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NSW-Victoria border to close tomorrow night
By Noel Towell
The border between NSW and Victoria will close at midnight on Tuesday as the state's second surge of the COVID-19 crisis intensifies.
Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to make the announcement at 10.45am.
The dramatic decision was made at an early morning hook-up between Mr Andrews, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Monday.
Savings for travelling off-peak in NSW start today
Commuters in NSW will receive 50 per cent off their fare if they travel off-peak, as the state government seeks to encourage social distancing on public transport.
From today, travel outside the following hours will be half price, after the boundaries of "peak" periods were extended:
- 6:30am–10am on Sydney Trains, Sydney Metro, light rail and bus
- 6am-10am on Intercity Trains
- 3pm-7pm on Sydney Trains, Intercity Trains, Sydney Metro, light rail and bus
The half-price fares will be in place for three months, after which a 30 per cent discount – similar to previous off-peak pricing for trains – will be in place.
“For customers who can travel outside of peak hours there are really significant savings to be had," Transport Minister Andrew Constance said.
"These changes are about helping to reduce crowding during the busiest times of day to ensure everyone can physically distance and stay safe during COVID-19."
It isn't all good news. As Josh Dye and Tom Rabe reported on the weekend, Sunday public transport fares across the Opal network will nearly triple under the restructure.
Face masks 'strongly encouraged' at Trump rally this weekend
President Donald Trump will hold an outdoor rally in New Hampshire on July 11 at which face coverings are "strongly encouraged," a change in tone after months of scepticism about the value of wearing masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The event is set for outside the Portsmouth International Airport, the Trump campaign said on Sunday.
A Trump supporter wearing a face mask as they waited for his Tulsa rally to begin last month.Credit:AP
Attendees will have "ample access" to hand sanitiser and "will be provided a face mask that they are strongly encouraged to wear", the campaign said.
Trump has been eager to restart rallies after putting them on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic and widespread stay-at-home orders. The Portsmouth event will be Trump's second campaign rally in a month, after an indoor event in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 20 drew a smaller-than-expected crowd.
The Tulsa rally didn't feature social distancing, and mask-wearing wasn't specifically promoted. A number of campaign staff were diagnosed with the coronavirus before the event, and at least two prominent Republicans in attendance, including 2012 presidential hopeful Herman Cain, have since tested positive.
Democrats in New Hampshire blasted the president for hosting a rally that will "further highlight" what they called "the chaos he has caused" during the pandemic.
"Trump's response to the COVID-19 crisis has been chaotic and woefully inadequate, resulting in thousands of Granite Staters contracting the virus and hundreds of lives lost, while causing significant damage to our state's economy," New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley said in a statement.
New Hampshire has had over 5800 coronavirus cases and recorded some 380 deaths.
Bloomberg
Cases on the rise in India, Pakistan
India has cancelled the planned reopening of the Taj Mahal, citing the risk of new infections in the northern city of Agra.
Local authorities issued a new advisory late on Sunday ordering an extension of lockdown curbs on monuments in and around Agra.
Indians labourers sit on boxes of medicines and wait for markets to open early morning in Jammu, India on Wednesday.Credit:AP
Agra, one of India's first big clusters of the virus, remains the worst-affected city in Uttar Pradesh, the country's most populous state.
India's coronavirus infections are rising at the fastest pace in three months.
On Sunday, officials reported a record single-day spike of 24,850 new cases and more than 600 deaths. That pushed India's overall tally to 673,165 cases, closing in on Russia, the third-most affected country globally.
But the government has been lifting a vast lockdown of India's 1.3 billion people that has left tens of thousands without work and shuttered businesses.
While international flights remain suspended, domestic travel has been opened up, and the government is hoping visitors will start to trickle back to some popular destinations.
Containment zones, areas identified as most affected by the virus, remain under strict lockdown, with restricted access and movement of only essential goods and services.
In neighbouring Pakistan, there have been 93 coronavirus deaths in the past 24 hours, increasing the country’s fatalities to 4712 since the end of February.
According to Sunday’s government statement, as many as 3191 new cases were reported in 24 hours, increasing the country’s overall cases to 228,474. It also indicated a steady reduction in coronavirus cases in recent days, apparently stemming from a decline in testing.
Officials say COVID-19 tests were decreasing because many people preferred to quarantine themselves at home after developing symptoms.
Council provides supplies for towers as concerns rise CBD could be closed
By Craig Butt
Melbourne's city council has swung into action to provide food, supplies and services to public housing residents who have been locked down in the city's north, the city's mayor has said.
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said she spent Sunday loading pallets with supplies for the 3000 residents of nine locked-down towers, who have been told they cannot leave their homes.
City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp said she spent Sunday loading pallets with supplies for the 3000 residents of nine locked-down towers.Credit:Arsineh Housipan
"For anybody from the towers in hard lockdown, please know we support you and are doing everything we can to support you," Cr Capp told radio station 3AW.
"There's no doubt we are in an extreme situation and we are responding as best we can," she said.
Residents of 12 postcodes in Melbourne are subject to "stay-at-home" orders to stem the spread of coronavirus, meaning they can only leave home to go to study or work, to get exercise, to provide care or to buy groceries.
"Nobody likes seeing more suburbs go into lockdown or the number of cases rise," she said.
Two new postcodes (3031 and 3051) were locked down on Saturday, both within Melbourne's city council boundaries, leading to concerns the central business district could be next to be placed under tightened restrictions.
"We really hope it doesn't come to that," she said.
Airline crew to work in Melbourne hotel quarantine
Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has confirmed some airline staff will be working as "residential support officers" in quarantine hotels after a job ad was posted by the Victorian Department of Justice and Community Safety on Sunday.
Qantas and Jetstar cabin crew, baggage handlers and pilots will be taking on some of the positions after Corrections Victoria took over management of the hotel quarantine program from independent contractors following infection control breaches, Seven reported today.
"I understand that there may be some of the pilots and flight attendants from airlines involved in some of the quarantine," Professor Kidd told the Nine Network this morning, adding that recruitment for the roles is a decision for the department.
He said airline workers have been involved in repatriation flights bringing Australians home from overseas over the past week months and, thus, many have been "very trained in infection control".
The Transport Workers Union has expressed concern airline staff will not be appropriately trained for the roles.
“The Victorian government must ensure that workers safety is paramount,” TWU Victorian Branch Secretary John Berger said in a statement.
“We stress the need to ensure that workers who are understanding the position of residential support officers receive proper and adequate training by health care professionals prior to entering into quarantine hotels."
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Scientists urge WHO to consider possibility of airborne spread
More than 200 scientists from more than 30 countries are urging the World Health Organisation to take more seriously the possibility of the airborne spread of the novel coronavirus as case numbers rise around the world.
In a forthcoming paper titled "It is Time to Address Airborne Transmission of COVID-19," 239 signatories attempt to raise awareness about what they say is growing evidence that the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, can spread indoors through aerosols that linger in the air and can be infectious even in smaller quantities than previously thought.
Until recently, most public health guidelines have focused on social distancing measures, regular hand-washing and precautions to avoid droplets. But the signatories to the paper say the full potential of the virus to spread via airborne transmission has not been fully appreciated even by public health institutions such as the WHO.
The paper, which was shared with the Washington Post ahead of publication this week in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, comes as the WHO faces criticism over its coronavirus response, calls for reform and a US threat to cut funding and withdraw completely.
The fact that scientists resorted to a paper to pressure the WHO is unusual, analysts said, and is likely to renew questions about the WHO's messaging.
The Washington Post
People in towers have not done anything wrong: Deputy CMO
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd has stressed people in tower blocks placed in lockdown in Melbourne on the weekend have not done anything wrong, saying the towers present a unique situation where there is a high risk of transmission.
"Many of the people in the towers, of course, have been doing exactly the right thing – as people have right across Australia – but the environment that they're living in is such that these measures are needed," he told Sunrise this morning.
Professor Kidd said the AHPPC was "very, very concerned" about the spread of the virus in the towers, given many of the residents are vulnerable people, and hoped it would remind all Australians that the virus is still a threat.
"I think that what's happening in Melbourne at the moment has come as a bit of a jolt to most people across the country," he said.
He said he was unable to comment on the likelihood of further lockdowns as they would be a matter for the Premier, but the strategy of mass testing and contact tracing is in place to prevent that from occurring.
Public housing residents told lockdown could last longer than five days
By Craig Butt
Residents in nine public housing towers in Melbourne fear they will be in lockdown for longer than the five days originally stated by Victoria's Premier, after receiving a health department document stating the measures may be in place for a fortnight.
About 3000 residents at nine tower blocks in Melbourne's inner-north cannot leave their homes, as Victoria's health department tries to stop a cluster of 27 coronavirus infections in the buildings from spreading.
A resident looks out their window while under lockdown in a North Melbourne housing tower on Sunday.Credit:Darrian Traynor
The restrictions are the strictest imposed in Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic and residents cannot currently leave their homes, with police stationed in the buildings enforcing the lockdowns.
Premier Daniel Andrews said on Saturday that restrictions would be in place for "at least" five days, but a health department document handed out to residents has led to uncertainty the measures may be in place for a fortnight.
The "detention directions" document signed by the state's Deputy Health Officer lays out the lockdown measures and states residents will be detained for an initial detention period of 14 days and that anyone who refuses to be tested for coronavirus will be held for a further 10 days.
But the document notes that health authorities will review whether the measures are necessary once a day.
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2020-07-06 00:16:00Z
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