Summary
- The world has over 10.7 million cases and over 507,000 deaths.
- Victorians are anxiously waiting for today's COVID-19 update to see if cases are still growing at a fast rate.
- The Victorian government continues to face questions about why private security guards were used on quarantine hotels instead of trained guards or members of the police or armed forces.
- Observers are watching the final day of campaigning before the Eden-Monaro by-election in NSW to see if COVID-19 will prove a decisive factor for voters on Saturday.
- The United States faces a difficult few days as authorities attempt to convince Americans to stay at home and cancel regular festivities for the Independence Day long weekend.
Latest updates
'We just set ourselves back again': Trump's economic joy set to be deflated by virus surge
By Ben Casselman and Nelson D. Schwartz
Employers brought back millions more workers in June as businesses began to reopen across the country. But the recent surge in coronavirus cases is threatening to stall the economic recovery long before it has reached most of the people who lost their jobs.
US payrolls grew by 4.8 million in June, the Labor Department said on Thursday, leading to President Trump to claim the economy was "roaring back". It was the second month of strong gains after April's huge losses, when businesses laid off or furloughed tens of millions of workers as the pandemic put a large swath of economic activity on ice. The gains were broad-based, cutting across industries and demographic groups.
Donald Trump said the US economy was "roaring back" but the jobs data was collected in mid-June, before coronavirus cases began to spike across the country. Credit:AP
But the thaw is far from complete. There were still nearly 15 million fewer jobs in June than in February, before the pandemic forced businesses to close. The unemployment rate fell to 11.1 per cent in June, down from a peak of 14.7 per cent in April but still higher than in any previous period since World War II. The rate would have been about 1 percentage point higher, the Labor Department said, had it not been for persistent data-collection problems.
The monthly jobs data was collected in mid-June, before coronavirus cases began to spike in Arizona, Florida and several other states. More timely data, also released by the Labor Department on Thursday, showed that 1.4 million Americans filed new claims for state unemployment benefits last week — the 15th straight week that the figure exceeded 1 million — and another 840,000 filed for benefits under the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
The New York Times
Kennett blasts Andrews government
By Rachael Dexter
Former Liberal premier of Victoria Jeff Kennett has lashed out at the Andrews government over failures in its hotel quarantine program.
Premier Daniel Andrews has ordered an inquiry into the bungled practices of private guards at quarantine hotels in May and early June, blaming individual staff who breached hygiene protocols.
A significant number of the outbreaks in Melbourne's north can be traced back to breaches of hotel quarantine, the Premier revealed earlier this week.
Jeff Kennett says Premier Daniel Andrews should answer questions about hotel quarantine breaches now.Credit:Kristoffer Paulsen
Speaking on Channel Seven's Sunrise program this morning, Mr Kennett said the Victorian Premier should answer why his government did not use the military for the state's hotel quarantine program.
"One question that has to be asked and should be asked publicly and answered publicly [is] why did the Premier reverse his decision on requesting the Australian army to come in here to assist us?" he said.
The Premier is due to speak at a press conference at 11am today.
Mr Kennett described the postcode lockdown situation as a "tragedy for all Victorians", and lambasted the Premier and key government figures for refusing to answer questions about the hotel program now that an inquiry is under way.
"The inquiry must be publicly held, this must be a full exposure," he said.
"The government cannot hide any longer."
Djokovic, wife Jelena test negative for COVID-19
Belgrade: Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena have tested negative for COVID-19, nine days after returning a positive test, the world No.1 tennis player's media team said on Thursday.
Djokovic, along with Grigor Dimitrov, Borna Coric and Viktor Troicki, tested positive after playing in the Adria Tour, an exhibition tournament organised by the 17-time grand slam champion.
Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena have both returned negative tests.Credit:AP
"Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena tested negative for COVID-19, as the most recent test they took in Belgrade showed. They felt no symptoms of the virus and took the test after consultations with the doctors," the statement said.
"They spent the past 10 days in self-isolation upon returning from Zadar (in Croatia), having adhered to all COVID-19 protocols and safety measures."
Reuters
Dr Norman Swan joins calls for mask in Victoria
By Marissa Calligeros
Veteran ABC health presenter Dr Norman Swan has joined the chorus of experts calling for Victorians to wear masks in public, especially supermarkets.
He says face masks are particularly important for people living in the borderlands - the suburbs immediately surrounding Melbourne's lockdown areas.
"If you're in a bordering suburb, it's an artificial barrier. You should be being very careful: not mixing with large numbers of people, no large family gatherings, keeping social distance [and] in my view wearing masks when you go to the supermarket ... [and] when you get on a tram," Dr Swan told Melbourne ABC radio this morning.
"We're waiting too long to get into masks. These are not easy questions, but we should be insisting on masks."
He added that surgical masks are ideal, but a triple-layered homemade mask could also be effective.
"A scarf around the face is pretty useless. To reduce the chance of droplet and aerosol spread significantly, it's either got to be a surgical mask, which you can buy at the pharmacy [and] it's got to fulfill the Australian standard, which I think is 4381 if you look on the packet.
"You don't need an N95 mask ... [unless] you're in a healthcare situation and you're protecting yourself. Surgical masks are ideal here - it's got to be multi-layered and fulfill the standard.
"What's pretty much almost as good is a triple-layer mask that you can make yourself, if you've got old jeans."
He recommended people cut up two layers of denim (which is densely woven cotton) and a piece of nylon, or some semi-waterproof material to make a mask that covers your nose, under your chin and to the side of your face. "That sort of mask will reduce chances of droplet-spread by about 70 per cent," he said.
This is Dr Swan's reasoning for face masks:
"You can't entirely look to government to solve this problem for us. I'm not letting them off the hook in any way, shape or form ... [but] it's only communities that control epidemics. If you're going to wait for Dan Andrews or Brett Sutton to say, 'yep, Yarraville is locked down, or Sandringham is locked down' then we're probably waiting too long.
"The whole story with this virus is to get in early, get in hard, beg for forgiveness later - rather than begging for forgiveness when somebody turns up at Woolies in Balmain. We've just got to go in hard in Melbourne to actually get this under control and not waver here."
Next Victorian Government COVID-19 update listed for late morning
The Victorian Government has scheduled its latest COVID-19 update for 11am this morning.
It could still be pushed back as sometimes happens but we hope to bring you the live stream then.
'Highly likely' more suburbs will be locked down amid call for infected to isolate
By Melissa Cunningham
It is "highly likely" more Melbourne suburbs will be forced back into lockdown, epidemiologists say, as Victoria records its single biggest increase in community transmission of coronavirus since the pandemic began.
Another 77 people in Victoria were reported to have coronavirus on Thursday and there are now 332 confirmed cases that have been acquired through unknown sources, a jump of 31 since Wednesday.
Police enforce lock-down restrictions in Broadmeadows.Credit:Chris Hopkins
Some infectious disease experts say symptomatic COVID-19 patients in Melbourne's hotspots should be separated from their families and put in isolation in hotels or lodgings at the taxpayers' expense to stop the virus from infiltrating entire households.
Suburbs on the edges of danger zone postcodes were at most risk of having severe restrictions enforced if authorities could not contain the spread in neighbouring areas, they suggested.
Boris Johnson signals retreat on Huawei amid backlash on Chinese investment
By Latika Bourke
London: Boris Johnson has given his strongest signal yet that Britain will reverse permission for Huawei to grow its involvement in the country's 5G networks amid a hardening of opposition to Chinese investment on both sides of parliament.
"On Huawei, I’m not against investment in this country," the Prime Minister told London's Evening Standard.
"This is an open market economy but I don’t want to see our critical national infrastructure at risk of being in any way controlled by potentially hostile state vendors.
Victorian police officer tests positive to COVID-19
By Rachael Dexter
A police station in Melbourne's west has re-opened after an officer tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
The officer at Werribee police station had not been at work since June 21, and became unwell during leave.
Victoria Police confirmed the station was closed immediately for deep cleaning as a precaution and re-opened yesterday.
Contact tracing is underway to establish where and when the officer became infected.
"Work will be done to determine whether any members of the public had contact with the officer while they were contagious and may need to be tested," a spokesman said.
A number of other police staff who came into contact with the officer during the past two weeks have been sent into self-isolation and will be tested.
"Victoria Police’s priority first and foremost is to ensure the safety of its people and the community," the police spokesman said.
SA officials find quarantine guard without mask
South Australia's Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier says a review is underway after a security guard at a quarantine location was found working without a mask.
Professor Spurrier told ABC Adelaide about the breach and said it was found because SA Health officials and police have oversight over the security arrangements.
ABC News Breakfast reported the matter on Friday morning.
South Australia reported no new cases on Thursday and the state has three active cases.
This incident will be likely be highlighted by the Victorian Government as they defend the decision to use private security contractors to watch quarantine hotels where poor health practices and training have reportedly led to guards spreading the COVID-19 virus in their local communities.
Premier's team takes cover over hotel quarantine
By Noel Towell
No Andrews government minister has taken responsibility for the use of security guards that led to a second surge of the deadly COVID-19 virus in Melbourne.
And no senior government figure has even acknowledged they knew in advance that private guards would be hired for Victoria's botched hotel quarantine program.
At least five state government departments were involved in the decision to deploy private security guards, instead of soldiers or police, to keep watch over returned travellers locked in hotel rooms.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton and Police Commissioner Shane Patton distanced themselves on Thursday from the hotel quarantine debacle as the state reported 77 new cases of COVID-19 and 310,000 Melbourne residents endured the first day of renewed lockdown.
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2020-07-02 23:36:00Z
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