s 10 million residents are heading into partial lockdown for the second time.
Jakarta’s tightened social restrictions, effective from Monday for two weeks, mean businesses, malls and houses of worship can only operate at limited capacity, while dining in at restaurants and cafes is not allowed, AP reports.
The second round of social restrictions, known locally as "PSBB", comes amid a spike in COVID-19 cases and as Jakarta's 67 designated coronavirus hospitals near full capacity.
The capital has recorded a daily average of more than 1000 new cases this month, with 43,400 cases in total and 1330 deaths since March, according to government data.
Outsourcing testing and tracing has led to English second wave: Professor
By Rachael Dexter
England's test and tracing system is “falling apart” due to outsourcing to private companies, according to a prominent professor of European Public Health.
The country yesterday recorded 2259 cases in a day, and is heading into an alarming second wave of infections.
Some residents have been told they need to travel 200 to 300 km from home to get a COVID-19 test, according to Professor Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“Because in England … the government decided not to use existing capacity and it did what government’s have done for the last 10 years or so – if you’ve got a problem you go to one of the outsourcing companies,” he told ABC Radio National’s Breakfast program this morning.
Professor McKee said the fact contact tracing was being done from centralised call centres also made it inefficient.
“Contact tracing is really complicated thing, you’ve got to get out on the street and find out where people are working and where they’re meeting together,” he told host Fran Kelly.
“The nearest comparison I can give is you’re trying to solve a murder and you’ve got Ms Marple or Father Brown or something and you’re saying, ‘you’ve got to solve it but you’re not allowed to leave your call centre’.”
He said local public health teams had argued from the beginning of the pandemic that they should have a key role in contact tracing, but they were excluded due to the awarding of multimillion dollar contracts to private companies.
“Eventually when it became clear that that wasn’t working even eventually the public health teams were able to get in,” he said.
Test processing has also been outsourced to private companies with no experience of running laboratories instead of the National Health Service (NHS), according to Professor McKee.
“It really hasn’t worked,” he said flagging huge problems in securing laboratory supplies.
“In England the whole system’s just stopped working, or it’s certainly not working very well at the moment whereas Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland it’s been much better.”
Today's front pages
Here's what is making news on the front pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald this morning, Tuesday September 16.
Victorian parliament to sit after security guard tests positive
By Paul Sakkal
Victorian state Parliament will meet this week, with the Health Department deeming it was safe to do so following a security guard who worked at parliament testing positive.
On Sunday, Parliament’s presiding officers announced the building was being cleaned after a guard who worked there last week tested positive. The worker stayed home on the day they started to feel unwell, they said.
In an updated statement on Monday night, the presiding officers Colin Brooks MP and Nazih Elasmar MP said the Legislative Assembly would sit from Thursday and the Legislative Council would sit from Tuesday.
“Deep cleaning has been undertaken at Parliament House over the past two days, as happens at any workplace after a positive test for COVID-19,” they said.
“If contact tracing uncovers any additional information that warrants a different decision, further advice will be provided.
“The health and safety measures implemented during recent sitting weeks will continue to be followed. This includes wearing of masks, physical distancing and ongoing high-level cleaning.
“We are grateful to everyone who has devoted considerable effort to assisting Parliament continue its important work.”
'Case' at Sydney aged care facility identified as false positive
A suspected case at a western Sydney aged care facility which was once the country's most deadly cluster has been identified as a false positive.
On Monday evening, Newmarch House, an Anglicare-operated facility at Caddens, near Penrith, said it was investigating a possible new COVID-19 infection.
The scene outside Newmarch House aged care facility in May.Credit:James Alcock
However, by Tuesday morning the suspected case had been identified as a false positive.
"We are all relieved and sincerely appreciate the support received from NSW Health," Anglicare said in a statement.
"We are continuing our precautions and retaining our infection control procedures and other protocols for the time being."
Newmarch House was an early epicentre for the virus in NSW, where 71 residents and staff became infected, and 17 residents died.
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2020-09-14 21:25:00Z
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