If you suspect you or a family member has coronavirus you should call (not visit) your GP or ring the national Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
Latest updates
Quarantine hotel staff member among 10 new Victorian cases
By Anthony Colangelo
There have been 10 new cases of coronavirus in Victoria overnight, taking the state’s total to 1628, according to Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton.
One is a staff member at the Rydges on Swanston hotel where overseas arrivals are being held in quarantine (taking that total to two), six are household contacts of previous cases (five in the one household) and three are returned overseas travellers.
There were no more deaths overnight, while cases of community transmission or unknown transmission decreased by 18 overnight.
There are 61 active cases in the state, three people in ICU (down one overnight) and eight in hospital.
“They are security staff who have come down with illness,” Dr Sutton said about the two hotel cases.
“Normally … would have a security member at the front entrance, as well as a security guard on each floor to monitor all of those who are in quarantine there.
“We will work on the presumption it has been acquired at the hotel, but we have to be open minded that perhaps they are alert to being tested because they are worked in a quarantine hotel but they might have acquired it elsewhere.”
Just eight active cases in Tasmania
Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein has announced there are just eight active cases of coronavirus left in the state, after no new cases were again recorded overnight.
"We are in a good place but we do need to get to that better place," Mr Gutwein said this morning, announcing increased testing capacity and thanking Tasmanians for visiting the state's new drive-through testing clinics.
WATCH: Victoria's Chief Health Officer gives a coronavirus update
WATCH: WA Police address the media
Severe psychological distress spikes in young adults
By Jenny Noyes
Young adults in Australia are experiencing a spike in severe psychological distress at similar levels to their counterparts in the United States, according to analysis of survey results by Australian National University researchers that found young people are less hopeful about the future.
The working paper is based on the ANUpoll quarterly national survey of more than 3000 respondents, about half of which had previously been surveyed on their mental health in February 2017.
It found a substantial increase in the level of psychological distress among Australians generally – with 8.4 per cent reporting signs of severe distress in February 2017 rising to 10.6 per cent in April 2020.
But most of that increase is concentrated among young adults – especially those aged 18-24, where the proportion experiencing severe psychological distress increased from 14 per cent in 2017 to 22 per cent in 2020.
The study found these younger Australians are showing similar levels to their US counterparts, where mental illness is worse in general than Australia and the pandemic has had a more widespread traumatic impact.
The study’s co-author, Associate Professor Benjamin Edwards, said it is the first of its kind to examine the mental health of respondents both prior to and during the pandemic, and to compare results internationally.
He said while surveys consistently find young people and women experience psychological distress at higher levels than the broader population, the key finding of the ANUpoll analysis was the large increase in psychological distress for the younger demographic during the pandemic compared with three years prior.
In the April survey, respondents were asked how anxious they were about the pandemic and how likely they thought they were to contract the virus.
Associate Professor Edwards said this provided evidence to suggest the pandemic is a significant factor in the spike, as responses indicating anxiety about COVID-19 were associated with increased levels of psychological distress.
Australia’s success in containing the virus and keeping the death rate relatively low has kept distress levels low among older Australians, he said. But the economic and social impacts of the lockdown have hit young people hard.
“We have done much better than the US in terms of people dying ... and so consequently the trauma, grief experienced by older Australians is so much less than in the US, and the fear associated with the coronavirus pandemic is so much less.”
Young adults, on the other hand, are experiencing a “bleaker economic outlook and potential opportunities” and are reporting lower levels of hope than the rest of the population surveyed.
“Hope can be considered to be a psychological resource that buffers the stresses and traumas of life events. What we can see about the distribution of people who feel hopeful about the future is that younger people tend to report lower levels of hope for the future most or all of the time than older people, so that’s also potentially driving the mental health outcome.”
Ian Hickie, co-director at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, agreed that emphasis on giving young people hope for the future is important.
He said psychological distress “is always higher in young people” and that has been exacerbated by the pandemic response and the “lack of emphasis on casuals, students, training”.
Young people “have not been the focus of government attention”, he said.
“It's not clear from government policy that they really matter.
“It’s disruption of the education, the casual work, social relationships and incredible uncertainty about what happens next, because none of us know what happens next. For young people, skills, training, development, the future is what matters.”
With no economic benefit, NSW Premier says churches pose different risk to pubs
Places of worship may need to change their traditions for the NSW government to give them a green light to open to more worshippers, the Premier has said.
It comes as the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney has put out a petition calling for churches to be able to celebrate mass with more than 10 parishioners from next week, after pubs were told they could open with 50 diners.
Speaking at her press conference this morning, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said religious congregations were being deliberately treated as differently to patrons in a pub, noting the state's focus has been on economic reopening.
"Unfortunately congregations have been a major reason for the spread of infections overseas and similarly here if you recall we had a number of examples in Ryde and elsewhere where congregations, unfortunately, were the reason for [transmission] occurring," she said.
The Premier added that changes to services would likely need to be put in place for places of worship to open for more people.
"For some practices, [social distancing] means changing practices that have been around for thousands, you know 2000 years," she said.
"Things will have to be done differently and that's what we're working [on] with organisations; to make sure we get it right."
JobKeeper may need to be extended: RBA governor
By Shane Wright
RBA governor Philip Lowe has warned not to wind-up the JobKeeper wage subsidy program too early, saying it may have to be extended or tapered to support the economy.
Giving evidence to the Senate committee overseeing the coronavirus response, Dr Lowe signalled the Morrison government would have to deliver fiscal support to the economy for years.
There have been ongoing concerns that the government's plan to end JobKeeper in September, along with the JobSeeker supplement, could weaken the economy.
Dr Lowe said much would depend on the state of the economy later in the year.
He said if the economy remained subdued, there was merit in extending JobKeeper, tapering it or extending it specifically for certain industries.
With interest rates at record lows, Dr Lowe said the economy would require government support for some time.
"It's going to be very important to keep the fiscal support going," he said.
"It's very important that we do not withdraw fiscal stimulus too early."
The RBA's aim is to get to full employment, generally considered to be an unemployment rate under 4.5 per cent, and to get inflation to between 2 and 3 per cent.
Dr Lowe said would be years before this was achieved, particularly the reduction in unemployment.
"I think it's going to be a long, drawn-out process," he said.
'I'm not going to pretend it's rosy', says NSW Premier on wage freeze
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said her government's plan to freeze public service wages for 12 months was a hard choice, stressing the economic conditions for NSW have been unprecedented.
"I can't remember a time in our state's history, or even if you go back to the history books, where you've had drought, with fire, flood, and a pandemic within a 12 month period," Ms Berejiklian told reporters this morning, adding that she wasn't going to "pretend it's rosy".
The government's plan, which is costed to save $3 billion by freezing pay increases on new public service wage agreements for their first 12 months of operation, is currently facing opposition from Labor and the crossbench in the upper house.
The Premier told reporters "other states have done the same thing", referencing the Labor Queensland government's policy (which, as she noted, did not have to pass an upper house because Queensland doesn't have one).
Faced with criticism that the wage freeze unfairly targeted lower-paid frontline workers such as nurses and teachers, Ms Berejiklian said it was "fairest" to have one standard policy across the whole of the public service, rather than drawing the line on who constituted a frontline worker and having bigger wage cuts for executives.
"Governments need to make decisions which are in the interest of our citizens and that's what we do," she said. "I didn't get elected Premier to make easy decisions."
She added that the government had "a number of options before" them to negotiate with the crossbench, but wanted these talks to occur in Parliament.
More than 100,000 people sign up for fee-free TAFE courses in NSW
More than 100,000 people have signed up for NSW TAFE's fee-free tafe courses, introduced in response to the pandemic.
Addressing the media this morning, Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the bulk of sign-ups occurred during the height of the state's shutdown, with medical administration the most in demand course.
More than half of the places were taken by students in regional areas.
"It's encouraging to know that whilst we've had these restrictions in place and whilst for definitely during April we were housebound mostly people took up the opportunity 100,000 people have the opportunity to get a course online free of charge to them," she said.
"And we're encouraged by that because it shows that people are making the most of their time but also taking the opportunity to upskill to try further their careers or change their careers."
Premier announces one new case in NSW is 'ironically, a Queenslander'
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced there was one new case recorded in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
Ms Berejiklian said the person, who is in hotel quarantine, is "ironically, a Queenslander", referencing the ongoing disagreement between the states over border closures.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has previously said she won't be lectured to by NSW, "a state that has the highest number of cases in Australia".
There were 9900 tests conducted during the reporting period.
Most Viewed in National
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMingFodHRwczovL3d3dy5zbWguY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXVwZGF0ZXMtbGl2ZS1nbG9iYWwtY292aWQtMTktY2FzZXMtc3VycGFzcy01LTYtbWlsbGlvbi1hcy1hdXN0cmFsaWFuLWRlYXRoLXRvbGwtc3RhbmRzLWF0LTEwMy0yMDIwMDUyNy1wNTR3emcuaHRtbNIBAA?oc=5
2020-05-28 01:43:00Z
CBMingFodHRwczovL3d3dy5zbWguY29tLmF1L25hdGlvbmFsL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLXVwZGF0ZXMtbGl2ZS1nbG9iYWwtY292aWQtMTktY2FzZXMtc3VycGFzcy01LTYtbWlsbGlvbi1hcy1hdXN0cmFsaWFuLWRlYXRoLXRvbGwtc3RhbmRzLWF0LTEwMy0yMDIwMDUyNy1wNTR3emcuaHRtbNIBAA
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Coronavirus updates LIVE: JobKeeper extension may be needed says RBA as NSW government defends public sector pay freeze, Australian death toll stands at 103 - The Sydney Morning Herald"
Post a Comment