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Summary
- The global death toll from coronavirus has passed 373,000 and there are more than 6.2 million known cases of infection. More than 2.6 million people have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University.
- The Queensland man thought to be Australia's youngest COVID-19 victim has tested negative for the virus after his death.
- A Melbourne nursing home is in lockdown after a staff member tested positive, while a kindergarten teacher has also been diagnosed with the virus. They are among 10 new cases confirmed in Victoria.
- New Australian research suggests coronavirus could become a seasonal disease, with people at greater risk of contracting it during winter, as the humidity drops.
- The Reserve Bank will meet today to discuss the progress of Australia's economic recovery from the pandemic and is expected to keep rates on hold at a record-low 0.25 per cent.
Latest updates
Quarantined travellers relocated as Rydges Hotel cluster grows
By Rachael Dexter
Returned international travellers in mandatory quarantine at a Melbourne hotel have been relocated due to a growing coronavirus cluster.
Victoria recorded 10 new coronavirus cases overnight, with four linked to the COVID-19 cluster at the Rydges Hotel on Swanston Street near the CBD. The new cases are believed to be close contacts of hotel staff members.
Returned travellers have now been moved to another hotel to see out their time in mandatory quarantine because so many Rydges staff are in self-isolation. Health Department staff are also in self-isolation as a result of the outbreak.
The Rydges on Swanston hotel in Melbourne where there has been a COVID-19 outbreak.Credit:AAP
"At this point we haven’t determined the precise cause of the outbreak – we know that it is linked to other cases in returned travellers, but we are still undertaking investigations as to how this particular cohort of staff was exposed," Dr van Diemen said.
Twelve kinder children in isolation after teacher tests positive
By Rachael Dexter
At least 12 kindergarten children and eight staff are in self-isolation after a kinder teacher tested positive for coronavirus.
Macleod Preschool in Melbourne's north-east is the latest educational facility in Victoria to be affected by a positive coronavirus case.
Victoria's Deputy Chief Health Officer, Dr Annaliese van Diemen, said the kinder teacher who is among 10 new cases in the state "did the right thing" by getting tested and isolating as soon as they displayed symptoms.
Twelve kindergarten children and eight staff are now in self-isolation after being in close contact with the infected teacher.
Thorough cleaning is under way at the kinder today.
Meanwhile, Keilor Downs Secondary College – the school at the centre of the COVID-19 cluster in Melbourne's west – has reopened.
Dr van Diemen said the school opened a day later than first anticipated "to ensure the cleaning was done to the highest possible standard".
She said the reopening of Holy Eucharist Primary School, where one student tested positive last Friday, was further delayed. Authorities are hoping the school can reopen tomorrow.
"In the meantime, Holy Eucharist at least is undertaking remote learning," Dr van Dieman said.
Hundreds of people in Melbourne's north-west are in isolation after 13 people across two households contracted coronavirus last week, including the two students from Keilor Downs Secondary and Holy Eucharist Primary.
The workplaces of the infected adults in the cluster have also been affected, but Dr van Diemen did not name them.
She said parents should be reassured that no cases had yet been spread within the schools themselves.
"We haven't seen it spreading within schools, all of our cases so far have been teachers or students who have acquired the illness outside the school," she said.
"We will continue to be precautionary, we will continue not to take any chances and the idea of closing those schools ... to do the cleaning [and] to undertake the appropriate levels of contact tracing is so that we don't see spread [at schools]."
Recap: COVID-19 could become seasonal disease that hits hard in winter
Let's pause for a moment to take a look at a key development this morning, with new Australia research suggesting coronavirus could become a seasonal disease, like the winter flu.
A study conducted in NSW during the early epidemic stage of COVID-19 found an association between lower humidity and an increase in locally acquired positive cases.
Researchers at the University of Sydney and its partner institution Fudan University in Shanghai, China, discovered a 1 per cent decrease in humidity could increase the number of COVID-19 cases by 6 per cent.
COVID-19 could become a seasonal disease that hits harder in winter, new research suggests.Credit:Lisa Maree Williams
"COVID-19 is likely to be a seasonal disease that recurs in periods of lower humidity. We need to be thinking if it's winter time, it could be COVID-19 time," epidemiologist and lead researcher Professor Michael Ward said.
WATCH LIVE: Queensland Premier's press conference
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is in north Queensland and is due to speak to the media at 10am. You can watch her press conference live, below.
Ms Palaszczuk, who was in Cairns yesterday, is in Toonpan near Townsville this morning.
Victoria may see a spike in COVID-19 and other viruses next week
By Rachael Dexter
Victoria may see a spike in coronavirus cases and other viruses from next week, the state's Deputy Chief Health Officer, Dr Annaliese van Diemen, warns.
Given the incubation period of coronavirus, Dr van Diemen said there may be a spike in cases following the relaxation of social distancing measures. She said health authorities are also expecting to see an increase in other viral diseases too.
"From mid next week we might expect to see [an increase], if there was going to be an increase," she said. "We sincerely hope that is not the case and we really encourage people to get tested as soon as they get symptoms."
Victoria’s Deputy Chief Health Officer, Dr Annaliese van Diemen, says authorities are bracing for an increase in COVID-19 cases and other viruses too.Credit:Paul Jeffers
The incubation period for COVID-19 is anywhere between two and 14 days, but Dr van Diemen said that in most cases in Victoria people had fallen ill at the 6-10 day mark.
"But we have seen them at either end of that," she said.
Physical distancing, hand washing, and very good cough and sneeze etiquette are crucial to stopping the spread of COVID-19 now that more people are out in the community, she added.
May never be known if Nathan Turner really had COVID-19: chief health officer
By Matt Dennien
Queensland's chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young says it may never be known whether the Blackwater man who initially tested positive for COVID-19 after his death last week actually had the virus.
Dr Young told reporters a short time ago that after the first test on the day of his Nathan Turner’s death she had asked for a second, which was contaminated with blood and its negative result deemed invalid.
Further tests returned negative results, confirming Mr Turner did not have the virus. Those results were passed on to Dr Young last night.
Queensland's Chief Health Officer Dr Jeannette Young and Deputy Premier Steven Miles.Credit:AAP
"I don’t believe there was any more that could have been done that night," she says of the initial test, which was then relayed publicly the following day.
"I had a positive test result in the context of a gentleman who had a four-week history of flu-like illness.
"Unfortunately I don’t think we will ever know the answer to that question. There are two potential answers here: one is that it was a false positive, the other is that it was a true positive, and we won’t know which it was.
"But I am confident about the actions that were taken on that night to protect the community of Blackwater."
Dr Young said it was "extremely rare" to get a false positive though "extremely rare things happen".
"There is always going to be a problem collecting a specimen post-mortem, that’s always going to be difficult," she said.
Dr Young also praised the "tremendous response" of residents in the central Queensland mining down, 605 of whom had come forward for testing and returned negative results.
'So deeply sorry': Qld Health Minister apologies to Turner family
By Matt Dennien
Queensland's Health Minister Steven Miles has apologised to the family of the 30-year-old Blackwater man believed to be the nation’s youngest person to die with COVID-19, who has since tested negative to the virus.
However, Mr Miles says the swift response by health authorities in the region to Nathan Turner’s initial positive test was needed to help stop the spread.
"Overnight the coroner confirmed that they had multiple negative tests of COVID-19 post-mortem," Mr Miles told reporters a short time ago.
Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles says he is deeply sorry.Credit:AAP
"Our ability to control this virus requires us to respond rapidly to every single positive test, we have to treat every positive test as though it is a positive case."
Mr Miles said he wanted to "personally apologise" to Mr Turner’s partner and family for "any distress that our actions in responding rapidly have caused".
"I know it’s been incredibly distressing for them and to have to grieve under these circumstances, under this level of scrutiny, in some cases in quarantine, has only compounded that tragedy and their grief and to them I am so deeply sorry," he said.
Melbourne nursing home in lock down; kindergarten teacher tests positive
By Rachael Dexter
A Melbourne nursing home is in lockdown this morning after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19, while a kindergarten teacher has also been diagnosed.
They are among 10 new coronavirus cases in Victoria today.
All staff and residents at Embracia Aged Care in Reservoir in Melbourne’s north will be tested for coronavirus today.
"That worker is self-isolating at home and all staff and visitors are considered to be close contacts and will be put into quarantine," Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said at her press conference a short time ago.
Meanwhile, Macleod Preschool in Melbourne's north-east is closed for deep cleaning after a teacher tested positive for the virus.
Four of the 10 new cases in Victoria are linked to an outbreak at a Rydges hotel in Melbourne’s CBD, which is housing quarantined returned travellers. The remaining four are still under investigation.
Ms Mikakos said there are 79 active cases in Victoria, with nine people in hospital including two in intensive care.
One new case in Queensland in returned traveller
By Lydia Lynch
One new case of COVID-19 was detected in Queensland overnight, while five cases remain active across the state.
Yesterday, Queensland was celebrating no new cases, but a 41-year-old woman who recently travelled through Africa was diagnosed overnight.
The woman was infectious while she was on the plane back to Australia and the other passengers remain in mandatory hotel quarantine.
Queensland has recorded 1059 cases since the end of January and 1046 of those people have since recovered.
Two people remain in hospital with the virus, one on Brisbane’s northside and another on the Gold Coast.
WATCH: Victorian Health Minister's press conference
We had dual press conferences this morning, with Victoria's Health Minister Jenny Mikakos addressing the media at 9am. You can watch her press conference, below.
Ms Mikakos revealed a nursing home staff member and a kindergarten teacher were among 10 new cases of coronavirus confirmed in Victoria overnight.
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