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Aged care COVID-19 deaths could have been curtailed, Brendan Murphy says
By Dana McCauley
Health Department Secretary Brendan Murphy has conceded the federal government could have acted faster to contain the deadly spread of COVID-19 through Victoria's aged care facilities, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison comes under pressure to address failings exposed by the pandemic in next week's federal budget.
Asked at a COVID-19 Senate inquiry hearing on Tuesday if the more than 600 aged care deaths during Victoria's second wave had been "avoidable", Professor Murphy said the Commonwealth-led Victorian Aged Care Response Centre could have been activated sooner.
Professor Brendan Murphy.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
"With the benefit of hindsight, responding with a response centre a little bit earlier, we would have been able to prevent some of the spread [and] respond better," he said, recalling "those particularly devastating weeks where two facilities lost their entire workforces".
The admission comes as the Aged Care Royal Commission prepares to hand its special COVID-19 report to the federal government and as the virus continues to spread through Victorian aged care with 158 active infections - including 83 residents - at dozens of facilities.
Trans-Tasman bubble could not compromise elimination strategy: Ardern
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is fronting the Australian media today amid talks of the trans-Tasman travel bubble, stressing that she wants to make such an arrangement work without compromising New Zealand's elimination strategy.
Speaking on Today, Ms Ardern said a hotspot definition – set to be agreed upon by national cabinet and restrict which areas are included in the travel bubble – would only operate in Australia.
"We are working to maintain a COVID-free status so when people are able to visit us they can move around the whole country," she explained.
"They can visit our hospitality [venues], they don't have any restrictions on their movements."
Ms Ardern said New Zealand was "still open" to pursuing travel bubbles with individual states, rather than Australia as a whole.
"So much of that comes down to the decisions that Australia chooses to make going into the future," she said, seemingly hinting at the impact internal border restrictions could have on a bubble arrangement.
Asked if New Zealand's lockdown – in which the country did eradicate the virus – went too hard, Ms Ardern disputed that the pandemic recession had hit New Zealand harder than Australia.
"Actually, our unemployment has been lower, our unemployment has been lower, our debt is lower, and there is a while to run until we see the full impact on the likes of GDP," she said, adding both countries had "similar goals", despite her describing New Zealand's strategy as an elimination strategy.
"We want to keep our people safe and I absolutely stand by that decision we had, which was go hard, go early," she said.
"It meant we lifted our restrictions sooner than many others. We got our open economy back and our death rate was low.
"Ultimately what is an economy without a healthy people?"
Today's front pages
Here's what is making news on the front pages of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald today.
New York City introduces mandatory masks as coronavirus rate climbs
New York City will impose fines on people who refuse to wear a face covering as the rate of positive tests for the novel coronavirus climbed above 3 per cent for the first time in months, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Beyond New York, 28 other US states were seeing upticks in new coronavirus infections over the past two weeks, and COVID-19 hospitalisations were on the rise in several Midwest states.
New York City officials will first offer free masks to those caught not wearing one. If the person refuses, they will face an unspecified fine, de Blasio said.
"Our goal, of course, is to give everyone a free face mask," de Blasio said. "We don't want to fine people, but if we have to we will."
The mayor attributed the recent rise in part to nine postcodes out of 146 that city health officials say have seen a worrying uptick in cases, including several tight-knit Hasidic Jewish communities.
ADF to be replaced with police in Queensland
Defence personnel are departing the Queensland border today, as per the state's agreement with the federal government, despite more NSW residents being allowed to cross into the state from tomorrow.
The 58 stationed troops will be replaced with 15 Queensland police officers at midnight tonight.
From Thursday, residents of Byron, Ballina, Glen Innes, Lismore and Richmond Valley will be included as part of Queensland's border bubble, prompting fears of delays as staffing is reduced.
Last week, Queensland Deputy Premier Steven Miles accused the federal government of using the soldiers as a "bargaining chip" to pressure the state to reopen its borders at the end of the month.
Welcome to this morning's blog
Good morning and happy Wednesday! Welcome to another day of our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia and beyond. This is Mary Ward taking you through this morning's developments. You can read yesterday's blog here.
On the agenda today, we expect the federal government will be spruiking their latest budget announcement: incentives will be put in place to encourage young Australians to do the fruit picking jobs left empty by the country's foreign worker exodus in the pandemic. It will be curious to see if there is more to say about a plan to move away from mandatory hotel quarantine for returned overseas travellers, which the Prime Minister hinted at yesterday, although the next national cabinet meeting is not until October 16 so perhaps it will simmer until then.
In the states, Victoria's 14-day average and mystery case numbers have continued to trend towards their next stage targets. Defence personnel are finishing up on the Queensland border today (despite more NSW residents being allowed to cross from tomorrow). And it is now easier for Victorians to get into Western Australia than NSW, after the former announced a shift from hotel quarantine to home quarantine amid the lower case numbers.
We will be bringing you live updates throughout the day, as well as the coronavirus coverage in our papers today. Stay with us.
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2020-09-29 20:53:00Z
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