LIVE: Greg Hunt and Deputy CMO Michael Kidd COVID-19 update
Greg Hunt and Deputy CMO Michael Kidd are giving a COVID-19 update in Canberra at 1.30pm. The focus is expected to be on mental health.
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Labour calls for 'circuit breaker' lockdown as UK's daily death toll rises over 100
London: Britain's opposition leader Keir Starmer has called for a new three-week lockdown after the country's coronavirus daily death toll climbed above 100 for the first time since July.
Britain recorded 143 deaths where coronavirus was present in patients for up to 28 days prior and a further 17, 234 cases of infection were recorded overall, primarily in England's northern towns.
Starmer made the call in a televised press conference, as the Commons approved Prime Minister Boris Johnson's three-tier lockdown system unveiled on Monday.
People drink beer in a Liverpool city centre pub ahead of the lockdown closure of bars, gyms and clubs in Liverpool, England. Credit:Getty
But 42 Tory MPs opposed the government's 10pm curfew on pubs and restaurants - a sign of the growing rebellion against harsher lockdown measures.
Under the harshest level of Johnson's revamped coronavirus restrictions, England's restaurants, schools and universities would remain open.
The system contrasts against advice from the government's scientific advisors, known as SAGE, which said that a 'circuit breaker' lockdown, consisting of two weeks could put the epidemic back by "approximately 28 days or more." It said multiple circuit breaks might be needed to keep suppressing the infection rate.
Boris Johnson has resisted a new lockdown, saying the public would consider a second national stay-at-home order as "extreme". He also endorsed comments by Britain's special envoy to the World Health Organisation Dr David Nabarro who urged world leaders to "stop using lockdown as your primary control method".
Staff member at Wooloworths store in Melbourne's CBD tests positive
By Paul Sakkal
A staff member at a CBD Woolworths store has tested positive to COVID-19.
The staff member last worked at the store in the QV shopping precinct on the corner of Lonsdale and Swanston streets on October 6 between 11pm-4am.
“The wellbeing of our customers, team and communities is our highest priority, and in line with public health advice, we are taking all necessary steps to ensure ongoing safety in our stores,” the company wrote in an email.
“If you have been shopping in our store since 6th October 2020 and become unwell in the next two weeks please contact the Health Department hotline on 1800 020 080 or visit the Coronavirus (COVID-19) information website at health.gov.au.”
Worry of 'infectious people in many settings' in NSW
By Rachel Clun
During the earlier press conference, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state was on the verge of another seeding event similar to the first one from Victoria.
The Crossroads Hotel outbreak, detected on July 10, was started after a man from Victoria attended the Casula hotel with several colleagues. That super-spreading event led to dozens of cases, with clusters linked to several restaurants and venues around Sydney.
In this instance, no super-spreading event caused by a highly infectious person has been identified, but health authorities are worried about the number of cases with unknown sources.
The source of six cases identified in the last seven days remains a mystery. The sources of the Lakemba GP cluster, which now includes 12 cases, and the Liverpool private clinic outbreak (10 cases), also remain unknown.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said NSW Health was dealing with hundreds of potential close contacts and multiple venues.
"All of that means that there is potentially infectious people in many settings," she said.
The focus of NSW Health and the government is now on increasing testing.
"It is so critical that we detect these chains of transmission at the earliest possible point," Dr Chant said.
More than 16,000 people were tested for COVID-19 in the last reporting period, but Ms Berejiklian and Health Minister Brad Hazzard were both concerned those testing numbers were not high enough.
"We're looking for numbers now, particularly as we've seen this increase in community transmission, upwards of 20,000. So please, please go out and get tested," he said.
Pandemic changing your exercise habits? It could be for the better
Are you exercising more or less since the coronavirus pandemic began?
According to a new study that focused on physical activity in Britain, most of us — not surprisingly — have been less physically active since the pandemic and its waves of lockdowns and quarantines began. Some people, however, seem to be exercising as much or more than before, and surprisingly, a hefty percentage of those extra-active people are older than 65.
The findings have not yet been peer reviewed, but they add to a mounting body of evidence from around the globe that the coronavirus is remaking how we move, although not necessarily in the ways we may have anticipated.
The pandemic lockdowns and other containment measures during the past six months and counting have altered almost every aspect of our lives, affecting our work, family, education, moods, expectations, social interactions and health.
None of us should be surprised, then, to learn that the pandemic seems also to be transforming whether, when and how we exercise. The nature of those changes, though, remains rather muddled and mutable, according to a number of recent studies. In one, researchers report that during the first few weeks after pandemic-related lockdowns began in the United States and other nations, Google searches related to the word "exercise" spiked and remained elevated for months.
And many people seem to have been using the information they gleaned from those searches by actually exercising more. An online survey conducted in 139 countries by RunRepeat, a company that reviews running shoes, found that a majority of people who had been exercising before the health crisis began reported exercising more often in the early weeks after. A separate survey of almost 1,500 older Japanese adults found that most said they had been quite inactive in the early weeks of lockdowns, but by June, they were walking and exercising as much as ever.
Shopper confidence jumps in wake of the federal budget
By Shane Wright
Consumer confidence has soared to its highest level in more than two years on the back of the Morrison government's big spending federal budget.
Westpac's closely watched measure of consumer sentiment jumped by 11.9 per cent in October, with optimists out-numbering pessimists for the first time since 2018.
Consumer confidence has gone up after the federal budget, but it helped the finances of men rather than women.Credit:The Age
The bank's chief economist, Bill Evans, said the development was due to last week's budget plus ongoing success across the country in containing the coronavirus outbreak.
"This is an extraordinary result. The index has now lifted by 32 per cent over the last two months to the highest level since July 2018," he said.
"The index is now 10 per cent above the average level in the six months prior to the pandemic."
Since 2010, Westpac has asked survey participants whether the budget had improved their finances. A clear majority over the period have said they expected the budget to hurt their personal bottom line.
The 2020 budget found an overall positive balance of 9.5 per cent, the first time any budget has shown a positive response.
But the positivity was only among male respondents with a net 21.9 per cent of men saying their finances were improved by the budget. Among women, minus 3.7 per cent said it would be positive.
COVID-19 vaccines are Big Pharma's chance of salvation
For a long time, pharmaceutical companies have been the most hated industry in America. They are blamed for gouging prices on lifesaving medicines and enriching themselves through the opioid crisis, among other sins.
Now, with drugmakers racing to find vaccines to end the coronavirus pandemic, the industry is hoping to redeem itself in the public's mind.
The primary goal, of course, is to rescue the world from the grips of a vicious virus. But a big fringe benefit is to get public credit — and to use an improved image to fend off government efforts to more heavily regulate the industry.
Consider Johnson & Johnson, one of the world's largest health care companies.
In recent years, its reputation has been battered by accusations that products like its artificial hips and talcum powder have harmed customers. In 2019, an Oklahoma judge ordered the company to pay $US572 million ($799 million) for contributing to the opioid epidemic.
Townsville woman tests positive in Melbourne after visiting Queensland cities
By Jocelyn Garcia
A Queensland woman in her 30s who tested for positive for COVID-19 in Victoria after visiting several Queensland cities has triggered a coronavirus scare, with several people in the state ordered to isolate themselves for 14 days.
The case was discovered after the virus was detected in Townsville's wastewater at the weekend.
Health Minister Steven Miles says Queensland Health is treating the case as if the woman was infected in Queensland.Credit:Tammy Law
Deputy Premier Steven Miles said the woman was a Townsville resident who travelled to Cairns and Brisbane before arriving in Melbourne.
"The team and Queensland Health have asked a number of people who may have been in contact with her to quarantine themselves for 14 days and get tested during that period," he said.
Mr Miles, who is also the Health Minister, said health authorities were treating the case as if she was infectious in Queensland as a precautionary measure.
"It's most likely she contracted it in Melbourne. She was in Melbourne several days before getting tested," he said.
"However, the way we've been so successful has been by being ultra, ultra-cautious ... contact tracing is under way."
Opinion: Dan Andrews' leadership is buckling under its own weight
By Shaun Carney
Daniel Andrews insists he is not going anywhere. At yet another of his marathon media conferences on Tuesday he advised a reporter he would not cut and run, declaring, “I’m not someone who runs from difficult things or hard work.”
Just a recap. He has overseen the massive, deadly policy cock-up of the hotel quarantine program, although he would not use those descriptors. That tragic failure prompted a stubborn, resilient second wave of coronavirus infections that has led to extra months of lockdown, with still no clear path towards a reopening of Melbourne.
The Premier, Daniel Andrews during a coronavirus update.Credit:Justin McManus
His government lost its health minister Jenny Mikakos, who walked out in disgust at the Premier’s public attempt to put her in the frame for the quarantine mess. On Sunday night, he lost his department head Chris Eccles, who took a swipe at Andrews on the way out. Eccles insisted he had not made the fateful decision to hire private security firms for quarantine hotels.
Crisis is an overused word these days; in most cases, “problem” will do. But it is an apt characterisation for the condition of the Andrews government. The Premier is, predictably, having none of that. He says he intends to stay around so that he can accept the Coate inquiry’s findings into the quarantine mess and then take “decisive action” to ensure the mistakes never happen again.
Will he get his wish, or will his distinctive form of leadership, marked increasingly by its focus on him and his office, collapse under its own weight?
Defiance is a standard-issue stance for political leaders. It can be seen as an expression of strength but can also be viewed as a form of delusion.
Lockdown costs could outweigh benefits if it lasts too long, says Andrews
By Paul Sakkal
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has acknowledged the harms of the strict lockdown could eventually outweigh the benefit it provided in minimising the risk of a third wave if the measures lasted too long.
Mr Andrews said there would be increased funding for mental health services in the upcoming budget and acknowledged many Victorians had experienced a deterioration in their mental health in recent months.
Premier Daniel Andrews. Credit: The Age
Mr Andrews said he met with the public health team on Tuesday night and said he hoped to outline on Sunday how the weeks and months ahead might look in terms of the restrictions that may be in place.
“These measures come with a cost. There is a public health benefit, but there is also a cost … and that is why it’s so difficult to impose restrictions like this,” he said.
“This is not an indefinite arrangement … At some point, the cost of the restrictions will be greater than the increased risk and the increased challenge for our public health team to keep the virus suppressed if we open earlier than we had planned.
“Some of those [costs] are measured at a very personal level, in terms of the health, both physical and mental, of individual Victorians and their families. Then there’s obviously a whole range of economic considerations beyond health.
“Weighing up those matters is very, very challenging but there is an enormous amount of thought, consideration and judgement that comes with that task.”
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2020-10-14 02:37:00Z
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