Summary
- Premier Gladys Berejiklian has moved to address complacency towards coronavirus in Sydney, telling businesses they face significant penalties and harsher rules if restaurants and cafes continue to flout COVID-19 protocols.
- A new mother caught up in a coronavirus scare says delays and conflicting advice from Victoria's contact-tracing system left her terrified she could have unknowingly exposed maternity ward staff, parents and newborn children to COVID-19.
- Reopening the border to NSW on November 1 is "still not out of the question", but Queensland's deputy premier says a review by the state's Chief Health Officer would have the final say.
- The World Health Organisation has reported a record one-day increase in global coronavirus cases on Thursday, with infections rising by 338,779 in 24 hours.
Watch live: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian
We've got two premiers up at 11am today: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. I'll post both livestreams right here:
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews:
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian:
Latest updates
Local manufacturers making more than 1 million reusable face masks for Victorians
By Marissa Calligeros
The Victorian government has ordered 1.2 million reusable masks from six local manufacturers to be distributed to frontline workers and vulnerable communities.
Nobody Denim in Thornbury, The Ark/Thread Group in Burwood, Bluegum in Nunawading, Aquaterro in Pakenham, Styleprint in Kilsyth and Australian Defence Apparel in Thomastown and Bendigo will produce the face masks.
The first batch is expected to be delivered from next week, with all masks due to be available before Christmas.
Workers at Nobody Denim in Melbourne have been making masks for months.Credit:Getty
About 700,000 masks will be distributed to council offices, health centres, pharmacies and GP clinics, as well as disability, community care and mental health services.
The remainder will go to the government's stockpile to be accessessed as necessary by people with chronic or complex health conditions, people with a disability or people in high-density living arrangements.
Plastic face shields, bandannas or scarves are no longer permitted in Victoria. People must where a fitted face mask.
Masks with three layers are the recommended option.
NSW is on 'high alert' but also realistic, says Berejiklian
By Mary Ward
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has addressed remarks made by her Queensland counterpart yesterday that NSW being on "high alert" justified border closures.
"I know that exception was taken to my use of the word 'high alert'. but during a pandemic we need to be on high alert every day," Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Friday.
The Premier said "while some people are very confident about a vaccine emerging next year or earlier", she was planning for how her state might have to run without one.
"I don't want to say that, but there's a possibility that we have to live with this for a while," she said.
"And what we need to do in NSW is give all of our citizens real opportunity to have a good lifestyle, whilst being COVID-safe and that's exactly the balance we're striking."
Victoria's Chadstone outbreak expands to include Ferguson Plarre employee
Another retail worker at Victoria's Chadstone shopping centre has contracted COVID-19.
The Ferguson Plarre store was deep-cleaned this morning after the employee worked in the store yesterday.
The Department of Health and Human Services is now working with the team at Ferguson Plarre to ensure all close contacts of the person are self-isolating while awaiting test results.
In a statement on their website, Chadstone said they were continuing to support businesses who had been directly impacted.
Further testing after ship crew member tests positive in Newcastle
By Mary Ward
Further testing is under way after an international crew member on a ship which travelled from Brisbane to Newcastle, north of Sydney, tested positive for coronavirus.
NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said 14 crew members were tested on the ship upon arrival in Newcastle, with one returning a positive result.
"t was initially thought that test result was reflecting an old infection, but further testing [is] under way because the test results are still inconclusive," Dr Chant said.
The crew member who tested positive was taken off the ship last night for further testing.
The Chief Health Officer stressed there was no risk to the Newcastle community. The ship and all crew bar the positive case remain docked.
"We're working quickly with all of the authorities to resolve the outcome for the ship," she said.
For the first time in three months, Victorian cases fall below 200
The total number of active COVID-19 cases in Victoria has fallen below 200 for the first time in over three months.
As of today, there are now 195 active cases in the state, down from 203 yesterday, according to Premier Daniel Andrews at his 99th consecutive daily press conference.
The last time there were less than 200 active cases in the state was June 26.
As reported earlier, there have been 11 new cases of COVID-19 in Victoria in the past 24 hours, and no new deaths.
Five of the 11 new cases are under investigation, and six are linked to known outbreaks so far.
One of today’s new cases is a new case in the Kilmore outbreak, bring the total number of active cases in Victoria to five - including a case in Mildura that authorities still believe is a false positive.
There are currently 12 active mystery cases in the case over the past two weeks, all in metropolitan Melbourne.
The total number of active cases now includes 45 linked with aged care outbreaks (down from 50 yesterday), and 19 healthcare workers (down from 25).
There are still 17 Victorians fighting the virus in hospital, including one person who remains in intensive care.
There are now no active cases in disability settings.
Yesterday 15,585 tests were processed.
Police address curious string of text messages in inquiry submission
By Tammy Mills
Victoria Police has also addressed the curious string of text messages sent by its former chief commissioner about private security in the state's bungled hotel quarantine program.
Submissions to the inquiry in response to the biting closing addresses last week have been published on the inquiry's website this morning (you can read them for yourself here).
Despite more than 20 days of hearings and evidence from the state's top decision-makers, including the Premier, the inquiry has failed to answer who made the critical decision to use private security.
The decision, the inquiry heard, was expensive and contributed to the virus escaping quarantine and seeding the deadly second wave.
Former Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton texted his federal police counterpart soon after National Cabinet decided international arrivals to Australia should be detained that private security would be used and "the deal was set up by our DPC [Department of Premier and Cabinet]."
Victoria Police said "someone had given information" to Mr Ashton, though he couldn't remember who.
Mr Ashton obtained his phone records, but they only include incoming calls from other Victoria Police executives, the force's submission said.
Victoria Police said they were prevented access to other incoming calls by the Telecommunications Act, which the force said allowed them access to records for "law enforcement purposes", but not for the inquiry.
"In the present context they are in no different position than any other telecommunications customers."
Six minutes before Mr Ashton texted the federal police commissioner about the 'DPC deal', he had texted the Premier's top bureaucrat, department secretary Chris Eccles.
The former chief told Mr Eccles he was "getting word from Canberra" about the hotel quarantine program and that arrivals would be taken to hotels "guarded by police for 14 days."
There is no direct evidence Mr Eccles responded. You can read more about the 'missing six minutes' here.
Victoria Police said there was evidence before the inquiry that the Department of Premier and Cabinet were communicating about security at the time Mr Ashton was sending the texts.
A staff member from the Premier's private office mentioned "security" in a text to the department's deputy secretary.
Mr Ashton, Victoria Police said, was not "asked or shared any view" about what he preferred or the appropriateness of engaging private security.
10 new cases in NSW: five local and all with known sources
NSW has recorded 10 new coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour reporting period: five in the community and five in hotel quarantine.
Of the five local cases, all have known sources, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Four are linked to the Liverpool private health clinic which connected three of yesterday's cases. This cluster is not yet linked to an existing cluster. The Premier said three of the new cases today were household contacts. She added that these cases were spread across a wide range of Sydney suburbs, indicative of the venue alerts issued by NSW Health yesterday.
The remaining local case is believed to be an "old" case, understood to be connected to the Liverpool Hospital cluster.
"[It] was most likely acquired the virus was circulating in low levels in south-west Sydney around August," Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said.
NSW recorded 12,868 cases in the reporting period, a result Ms Berejiklian said she was pleased about.
Reusable masks must be machine washed to be effective: research
By Mary Ward
Cloth face masks must be washed every day at high temperatures to be effective against infection, Australian research shows.
According to the analysis by UNSW's Kirby Institute, published in BMJ Open today, reusable cloth face masks need to be put in the washing machine after use, rather than washed by hand.
"While it can be tempting to use the same mask for multiple days in a row, or to give it a quick hand-wash or wipe-over, our research suggests that this increases the risk of contamination," said Professor Raina MacIntyre, who led the research.
Cloth masks should be washed daily at high temperatures.Credit:Eddie Jim
The new finding came after researchers analysed unpublished data from a study of the efficacy of cloth masks they conducted in 2011. As a result, the study did not test for SARS-CoV-2, but other respiratory pathogens such as influenza and rhinovirus.
Cloth masks washed in the hospital laundry were just as effective as disposable surgical masks. However, health workers who washed their masks by hand – the majority of people taking part in the study – doubled their risk of infection.
"While someone from the general public wearing a cloth mask is unlikely to come into contact with the same amount of pathogens as healthcare worker in a high-risk ward, we would still recommended daily washing of cloth masks in the community," Professor MacIntyre said.
"COVID-19 is a highly infectious virus, and there is still a lot that we don’t know about it, and so it’s important that we take every precaution we can to protect against it and ensure masks are effective."
The World Health Organisation recommends machine washing face masks at 60 degrees with laundry detergent.
Police not consulted over expansion in private security roles, inquiry told
By Tammy Mills
Victoria Police said it was not consulted about expanding the role of private security in the doomed hotel quarantine program, throwing the blame back on top department bureaucrats.
The inquiry into the program has heard that at first, the guards were a "static presence" and stationed in hotel floors in case detained returned travellers tried to leave their rooms, though they had no actual powers to stop them.
The guards were then used to escort detainees on fresh air breaks.
This was done "without any consultation with Victoria Police," the force has said in its responsive submissions published today.
Victoria Police's lawyers said neither the force nor Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp were formally or promptly informed of the decision to quarantine international travellers.
"In a day 'measured by minutes', the emergency management framework should have been immediately engaged, and Commander Crisp and CCP Ashton promptly informed," the submission said.
The delay in informing the emergency management heads meant those involved in setting up the program were working on the basis that private security would be used over police, Victoria Police said.
The force pointed to the phone calls made between top bureaucrats following National Cabinet's March 27 decision to quarantine international arrivals in hotels.
Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Chris Eccles called Jobs Department boss Simon Phemister to start setting up the program.
Notes of conversations Mr Phemister had with department executives afterwards revealed security was potentially part of the plan.
Victoria Police said this showed the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions were "proceeding to make plans with respect to security without contacting or seeking input from Victoria Police".
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2020-10-09 00:17:00Z
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