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Opinion: With no crowds and few goals, what is the point?
By Greg Baum
At least three accomplished former players I know wonder why the AFL is persevering at all with season 2020.
The answer lies where it is usually found, on the bottom line. It’s to shore up broadcast rights income, for this season and seasons to come.
Without it, there would be no game. The existential threat to the broadcasters earlier this year was spookier to the AFL than the pandemic.
Geelong and the Brisbane Lions play in front of a near-empty SCG on Thursday.Credit:Getty Images
Even in its bastardised 2020 form, footy’s keeping some people in jobs and many others entertained, and in this time of eternal standstill is probably keeping quite a few of us sane. That should be enough.
I don’t want to death-ride the competition. There’s enough death-riding elsewhere right now.
I can’t blame the AFL for pushing every button and pulling every string.
But it is hard to escape the feeling that this season is so beside the point. The AFL’s total evacuation of Victoria this week only sharpens it.
The bi-product is a boost for the game in the northern states, but it’s momentary, an accident.
Queensland records two new cases from overseas travellers
By Lucy Stone
Queensland has reported two new cases of COVID-19 from travellers returning overseas, but one existing case has recovered, leaving the state with three current confirmed cases.
Premier Annastasia Palaszczuk tweeted the figures on Saturday morning, with Queensland's total tally of confirmed cases now at 1070.
More than 5000 tests were conducted statewide in the past 25 hours.
The state has not changed its policy to open the borders to all states bar Victoria, despite some "troubling" new cases appearing in NSW yesterday.
Traffic queues at the Gold Coast border had eased overnight after thousands of border pass applications, but the RACQ recommended drivers still allow extra travel time.
Police check cars for permits at a checkpoint in Coolangatta as the Queensland border on Friday.Credit:Paul Harris
Queensland Police Minister Mark Ryan is expected to make an announcement about boosting police resources on Saturday morning, after reports more police were being pulled from frontline duties to manage hotel quarantine for returned travellers.
Victorian government releases video on masks
Victoria's Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton is featured in the Department of Health and Human Services video which instructs Victorians on when they should wear masks and what masks are best to use.
Watch it below.
Analysis: Lock-down lunacy: How we stuffed it up
By John Silvester
The busy television executive was heading to the office lift when his eyes flashed to the wall of TVs broadcasting one of Australia’s most popular daytime shows. The problem was it was the flagship of another network.
The private security guard at the front desk had flicked the remote to another station as he was bored with his employer’s choice of a 20-year-old sit-com.
The executive, filled with rage and post-lunch brandy, rang the security firm demanding the guard be sacked but after much diplomatic dancing he was given a second chance.
The security business is big business and behind the uniforms and marked cars it is also a ruthless one.
The industry is well and truly under the microscope as guards employed to enforce quarantine protocols at lockdown hotels have been blamed for the COVID-19 spike.
If the stories are true some of these guards thought social distancing was a sexual position from the Kama Sutra.
Rather than enforcing a strict 14-day lockdown it appears guards' training consisted of watching reruns of Hogan’s Heroes.
'It looked inevitable': How the NSW border to Victoria was closed
By Tom Rabe and Rachel Clun
A week before it was announced Melbourne would be thrust back into lockdown amid a second wave of coronavirus, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian already knew a hard border between the two states was becoming inevitable.
Berejiklian and her most senior ministers were considering how to implement the mammoth logistical operation in late June, with the jarring social and economic impacts of the measure seen as necessary short-term pain to prevent the rapid spread of COVID-19 further north.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant.Credit:Nick Moir
Authorities hope that decision, made on Monday and enforced from Wednesday, will keep NSW sheltered from the worst impacts of the Victorian outbreak which has now seen the highest daily total of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country since the pandemic began.
Health experts had been seriously concerned about the inevitable prospect of people infected with the virus travelling across the border - to Albury, regional towns and ultimately Sydney - and unwittingly seeding outbreaks across the country.
Pop-up testing available at south-west Sydney hotel after two cases emerge
By Natassia Chrysanthos
People who visited the Crossroads Hotel in Casula, in south-west Sydney, last Friday night should self-isolate and be on high-alert coronavirus symptoms after two patrons tested positive this week.
A woman from south-west Sydney and a man from the Blue Mountains both attended the venue independently on July 3 and have since been diagnosed with COVID-19.
A pop-up testing clinic was set up in the hotel car park last night, and will re-open at 10am this morning for anyone in the area who needs to get tested.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant last night urged anyone who visited the Crossroads Hotel Friday 3 July to self-isolate, monitor for symptoms and come forward for testing immediately if they develop even the mildest of symptoms.
NSW Health is working with the hotel owners to identify and contact people who were at the hotel that evening, and the venue has been closed for deep cleaning.
The Sydney Local Health District is also contacting 77 patients who were swabbed at the Rozelle drive-through clinic on Tuesday, after their test results were not processed.
The health district and NSW Health Pathology said they “apologise sincerely for the inconvenience and concern caused to those patients” and asked those people to be re-tested.
People in Rozelle and Balmain were advised to get tested after a Balmain Woolworths worker was diagnosed with COVID-19 and worked for two days after arriving in Sydney from Melbourne.
Dr Chant said the cases emphasised the importance of being tested in the earliest stages of symptoms or if you have recently been in a high-risk area.
Gilead says remdesivir linked to a reduction in mortality risk
By Riley Griffin and Michelle Fay Cortez
Gilead Sciences Inc's remdesivir may help severely ill COVID-19 patients survive the deadly infection, according to a comparison of the company's clinical trial results to a real-world group of people battling the disease.
Patients getting remdesivir as part of Gilead's pivotal study, known as SIMPLE-Severe, were 62 per cent less likely to die within 14 days than a group that wasn't part of the trial, the company said in a statement. The data was being presented at the International AIDS Society's Virtual Covid-19 Conference.
Rubber stoppers are placed onto filled vials of the investigational drug remdesivir at a Gilead manufacturing site in the United States.Credit:AP
There hasn't yet been enough information to show definitively that remdesivir improves survival. A comparison of two groups that aren't part of the same study isn't considered conclusive, but the findings offer some insight into the benefits of the only drug to receive clearance from regulatory authorities worldwide to help fight the coronavirus.
Additional data from Gilead showed patients who belong to hard-hit racial and ethnic groups reap similar benefits, with signs that black and Hispanic patients may do even better. A review of the company's compassionate-use program found no unexpected complications for children, pregnant women or new mothers, most of whom recovered from the infection.
"This comparative analysis provides valuable additional information regarding the benefit of remdesivir compared with standard of care alone," said Susan Olender, an infectious disease doctor at Columbia University Irving Medical Centre, in Gilead's statement.
"While not as vigorous as a randomised controlled trial, this analysis importantly draws from a real-world setting and serves as an important adjunct to clinical trial data."
Remdesivir was granted an emergency use authorisation in May in the US after early data showed it help hospitalised patients recover about four days faster.
So far, the coronavirus pandemic has infected more than 12.4 million people and killed 555,000.
Bloomberg
Victoria's contact tracing system to be bolstered after string of failures
By Bianca Hall
Victoria's contact tracing system will be bolstered after being overwhelmed beyond capacity, with some people waiting nearly two weeks for confirmation they could have been exposed to coronavirus.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have confirmed the Department of Health and Human Services has failed on multiple occasions to inform in a timely fashion close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 cases, leading to situations in which Victorians were unaware they might be spreading the virus.
Drivers queue for testing in June at a pop-up clinic outside Keilor Community Hub in Melbourne.Credit:Joe Armao
About a third of people infected with the virus don't display any symptoms, highlighting the importance of widespread testing and contact tracing to fight its spread.
On Friday, Victoria recorded 288 new cases – the largest daily infection rate recorded to date.
US sets one-day record with more than 60,500 COVID-19 cases
More than 60,500 new COVID-19 infections were reported across the United States on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, setting a one-day record as Americans were told to take new precautions and the pandemic becomes increasingly politicised.
The total represents a slight rise from Wednesday, when there were 60,000 new cases, and marks the largest one-day increase by any country since the pandemic emerged in China last year.
A nurse prepares to administer a coronavirus test in Nebraska this week.Credit:AP
As infections rose in 41 of the 50 states over the last two weeks, Americans have become increasingly divided on issues such as the reopening of schools and businesses. Orders by governors and local leaders mandating face masks have become particularly divisive.
"It's just disheartening because the selfishness of (not wearing a mask) versus the selflessness of my staff and the people in this hospital who are putting themselves at risk, and I got COVID from this," said Dr Andrew Pastewski, ICU medical director at Jackson South Medical Centre in Miami.
Florida on Thursday announced nearly 9000 new cases and 120 new coronavirus deaths, a record daily increase in lives lost. Governor Ron DeSantis called the rising cases a "blip" and urged residents not to be afraid.
Reuters, McClatchy
Supermarket closes for cleaning after staff members test positive
By Hanna Mills Turbet
A popular independent supermarket in Melbourne’s north-west has temporarily shut its doors after four employees tested positive to COVID-19.
LaManna Supermarket in Essendon Fields is a favourite among locals and the city’s wider Italian community. It will be closed until at least next Wednesday.
In a Facebook post, the LaManna family said they had received the news of the positive tests on Friday afternoon, and called on anyone who had visited the store on Sunday, July 5 and was feeling unwell to contact health authorities.
“At LaManna, we love our team members and our customers and take very seriously our role as a responsible employer and place you choose to shop,” they wrote.
“We are in communication with the Department of Health & Human Services and are following the direction and advice they are providing. We understand this may cause unease but please know that we are doing everything we can to protect you and our team.
“Any customer who shopped at the supermarket on July 5 and have since felt unwell or displayed any symptoms are urged to contact the health department. We are also highly recommending that every employee gets tested during our closure period.”
The supermarket will be deep-cleaned and the family said extra cleaning measures would be put in place when doors reopen.
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2020-07-10 23:36:00Z
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