Summary
- Victoria has recorded four new cases of coronavirus, with industry groups warning people and businesses to follow COVID-safe rules as Melbourne emerges from lockdown. Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says two of today's cases are weak positives, one case appears to be historical and one is under investigation.
- Queensland will reopen its border to regional New South Wales on November 3, but travel from Greater Sydney and Victoria will remain restricted, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced on the eve of the state election.
- A second coronavirus case connected to an indoor trampoline park has emerged in south-west Sydney with all patrons urged to get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days. NSW also recorded six cases in returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
- US adviser Anthony Fauci has warned the country is headed in the 'wrong direction' on infections. European countries are grappling with the damage caused to their economies by new lockdowns.
- There is fresh scrutiny on the Victorian government over the appointment of a security company to run its hotel quarantine program after heavily redacted emails suggest there were internal debates over the move.
Latest updates
That's all for today
By Rachael Dexter
And with that, we're done. Thanks for your emails and comments today. I hope you (safely) enjoy your Friday evening where ever you are.
A quick look back at the big news items of today:
Melburnians and their weekend plans
By Rachael Dexter
We're reaching the end of the working week on the blog, so I thought before we go I'd share with you the last batch of responses from our Melbourne readers on what they're planning to do for their first weekend out of lockdown:
Just like what we have been doing for the past months of lockdown. Staying home and being safe. The easing of restrictions means we can travel a little further to grab a takeaway meal. It doesn’t mean life back to pre-Covid normal. If everyone rushes out to have fun and mingle, we will really have no tomorrow. Anon
Stay at home and study, and go for a walk in the evening. As much as I'd love to catch up with a friend, there are just too many people doing the wrong thing - wearing masks as chin straps and not social distancing. It's infuriating! It's disappointing that some get to enjoy the post-lockdown "freedom" (mostly those who have been doing the wrong thing all along), but those of us with anxiety disorders, or who are just naturally more cautious, can't. Another weekend of hermit life for this human. Amber
I'll be staying home and catching up with friends on zoom. We did a piss poor job last time lockdown lifted in Victoria, I haven't seen anything that indicates we learned any lessons along the way so I'm waiting to see how we go this time around. Morgan
Go to visit my kids. Seriously, everyone take a chill pill. These idiots who want to live in fear should just remain locked up! I’m going to go out and support my local café as everyone should. Just remember that they didn’t cause this huge mess... ANDREWS DID!!! Have a heart Melbourne and support our people for heaven’s sake!!! Hiding under the doona is VERY UNHELPFUL!!! If you’re going to dob people move out of Australia!!! How un-Australian are you??? Jonno
Going out to pizza in Ivanhoe Friday night (two groups of six on the footpath), doing my regular swim at South Melbourne beach Saturday morning, and rest of the weekend laying low . David
Not a lot, actually. Whilst I’m so relieved shops and restaurants are open - seeing a lot of people already relaxing and not wearing masks in restaurants when not eating/drinking gives me anxiety. I don’t want to go backwards after all our collective hard work. I’m going to take this slowly and see how the next few weeks unfold with case numbers. Unsure
Staying at home and planting out tomatoes in my veggie patch. The first weekend in November is the perfect time to plant tomatoes. Sandra
Not a lot, actually. Whilst I’m so relieved shops and restaurants are open - seeing a lot of people already relaxing and not wearing masks in restaurants when not eating/drinking gives me anxiety. I don’t want to go backwards after all our collective hard work. I’m going to take this slowly and see how the next few weeks unfold with case numbers. Anon
Sydney alert: Cabramatta High School closes after positive case
By Rachael Dexter
A student has who attends Cabramatta High School in Sydney's south-west has tested positive to COVID-19.
NSW Health says the school will not open over the weekend for cleaning, but it's not known yet when students will be able to return to the classroom.
HSC examinations today have not been impacted, and the school is working with NSW Health to establish those who were close contacts of the student.
"HSC students will be contacted to confirm arrangements for the scheduled exams on Monday, 2 November," a NSW Education spokesperson said.
Video report: US headed 'in the wrong direction' say Fauci
By Reuters
The White House coronavirus task force is singing a very different tune from the president, warning of a persistent and broad spread of COVID-19 in the western half of the United States.
Reuters have produced this report:
NAB directs staff back to office after months of remote working
By Charlotte Grieve
National Australia Bank has instructed employees to start returning to the office, aiming to have buildings at 40 per cent capacity within coming weeks.
The big four bank sent an email to its 34,000 workers this week outlining plans for all staff outside of Victoria to "safely" return to their offices, after introducing work from home arrangements in mid-March as COVID-19 restrictions were introduced nationwide.
NAB's Melbourne office has been "mothballed" since July.Credit:Pat Scala
NAB is one of the country's first major employers to encourage staff to return to the office after months of working from home.
The email, sent by NAB executive Susan Ferrier, told staff the plans were dependent on the bank's ability to maintain social distancing within buildings.
"By returning to the office, we want to start again unlocking the benefits of in-person collaboration, such as better innovating for customers, learning from each other, problem solving together, mentoring and building our high-performance culture," Ms Ferrier said.
"But importantly, we will not be returning to the way things were before the pandemic. COVID-19 has challenged us all to think, work and act differently and we want to ensure that we retain the best of what we’ve learnt – and get back to something even better."
NAB has developed an online booking system in which specific desks are reserved ahead of time and information about the amount of time employees spend at the office is recorded to help with contact tracing efforts "as required".
Hot desking will be ditched and limits placed on the number of people permitted to ride in lifts as the bank encourages staff to remain 1.5 metres apart as recommended by health authorities.
Opinion: Why I don't want to travel north when I'm allowed
By Michelle Griffin
Much of the blog today has been focused on the very much alive border wars. Our World Editor Michelle Griffin has penned this opinion piece in response ...
When my son calls and says hey, maybe soon we’ll be able to visit him in Brisbane, it’s a little awkward.
I haven’t seen him since February and I miss him terribly. But I’m hoping he might come down here some time because really, I don’t want to go to Queensland.
The NSW-Victoria border at Albury-Wodonga has become a flashpoint in the coronavirus recession.Credit:David Gray/Getty Images
I’m one of the lucky ones who has kept their job in tough times and I do have holidays owing next year. But I don’t feel like spending my discretionary income in a state that exploited the sufferings of my own for political gain.
This rules out Queensland - and New South Wales too, even if they ever deign to let me in.
Of course other states had to seal off borders in July as coronavirus infection numbers bolted in Victoria. Containment works.
But those ads the Queensland Labor Party spread through social media in July about how their fair state would be “FLOODED with Victorians” if the Liberals were in power made it clear that they’d be amping up fear and hostility rather than offering words of support.
It must have paid off as Annastacia Palaszczuk is still using Victorians as figures of dread in the final week of her campaign.
And now New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian is determined to keep the borders closed in the south while hammering for the roadblocks to the north to be removed.
While it’s reasonable to consider cautious benchmarks for reopening, she seems awfully keen to go on about how she doesn’t trust the numbers and the standards, drawing it out as an opportunity for another slanging match that keeps families apart. Regional Victoria has lower numbers than Sydney. Is there something else she doesn’t want to talk about?
According to Berejiklian, “it's easy not to spread the virus when people have limited mobility”.
No, it wasn’t easy. It was bloody hard, often dreary and sad and sometimes scary and eventually rather emotional.
After 120 doses of daily Dan, Andrews to take brief break from briefing
By Craig Butt and Jamie Brown
"Everyone right to go?"For 120 consecutive days, from July 3 (66 new cases) to today (four new cases) Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews has delivered the state's daily coronavirus update.
This calendar marks every day since July 1 that the Premier has spoken at these press conferences:
Mr Andrews said on Friday that he would be stepping away from the dais for a day on Saturday."I will not see you tomorrow, the Minister for Health will conduct the daily briefing," he said.
"I'm sure you're all very pleased to hear that."
There were four new coronavirus cases confirmed in Victoria on Friday, and the state's 14-day average is currently 2.6.
There have been two mystery cases confirmed over the past two weeks in Victoria and the infection source of six cases is currently being investigated.
Conditions for interstate travel to WA
There are a number of conditions to the easing of Western Australia's borders.
Premier Mark McGowan's Twitter account has just released this graphic to try lay it all out:
McGowan pulls down WA's 'hard border', sets timeline for reunification with eastern states
By Nathan Hondros
WA Premier Mark McGowan has announced the imminent demise of WA's controversial 'hard border', which bans travellers entering the state unless they meet strict exemption requirements.
From November 14, WA will move to a "controlled interstate border regime", Mr McGowan said at a media conference on Friday.
This would mean travellers coming from states with no community transmission for 28 days would be allowed to enter the state, but be required to have their temperature tested at Perth Airport and a COVID-19 test if necessary.
This includes all jurisdictions except NSW and Victoria. In those states, if they continue to have fewer than five local transmissions of the virus on a rolling 14-day average, travellers would be allowed into WA, but would still need to self-isolate for 14 days.
Mr McGowan said: "Behind our hard border we began to safely ease restrictions within our state to open up our economy."
"This resulted in a strong economic and social recovery unique to Western Australia. Our economy is once again the engine room of the nation and Western Australians are back to work with confidence," he said.
"Western Australia's hard border has and will only ever be in place to protect the health of all Western Australians. I cannot stress that enough."
Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson delivered fresh health advice to the government this week, which was considered by the state's disaster council on Friday morning.
He said the decision to turn WA into "an island within an island" was unthinkable, but necessary.
BREAKING: WA's hard border is opening up
Western Australia's hard border is finally easing up.
From November 14, travel will be permitted from states and territories that are deemed "very low risk".
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2020-10-30 08:11:00Z
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