'Numbers are too high': Melbourne faces stage four lockdown within days
By Noel Towell and Zach Hope
Melbourne is facing tougher stage four lockdown restrictions within days, which could mean more
businesses closing their doors, stricter stay-at-home rules and drastically cut public transport services.
State government officials and politicians worked late into Saturday night on the details of the next stage of the fight against the killer virus after Premier Daniel Andrews reported another 397 new COVID-19 cases and three more lives lost, two of them from aged care homes, as the deadly crisis in the sector deepened.
Daniel Andrews on Saturday.Credit:Penny Stephens
The Premier provided no detail at his press conference on what was being considered but sources close to the planning process say Melbourne could move to stage four, likely to be in force for six weeks, as early as Wednesday under the plan being considered.
The rest of the state would be placed under the stage three lockdown that has been in force in the metro area for the past four weeks, with further school closures also likely to be enforced.
Latest updates
Press conferences today
By Roy Ward
UPDATED: We are still waiting for details on when the Victorian Government will give their much-awaited COVID-19 update today.
It sounds like it will be this afternoon.
QLD Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is listed to speak at 10.15am.
The NSW Government has scheduled its update for 12.15pm.
We plan to have live streams of those press conferences and will update you when we the details come to hand.
Those who came, who lived and loved and are gone
By Simone Fox Koob and Tony Wright
They built modern Australia, often coming from other countries to win a different future for themselves and their families.
They risked much and achieved more than they could have imagined. Here we pay tribute to four of them.
Maria Vasilakis
Maria Vasilakis learned hard and early about making personal sacrifices for her family.
As a young mother on the Greek island of Corfu, Maria had no choice but to labour at picking olives, walking each day to the groves far from her ancient family village of Sinarades, leaving her baby son and daughter alone in the house.
Maria Vasilakis, aged 19, in 1958.
“She had to leave me in my cot,” her son Spiros says.
“During the day she would walk for one hour back to the house to check on us and make sure we were fed, then turn around and walk another hour back to work. It was a harsh life.”
Terrible trio - driver cops speeding, drink-driving and lockdown fines
By Ashleigh McMillan
An alleged speeding drunk driver nabbed on CityLink overnight has been fined $1652 for breaching the Chief Health Officer’s COVID-19 directions.
Police on patrol in Burnley reportedly saw a Ford ute travelling at 130km/h in an 80km/h zone at 11.30pm Saturday.
The driver, a 29-year-old man from Koo Wee Rup, returned an alleged reading of 0.205 per cent when he attended a nearby station with police.
He was also found to be in breach of the directions issued by the Chief Health Officer and was issued a $1652 penalty notice.
His car was impounded with costs of $873 and he is expected to be charged on summons with drink driving related offences.
Thousands march in Berlin against coronavirus restrictions
Berlin: Thousands marched in Berlin on Saturday to protest against measures imposed in Germany to stem the coronavirus pandemic, saying they violated people's rights and freedoms.
The gathering, estimated by police at 17,000, included libertarians, constitutional loyalists and anti-vaccination activists. There was also a small far-right presence with some marchers carrying Germany's black, white and red imperial flag.
Berlin's streets were filled with protesters. Credit:
Protesters danced and sang 'We are free people!' to the tune of rock band Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. Others marched with placards saying 'We are making a noise because you are stealing our freedom!' and 'Do think! Don't wear a mask!'.
'Looming' COVID-19 emergency in disability support homes
By Wendy Tuohy
Residents and workers in group homes for people with disabilities face "a looming emergency" due to lack of training in use of personal protective equipment and inadequate preparation to combat coronavirus infection.
Outbreaks of COVID-19 similar to those in 87 Victorian aged care homes were likely in the disability care sector unless nurses were brought in for training, according to the director of the Disability Institute at the University of Melbourne, Professor Anne Kavanagh.
More than half of disability support workers say they need more training in COVID-19 infection control.Credit:Louie Douvis
She said it was "extremely worrying" that many disability support staff working in close contact with clients, and sometimes also working in aged care facilities, had received no training in COVID-19 infection control.
Unless "trained medical staff are brought in to work alongside them", Professor Kavanagh said "we will have another aged care crisis and people dying who don't need to be dying".
In Victoria there are about 535 group homes and 2500 residents.
"There's a looming emergency in this sector and we need to be proactive to prevent what's happened in the aged care sector. We have an obligation to disability support workers, they've been the forgotten workforce in this pandemic. Unless we work with them we will have another aged care crisis," she said.
Two more quarantine hotel workers test positive
By Ashleigh McMillan
Two more workers in Victoria’s troubled quarantine hotels program for returned travellers have tested positive to COVID-19.
The two Operation Soteria staff, believed to be health department officials, returned positive results on July 25.
A police presence outside a Melbourne CBD hotel on Sunday.Credit:Chris Hopkins
A Department of Justice and Community Safety spokeswoman said that if a positive result is returned within the hotel quarantine system, potential close contacts are contacted, offered support and "directed to comply with health advice, including to get tested and self-isolate".
"Under a new operating model, we are fast-tracking contact tracing for quarantine hotel staff and strengthening processes for staff," she said.
Since the hotel quarantine inquiry was announced on July 2, Corrections Victoria has taken over guarding hotel quarantine after private security personnel were found to have breached restrictions and subsequently spread coronavirus through the community.
Tony Neal, QC, the counsel assisting that judicial inquiry, said late last month there was a link between many cases of coronavirus in Victoria and people who were part of the hotel quarantine program.
"Comments made by the Chief Health Officer to the media have suggested that it may even be that every case of COVID-19 in Victoria in recent weeks could be sourced to the hotel quarantine program," he said.
Major Brisbane hospital may suspend elective surgery as thousands await results
By Lydia Lynch
Elective surgery at one of Queensland's biggest health services may be put on hold again as early as Monday in a bid to free up health staff to deal with a potential coronavirus outbreak.
More than 27,000 Queenslanders have come forward to be tested for the virus since two Queensland women tested positive earlier this week after travelling to Melbourne.
That works out to be about six tests each minute.
The young women triggered a massive health response when they allegedly evaded mandatory hotel quarantine after a trip to Melbourne and spent eight days mingling in the community, before testing positive.
Fever clinics have been ramped up across Logan, Ipswich and Brisbane's southside with authorities bracing for the possibility of a major outbreak.
'Trying time': Australia races to help PNG fight virus resurgence
By Lia Timson
Early on in the pandemic, Papua New Guinea, like Australia and New Zealand, was doing well in its fight against the coronavirus.
The country closed its border on March 24, instituted lockdowns and began a series of measures to keep COVID-19 at bay. It worked. Until July 16 it had only 16 confirmed cases and no deaths.
The Mount Hagen provincial hospital's emergency ward. The PNG government is worried about COVID-19 spreading from Port Moresby to the provinces. Credit:Louise Kennerley
But then the virus escaped a testing lab in the main general hospital in Port Moresby infecting at least four health workers.
Within 14 days, there would be 72 confirmed cases and two deaths sparking a renewed effort to avert a meltdown of the country's precarious health system should the number of infections break out of the city.
Some 87 per cent of PNG's 8.9 million population live in rural areas.
Report: Federal government to leave Palmer's High Court case against WA hard border
Businesses take lead on mandating masks as NSW records 17 new cases
By Tom Rabe and Natassia Chrysanthos
Major businesses across NSW are taking it upon themselves to introduce face mask policies for staff and customers, moving ahead of government advice after more than a week of daily double-digit increases in coronavirus cases.
The state recorded 17 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday as several clusters across Sydney's west and inner-east continued to grow.
Aaron Johnson has a COVID-19 test at a popup clinic run by St Vincent's Hospital.Credit:Janie Barrett
An 83-year-old man linked to the Crossroads Hotel cluster was also the first to die with COVID-19 in NSW in more than a month after passing away early Saturday morning, NSW Health confirmed.
With Premier Gladys Berejiklian standing by departmental health advice suggesting masks only be considered where physical distancing can't be maintained, scores of companies across the state are going further.
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2020-08-01 22:05:00Z
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