Latest updates
Border closures top of health official agenda amid funeral heartache
By Katina Curtis
Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants leading health officials to agree on a national coronavirus hotspot definition as a top priority so he can use the medical advice to pressure premiers to open their borders.
Mr Morrison intervened on Thursday on behalf of a 26-year-old woman who flew to Queensland too late to say goodbye to her dying father and was then locked in hotel quarantine on the day of his funeral.
Sarah Caisip (left) is pictured with her father Bernard Prendergast, 11-year-old sister Isobel Prendergast and mother Myrna Prendergast.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee is having rolling discussions about how to define hotspots, with meetings almost every day. Every state except Western Australia has agreed in principle to work on a process to clearly define hotspots to allow safe travel between jurisdictions.
Government sources said Mr Morrison did not want to pursue the potential for biosecurity powers to be used to force borders open, instead putting a top priority on using medical advice to pressure premiers.
Mr Morrison phoned a radio station after privately pleading with Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to let Sarah Caisip join her mother and 11-year-old sister and other mourners. While she was allowed out of quarantine to visit her father's body alone, she was not given an exemption to attend the funeral.
Read more: Border closures top of health official agenda amid funeral heartache
High speed police chase ends with drug charges and a fine for breaking lockdown
By Ashleigh McMillan
A Victorian man who was chased by a police helicopter through Melbourne’s eastern suburbs at midnight and charged with reckless conduct has also been fined for breaking pandemic stay at home directions.
The 23-year-old Keysborough man, driving a Ford Focus XR turbo, passed a dog squad unit while travelling at 200km/h on the Eastern Freeway at around 12am on Friday morning.
He was tracked by the police air wing through the suburbs of Ringwood and Dandenong, where he allegedly crossed onto the wrong side of the road and sped through "a number of red lights" during the pursuit, according to a Victoria Police spokeswoman.
Police used stop sticks on the Eastlink near the Dandenong Bypass, but the car continued on for 10 to 15 kilometres.
The 23-year-old was eventually arrested on Peninsula Link after the vehicle slowed with blown tyres and came to a stop.
"A search of the car, which was bearing false plates, uncovered a quantity of methylamphetamine and cash," a police spokeswoman said.
The disqualified driver has been charged with trafficking and possessing methylamphetamine, two counts of reckless conduct endangering life, recklessly expose police to risk by driving, drug driving, disqualified driving, six counts of commit indictable offence while on bail and other traffic offences.
The man was held in custody overnight and will appear at the Frankston Magistrates Court on Friday morning.
He was also found to be in breach of the stay at home directions issued by the Chief Health Officer and fined $1652.
'It should be lifted': Key crossbencher backs calls to remove curfew
By Noel Towell, Henrietta Cook and Michael Fowler
The key crossbench MP who guaranteed the Andrews government’s state of emergency powers wants Melbourne’s curfew lifted, as retail groups lobby for night-time restrictions to be scrapped.
Reason Party upper house MP Fiona Patten has told The Age that the curfew should go.
“If there are no health benefits to the curfew, then it should be lifted. Victorians need to see progress, we need to know that our sacrifices are having an effect.
Reason Party leader Fiona Patten.Credit:Wayne Taylor
"People need to feel we are moving from stage four to like a stage 3.7 and so on as we go through this process. If we can’t travel more than five kilometres and all businesses are shut, what is the problem with someone walking the dog or having a jog in the evening?”
Her stance on the curfew means the Labor government is unlikely to have the numbers to win votes in the chamber next week when the Coalition ramps up pressure on the contentious lockdown restrictions.
Premier Daniel Andrews defended the restrictions on Thursday following revelations that neither Victoria Police nor Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton asked for Melburnians to be confined to their homes between 8pm and 5am.
Regular tests, meeting bans and surge staff: the plan to keep Concord Hospital open
By Rachel Clun
Coronavirus testing every two days for staff in high-risk wards, a ban on face-to-face meetings and staff diverted from other hospitals are just part of the effort to keep Concord Hospital running while managing the outbreak, which has infected 14 people.
NSW recorded seven new cases on Thursday morning, including two linked to the hospital cluster.
Health workers cross the road near Concord Repatriation General Hospital.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Both new hospital cases were linked to Concord: one staff member, who was already in self isolation, and one close contact of a previously confirmed case.
Health officials shut Sutton out of top pandemic response
By Melissa Cunningham, Tammy Mills and Aisha Dow
Health bureaucrats stopped Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton taking control of the state’s coronavirus response against his wishes and in contradiction to the state’s own pandemic plan.
The revelation came during Victoria's hotel quarantine inquiry on Thursday, as senior health bureaucrats warned that the Andrews government's failure to consult Professor Sutton on critical decisions about infection control had undermined the government's pandemic response.
The inquiry heard that Health Department deputy secretary Melissa Skilbeck advised her department secretary that Professor Sutton would be too busy in his lead advisory role and as the public face of the pandemic response to also serve as state controller.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton.Credit:Luis Enrique Ascui
Professor Sutton didn't agree with the decision, the inquiry was told.
"Would it be fair to say that he was against that decision?" counsel assisting the inquiry Ben Ihle asked Ms Skilbeck.
"Yes, he was," Ms Skilbeck replied.
The Age has previously revealed that under Victoria's plan for an influenza pandemic, the chief health officer should assume the role of state controller and "overall responsibility for emergency response operations".
Read more: Health officials shut Sutton out of top pandemic response
UN calls for $48 billion in extra funding to boost WHO's COVID-19 work
Zurich: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on the global community to contribute $US35 billion ($48.2 billion) for the World Health Organisation's (WHO) coronavirus vaccines, treatments and diagnostics program.
Some $US3 billion has been contributed so far, but Guterres told an online event on Thursday that these initial contributions were "seed funding" – and less than 10 per cent of what WHO needs for the program, formally called Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator. He said $US15 billion was required in the next three months.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.Credit:AP
Financial support has, so far, lagged well short of WHO's goals, as governments and trade blocs including Australia, the UK, Japan, the United States and the European Union, pursue their own bilateral vaccine deals.
"We now need $US35 billion more to go from 'start up' to 'scale up and impact'," Guterres said at a meeting of a council formed to help the ACT Accelerator gain traction. "There is real urgency in these numbers. Without an infusion of $US15 billion over the next three months, beginning immediately, we will lose the window of opportunity."
The latest UN funding call includes money for health systems, in addition to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pledged backing, having in August already promised €400 million euros ($650 million) to the vaccine portion of the program.
Read more: UN calls for $48 billion in extra funding to boost WHO's COVID-19 work
Reuters
AstraZeneca vaccine trial pause a 'wake-up call', says WHO
Zurich: AstraZeneca's pause of an experimental vaccine for the coronavirus after the illness of a participant is a "wake-up call" but should not discourage researchers, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) chief scientist said.
"This is a wake-up call to recognise that there are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared," Soumya Swaminathan told a virtual briefing from Geneva.
"There are ups and downs in clinical development and that we have to be prepared": WHO's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan.Credit:AP
"We do not have to be discouraged. These things happen."
Governments are desperate for a vaccine to help end the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused more than 900,000 deaths and global economic turmoil, and the WHO had flagged AstraZeneca's, being developed with Oxford University, as the most promising.
However, the drugmaker suspended late-stage trials this week after a participant in Britain suffered from neurological symptoms.
"It's a race against this virus, and it's a race to save lives. It's not a race between companies, and it's not a race between countries," added WHO's head of emergencies Mike Ryan.
More than 27.95 million people have been reported infected globally, according to a Reuters tally.
Read more: AstraZeneca vaccine trial pause a 'wake-up call', says WHO
Reuters
Most Viewed in National
https://news.google.com/__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?oc=5
2020-09-10 20:53:00Z
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
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus updates LIVE: Victoria debates Melbourne's curfew and CHO Brett Sutton's role as NSW tackles the growing Concord Hospital cluster - The Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment