Summary
- Melbourne's stage four lockdown has taken full effect this morning, with non-essential retail stores shut and permits required to travel to work and access childcare. There has been confusion for many people, with the list of permitted industries updated again this morning.
- Victoria is expected to record 471 new coronavirus cases today. The state recorded 725 new cases on Wednesday, the highest daily case total of the pandemic. It was also Australia's deadliest day of the pandemic, with 15 Victorians dying with the virus including a man in his 30s.
- NSW has recorded 12 new cases today, all from local sources. There are health alerts for several venues in Sydney and Newcastle, including a Newcastle Jets game and Marrickville Metro shopping centre. From Friday, NSW will require all people arriving from Victoria to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine.
- Queensland has declared its borders closed to all NSW and ACT residents from Saturday, as teams race to prepare new border passes. The state recorded no new cases today, but the source of a case recorded yesterday is still unknown.
- The CSIRO has opened Australia's first accredited surgical face mask testing facility in Melbourne today. Previously, medical-grade masks had to be sent overseas to be accredited.
WATCH: Victorian Premier gives a coronavirus update
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is due to give a coronavirus update at 12pm. Victoria is expected to record more than 470 cases today, after recording 725 new cases yesterday.
Latest updates
Andrews' grilling on hotel quarantine continues...
By Marissa Calligeros
The heated questions about Vicotria's bungled hotel quarantine system are continuing, and here is what Premier Daniel Andrews is saying:
"I was briefed, and I stood here and reported to you, that a batch of testing - a batch of genomic sequencing - demonstrated that at least a significant portion of cases had come from hotel quarantine. That's what I said then, it's what I'm saying now. I have no further advice beyond that ...
"I just again make the point, I'll be accountable for mistakes that are made. But if I don't have the answers, that's why I've set up a proper inquiry - to get those answers. We're all entitled to them. No one is for a moment anything other than completely clear - we need these answers. And that's why there's been a process set up ...
"Again, this is the key point: if I were to conduct an inquiry and then present my findings, I think you would rightly be critical that that should have been an independent process."
Victoria's botched hotel quarantine is believed to be the cause of its current COVID-19 outbreak. Credit:Getty Images
Mr Andrews said he established with the judicial inquiry because he was not satisfied with the answers.
"I set the inquiry up, so I'm fair well-placed to tell you why I did it. I don't have answers that I am satisfied with. There are questions that cannot be answered, and the appropriate thing is to get those answers. And then, regardless of what those answers are, I will be accountable for those answers, and for any errors, any mistakes, that were made. That's the job that I have. If I could answer all of those questions, and many more that I'm sure you would like to put to me, then I would, and we wouldn't need to have a judicial inquiry.
"It is an inquiry in every sense, that it is about giving us the clarity and the certainty and the answers that every single Victorian is fundamentally entitled to."
Given the Premier's earlier comments, acknowledging that at least a significant number of COVID-19 cases in Victoria's second wave can be traced back to quarantine hotels, Daniel Andrews has been asked: "Does that mean you're already accepting that decisions made by you and your government have led to ... dozens of deaths now?"
Mr Andrews replied: "How you term it and the commentary you want to put on it is a matter for you. What I am indicating to you, and to all Victorians, is that there are many questions. We do not have the answers. We need a process to get all of us those answers, every single Victorian. And I, as the leader of the state and the leader of the government, I will be accountable for errors that have been made, for mistakes that have been made. I will be accountable for the findings that [Justice Coate] brings down. That is the nature of the job that I have."
Premier defends decisions to not appear at hotel quarantine inquiry
By Marissa Calligeros
Premier Daniel Andrews has faced a barrage of questions about his decision not to reveal all the information he has about the state's botched hotel quarantine program, that could be linked to a significant number of cases, if not all cases, in Victoria's second coronavirus wave.
Yesterday, Justice Jennifer Coate, who is leading the inquiry into the quarantine program, said the Premier and his ministers were not gagged by the judicial probe.
Mr Andrews says that is not the issue, and he doesn't have all the answers.
"It's not a question of being legally prohibited. No one's ever asserted that," he said.
"I am accountable because of the job I have. I'm accountable for any mistakes, and all mistakes, that are made. I have never shirked that responsibility. I've never moved so much as an inch away from that responsibility. That is the role that I have. I will own those errors. I will be accountable for those errors. So, please don't be in any doubt about that. And no Victorian should be.
"The question about – why was an inquiry set up – because I don't have those answers. I have not read through the 100,000 pages of documents that have been provided to Justice Coate.
"I have not gone and conducted a judicial inquiry myself into myself. I don't think that's an appropriate way to go. There should be a distance. It should be at arm's length.
"There are answers needed. Mistakes have been made. I'm determined to get those answers. And I think the best way to do that is to have an arm's-length process."
WATCH: Anthony Albanese addresses the media
Federal Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese is due to address the media.
Victoria has avoided 20,000 cases: deputy CMO
By Marissa Calligeros
Professor Allen Cheng, Victoria's Deputy Chief Health Officer, has outlined how cases soared during the state's second wave.
"I can probably give you a description of where we might have been," he explained on at the press conference on Thursday. "So on June 25, we first hit 20 cases in this second phase. On July 11 – 16 days later – we hit 200 cases, or first hit 200 cases. So what that would imply, if we had continued with that same growth rate, 16 days after that, which would have been July 27, we would have hit 2000 cases and by next week, August 12, we would have had 20,000 cases.
"Clearly we are not even at 2000 [daily] cases, but certainly the numbers at the moment are certainly too high. We need to get that down."
Currently, a person infected with the virus is passing it on to at least one other person. That is what's known as the virus' reproduction rate, or "R number".
"A constant rate of one is still too high and we need to get this down to get everything back to some sort of normal again," Professor Cheng said.
Sydney's clusters continue to grow
By Kate Aubusson
Here’s an update of the case numbers attached to Sydney’s known clusters:
- 107 cases associated with Thai Rock Wetherill Park cluster
- 58 cases associated with the Crossroads Hotel cluster
- 50 cases associated with the funeral events in Bankstown and surrounding suburbs, including 15 associated with Mounties in Mount Pritchard
- 32 cases associated with the Potts Point cluster, including 26 cases linked to the Apollo Restaurant cluster and 6 cases linked with the Thai Rock Restaurant Potts Point cluster (two cases attended both and are counted as Thai Rock cases)
While most cases in the past week have been associated with local clusters and close contacts with known cases, some have still not been linked to known cases.
'Leaked' Victorian modelling was inaccurate, Deputy CMO says
By Marissa Calligeros
Victoria's Deputy Chief Health Officer, Allen Cheng, expects case numbers will start to decline within the next 10 days, disputing figures published by The Australian newspaper suggesting that the state's average daily cases will peak at 1100 by the end of next week and then stay above 1000 for eight days.
"We hope that we will see a decrease in cases, but we won't see them immediately. We'll see them decreasing probably over the next seven to 10 days as things cut in," Professor Cheng said.
He said he double-checked Victoria's modelling after reading the report in The Australian this morning.
"I first went to check our internal modelling. I also checked with the Commonwealth, with Brendan Murphy's team. We can't find anything that looks like that," he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews added: "Firstly, calling it 'modelling' might not necessarily be the most accurate term. But the bloke who's in charge of the modelling has never seen it. Brendan Murphy has never seen it. No-one in
the government has ever seen it. And that point could have been made last night but the first we heard of the story was when it was printed."
Professor Cheng was asked to comment on reports that Victoria may still be recording 100 to 200 new cases each day at the end of the six-week lockdown.
"Look, I don't want to be pinned to a number but I would hope that it's substantially less than what it is now," he said.
Newcastle teenager played soccer in Sydney while infectious
By Kate Aubusson
The teenager who tested positive for COVID-19 in Newcastle is a student at St Pius X High School and attended class, as well as played soccer in Sydney, while infectious.
Anyone who attended St Pius X High School on Monday 3 August is urged to be on the lookout for COVID-19 symptoms and to get tested immediately should any symptoms occur. The school has been closed for cleaning and contact tracing is underway.
The teenager caught the Number 26 bus (Hamilton to Adamstown) on Monday 3 August, at 8.20am and NSW Health is advising that all people on the bus at this time are close contacts and should immediately self-isolate until 14 days have passed and get tested even if they have no symptoms, watch for COVID-19 symptoms and get re-tested should any symptoms recur.
The teenager is also a member of the Newcastle Jets under 15s representative squad which played a soccer match against the Stanmore Hawks at Arlington Oval in Dulwich Hill on 1 August.
Members of both teams are considered close contacts and are also required to isolate for 14 days. All close contacts of the teenager are being notified and must isolate for 14 days.
In related news from the Hunter region, the man in his 20s who is a close contact of the teenager and also tested positive has not been included in today's numbers: he will be included in tomorrow's figures. You can find the details regarding his movements at a number of Newcastle venues and a Newcastle Jets game here.
Victorians urged to not panic buy as meat output cut by a third
By Marissa Calligeros
Beef, lamb and pork processing plants and abattoirs will be reducing their operations to two-thirds of their normal output to limit outbreaks in those high-risk work environments, but Premier Daniel Andrews has warned Victorians against panic buying.
"You may not necessarily be able to get exactly the cut of meat that you want, but you will get what you need and you will get all the products that are, basically, fundamentally important to you. They will be there," Mr Andrews said.
"It'll only make things harder if people who have the means to do it, go and buy enormous quantities of food. That'll just mean that other people, potentially, don't get the things that they need. That's why the supermarkets have put a number of buying limits in place."
Chicken producers will be operating at 80 per cent of their normal capacity.
"The difference in life cycle of those birds means that if you were to reduce down to say that 66 per cent number, then there would be hundreds of thousands of animals that would be essentially destroyed, but not processed and that would lead to some, I think, very significant shortages of product," Mr Andrews said.
"So they will be, by agreement, going down to an 80 per cent measure.
"For seafood, those centres that are below 40 staff, these rules won't apply."
Mr Andrews added: "We think that's the appropriate balance. All of these measures are designed to drive down to the lowest numbers of workers we can practically get to without at the same time delivering a shortage of products."
More than 100 new 'mystery cases' in Victoria
By Marissa Calligeros
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has revealed health department officials have added 107 mystery cases to Victoria's tally of community transmission.
"They won't be from today's data, and those cases that are under investigation, they will lag behind a day or two, but that's from that coronavirus detective work that's been done from yesterday's numbers and the numbers before," Mr Andrews said.
Last Sunday, the Premier cited 760 mystery cases - of which the origins of infection remain unknown - as the catalyst for the government declaring a state of disaster and announcing harsh, stage four lockdown restrictions.
But there will be much more unknown community transmission across Melbourne that is not yet accounted for in the figures.
There are now 7449 active coronavirus cases in Victoria, including 1533 linked to staff and residents in aged care homes.
Victoria records 471 new cases and eight deaths
By Marissa Calligeros
Victoria has recorded 471 new coronavirus cases and eight deaths, far less than the record 725 cases and 15 deaths reported yesterday.
Two men in their 60s, three men and two women in their 80s, and one woman in her 90s have died, Premier Daniel Andrews said. Four of the latest deaths are linked to aged care.
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2020-08-06 02:55:00Z
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