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.
- Victoria 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.
- Two new cases have been confirmed in NSW's Newcastle area, prompting the closure of a school and health alerts for several venues, including a Newcastle Jets game. From Friday, NSW will require all people arriving from Victoria to spend 14 days in hotel quarantine, Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced on Wednesday.
- 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.
Latest updates
National basketball players, coaches sent for testing
By Roy Ward
A selection of players and coaches from Basketball Australia's national teams are awaiting the results of COVID-19 tests after training at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre during the same period as Melbourne United's players.
Melbourne United announced last weekend that 12 members of their training squad had tested positive to COVID-19 and were in quarantine, while MSAC's showcourt has been shut for deep cleaning.
BA was also using the venue, which is a closed-off, two-court area, to train a selection of Melbourne-based national team members from its Boomers and Opals programs along with its Paralympic teams the Gliders and Rollers.
South-west Sydney buffet restaurant closes after diner tests positive
A Korean BBQ buffet restaurant in south-west Sydney has closed after a diner which attended subsequently tested positive.
"Last night at 9:00pm we were contacted by Liverpool Public Health to inform us that a patron with COVID-19 dined at BBQ City Buffet Bankstown on Saturday 1 August between 7:30pm and 10pm," the restaurant said in a Facebook post. "If you were at our venue during that time please immediately isolate and get tested."
The venue will be "closed until further notice" and all staff will be tested while the venue is deep cleaned, BBQ City Buffet management said.
The venue has not been added to the list of venues where attendees must "self-isolate and get tested immediately" on the NSW Health website. NSW Health have been contacted to clarify whether this is their advice.
Queensland police preparing for ‘increased quarantine pressures’ in border rush
By Matt Dennien
Queensland police are preparing for increased pressure on hotel quarantine as people rush to make it back from the newly declared hotspots of NSW and ACT.
Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski told reporters that planning was already in place to meet that increase “over the next few days”.
“We are seeing increased quarantine pressures on the hotels that we have and we are adjusting to that.”
The state directed 60 new domestic airline passengers into quarantine and refused entry to seven people in the past 24 hours from 60 flights.
On the road borders, a total of 64 people were refused entry and 48 placed into quarantine.
A flagged “blitz” on those in home quarantine this week has already checked in on 253 people, with 250 found to be compliant and three under investigation.
The updated online form to apply for new border passes for freight and cross-border residents is expected to be live by Friday afternoon, Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said.
More information will be released later in the week about those trying to travel from South Australia.
What does your stage four look like?
Under the Victorian government's new stage four lockdown rules, Melburnians are only allowed only to travel within a 5km radius from their home to go shopping and exercise (with a few exemptions). Can you send us some pictures or words that tell us about your favourite places in your 5km radius?
And while we are asking things of you, we should point out that student submissions for The Age's special letters page close at midday today. If you are a school student who is back at learning from home, The Age wants to hear about your experience of school life during lockdown 2.0.
Please send your letters to education@theage.com.au. Include your full name, your age, home address and best contact number (your contact/address details will not be printed).
Melbourne roads empty as stage four takes effect
Photographer Joe Armao has been out in Melbourne this morning, capturing the peculiarities of life under stage four lockdown, and here is a shot which caught our eye.
This is the Monash Freeway, heading inbound, at Chadstone at around 9am this morning. These next five and a half weeks are certainly going to come with short commute times (for those permitted to, of course).
The Monash Freeway inbound at Chadstone at 9am on Thursday.Credit:Joe Armao
Facebook removes Donald Trump post over coronavirus misinformation
Facebook Inc has taken down a video by US President Donald Trump in which he said children are "almost immune" to COVID-19, with the company saying it violated its rules against sharing misinformation about the coronavirus.
"This video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from COVID-19, which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation," a Facebook spokesman said.
The video posted included an interview Trump did on Wednesday with Fox News in which he said children are "virtually immune" to getting the COVID-19 coronavirus.
"They don't have a problem, they just don't have a problem," Trump added, as part of an argument for why schools should reopen. "It doesn't have an impact on them. I've watched some doctors say they're totally immune."
WATCH: Queensland Police gives a coronavirus update
One in five new Victorian cases aged 80 or older
By Craig Butt
Almost one in five of Victoria's new coronavirus cases on Wednesday were aged in their 80s or above, state health department data shows.
The Department of Health and Human Services data shows that of the record 725 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the state on Wednesday, 140 of them were people aged 80 or above.
As of Wednesday afternoon there were 1435 active coronavirus cases in Victoria linked to aged care facilities, which make up about a fifth of the state's known active cases.
This 1435 total includes both staff and residents.
Attendees at three Newcastle pubs told to self-isolate after man in 20s tests positive
Attendees at three pubs in Newcastle have been directed to immediately self-isolate after it was confirmed a man in his 20s who later tested positive for COVID-19 had attended last week.
Hunter New England Local Health District is urging anyone who attended the following venues at the specified times to immediately self-isolate and seek testing:
- The Bennett Hotel at Hamilton on Friday between 5.30pm and 10pm
- The Greenroof at Hamilton on Friday between 10pm and midnight
- Hopsmith Sports Bar, Wests New Lambton on Sunday from 5pm to 7.30pm
The Bennett Hotel and The Greenroof both posted on Facebook that staff at their venues are in self-isolation and are being tested today.
Other locations attended by the man include the Queens Wharf Hotel between 9.30pm and 11pm on Saturday, The Sydney Junction Hotel between midnight and 1.30am on Saturday and McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday, during the Newcastle Jets game. People who attended these three venues do not need to self-isolate but should monitor for symptoms.
The case is a close contact of the teenager who attended St Pius X High School, causing that school to close today, Hunter New England Health said.
No new cases recorded in Queensland overnight from more than 25,000 tests
By Matt Dennien
Queensland has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours from more than 25,000 tests, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has confirmed.
However the total number of active cases in the state has increased by one to a total of 12.
Health authorities have now carried out 620,412 tests in Queensland, with the total tally of confirmed cases at 1088.
It comes just hours after Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles said “mystery” still surrounded the most recent case recorded on Wednesday in a 68-year-old woman from Ipswich, west of Brisbane.
With no “obvious links” to others and a subsequent negative result, Mr Miles said a further serology test was hoped to clear the air on Thursday as the stakes of an as-yet unsourced case could be “very high”.
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2020-08-06 00:28:00Z
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