Security guards hired for hotel quarantine in an attempt at social inclusion
By Richard Baker and Noel Towell
A senior Department of Jobs official has been removed from their role as evidence mounts that the decision to use private security guards at Melbourne’s quarantine hotels was partly driven by a well-meaning attempt to provide jobs under "social inclusion" policies.
A leaked email from another public servant, the department's deputy secretary for inclusion, also paints a picture of how rushed the implementation was, describing "heroic efforts" over a weekend in late March as bureaucrats became "expert in the delivery of hotel concierge services".
Rydges on Swanston, one of the worst sites of quarantine hotel infection.Credit:Getty Images
The revelations will increase pressure on the Andrews government over whether it put too much emphasis on finding jobs for marginalised Victorians without ensuring that those guarding hotel guests were trained in infection control and supervised by authorised officers.
Latest updates
ICC announces rejigged World Cup calendar after COVID-19 wreaks havoc
Dubai: Australia will now host this year's postponed men's Twenty20 World Cup in 2022 after the International Cricket Council announced a redrawn calendar on Friday.
The men's 2021 T20 World Cup in India will proceed as originally planned.
The T20 World Cup in Australia earlier this year was the last major international tournament before the coronavirus pandemic shut cricket down.Credit:Getty Images
The ICC also confirmed the women's 50-over World Cup that had been scheduled for New Zealand in February and March 2021 will be moved to 2022.
Before the pandemic disrupted the game's calendar, Australia were scheduled to host this year's men's Twenty20 tournament in October and November followed by a 2021 edition in India.
Reuters
Bonnyrigg Plaza closes for deep clean, set to open on Saturday after customer tests positive
By Megan Gorrey
A shopping centre in western Sydney closed temporarily for cleaning after a customer tested positive for coronavirus.
Bonnyrigg Plaza centre management said the shopper visited the shops on Tuesday, August 4, for about an hour from 9am.
They spent most of that time at Big W and briefly went to Bonnyrigg Fruit World.
"The South West Sydney Public Health Unit has advised that no one has been identified as a close contact," centre management said in a statement.
"If anyone was at the centre during this time, please monitor your symptoms and get tested if you are feeling unwell.
"The health and safety of our customers, retailers and community remains our highest priority."
The shopping centre closed for a thorough clean on Friday afternoon and is set to reopen this morning.
Cairns predicts $2.2 billion hit to tourism
By Tony. Moore
In a good year, Cairns generates $3.5 billion in tourism dollars for far-north Queensland. Thanks to COVID-19, in 2020 it is tipped to earn just $1.3 billion.
"We are predicting in the 2020 calendar year a $2.2 billion loss," Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive Mark Olsen said on Friday.
Cairns was a popular destination for domestic and international tourists, but numbers have slumped.Credit:Glenn Hunt
"That is how bad we are predicting 2020 will be."
Building a vaccine: how advanced are scientists in this global race?
By Deborah Snow
What do ferrets in a high-tech, high-security CSIRO bioresearch facility in East Geelong have to do with a COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Oxford University, 17,000 kilometres away?
More than you might think. The link between these far-flung teams of scientists provides an insight into the extraordinary range of alliances and collaborations that now span the globe as the race to find a vaccine hots up.
CSIRO scientists are growing both the coronavirus and vaccine candidates in their lab as part of a global race for a cure.Credit:Scott McNaughton
And despite the latest warning from the head of the World Health Organisation that there might never be a “silver bullet”, there’s cautious hope that an unprecedented concentration of the top scientific minds on this single, overwhelming threat will deliver a means to help keep the viral invader at bay.
In the latter part of last year the CSIRO’s Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, under its director Professor Trevor Drew, pitched a proposal to the internationally-funded Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which had been set up in 2017 with the sole aim of accelerating vaccines against emerging infectious diseases.
Air India Express COVID-19 repatriation plane crashes in Kerala
New Delhi: At least 16 people were killed and dozens injured when an Air India Express passenger plane overshot the runway and broke into two after landing in the southern city of Calicut in heavy rain on Friday, officials said.
The Boeing-737 flight from Dubai was flying home Indians who had been stranded overseas due to the coronavirus pandemic. There were 190 passengers and crew on board, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement. Among them were 10 infants.
A passenger is treated after an Air India Express flight skidded off the runway while landing.Credit:AP
Television footage showed rescue workers moving around the wreckage in pouring rain.
The aircraft lay split into at least two chunks after the plane's fuselage sheared apart as it fell into a valley below, authorities said.
"Unfortunately, 16 people have lost their lives. I offer my condolences to their next of kin and pray for speedy recovery of the injured," Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet.
Friday's crash is the worst passenger aircraft accident in the country since 2010, when an Air India Express flight, also from Dubai, overshot the runway and slid down a hill while landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, killing 158 people.
Reuters
Opinion: Get on top of the outbreaks and numbers will start to drop rapidly
By Catherine Bennett
Why isn’t the Health Department releasing its COVID-19 modelling? That was a question from the media gallery at Thursday’s daily press conference.
Allen Cheng, Deputy Chief Health Officer, explained that models always had uncertainty, and the outcomes of any given model could give a false impression of certainty.
We have also heard Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton talking about different modelling exercises, and alluding to a range of values for the effective reproductive number.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton on Friday.Credit:Justin McManus
Models are built, and refined, so they best fit the existing case data.
The challenge here is that our parameters have been constantly changing along with the changing epidemiology of this outbreak, with different levels of restriction, the mandating of masks, and compliance with these Chief Health Officer orders.
Catherine Bennett is chair in epidemiology at Deakin University.
Economy to rely on households and government for years: RBA
By Jennifer Duke and Shane Wright
Household and government spending will have to drive the national economy for years, with the Reserve Bank warning of a long and bumpy recovery from a recession so severe it will crimp the number of Australians moving in together and having children.
Releasing downgraded forecasts that economists say show the economy will not be strong enough to withstand an interest rate rise until at least 2023, the bank said even before the stage four lockdown of Melbourne there were signs of deterioration in the outlook.
The RBA has responded to the pandemic by cutting official interest rates to a record low 0.25 per cent, extending a line of credit to banks to help support small and medium-sized businesses and buying more than $50 billion in government debt in a bid to protect the economy.
Security guards hired for hotel quarantine in an attempt at social inclusion
By Richard Baker and Noel Towell
A senior Department of Jobs official has been removed from their role as evidence mounts that the decision to use private security guards at Melbourne’s quarantine hotels was partly driven by a well-meaning attempt to provide jobs under "social inclusion" policies.
A leaked email from another public servant, the department's deputy secretary for inclusion, also paints a picture of how rushed the implementation was, describing "heroic efforts" over a weekend in late March as bureaucrats became "expert in the delivery of hotel concierge services".
Rydges on Swanston, one of the worst sites of quarantine hotel infection.Credit:Getty Images
The revelations will increase pressure on the Andrews government over whether it put too much emphasis on finding jobs for marginalised Victorians without ensuring that those guarding hotel guests were trained in infection control and supervised by authorised officers.
Good morning all!
By Roy Ward
G'day everyone! It's Roy Ward here and I'll be handling business today for our COVID-19 live blog.
It's been a sobering week in Victoria as greater Melbourne entered stage four lockdown and regional Victoria hit stage three.
So today's new case numbers will get some attention as we look to see whether they are starting to noticeably drop due to weeks of mask wearing and the stricter lockdown.
Around the rest of the country we continue to see how robust the virus is as New South Wales is still dealing with a handful of new cases each day while returning travellers seem to be providing most of the cases in other states.
We have a big day of developments to come, please take care of yourself and each other.
As always please don't hesitate to leave a comment on the blog or shoot me a tweet at @rpjward on Twitter.
Thanks again and enjoy the day to come.
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2020-08-07 22:29:00Z
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