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An early morning Kmart fix. Only in 2020
By Zach Hope
Our reporter Zach Hope is out on the ground as some Australian institutions reopen in Melbourne...
"Melbourne's Diana David admits she just spent $75 at Kmart on "probably rubbish", but that's not important right now.
"I just needed my fix. I needed my Kmart fix," she says.
Among the items is a toy 'shake and move' puppy for the niece she hasn't been allowed to see for months.
Ms David, a dog groomer, has a long day of work ahead and said she needed to get the shopping in first so she wouldn't be thinking about it all day.
"It's quite weird. I can't explain it. You just don't know what to do first," she said.
Some Kmart stores opened at midnight on Tuesday. At Barkly Square in Brunswick, a steady stream of customers had been moving through all morning.
One woman entering the store held up her phone to record a video message for a friend.
"Look where I am this morning! Whoohoo!"
Melburnians visit bars at midnight
Many keen Melburnians hit the bars or restaurants as they opened at midnight last night after almost four months.
Again, it's early, but you can't help but be pleased by scenes like these...
Melbourne, don't rush out of lockdown: Australia's top mental health doctor
Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer for Mental Health has given advice to Melburnians returning to something like normal life as the city’s lockdown lifts: don’t rush.
Deputy Chief Medical Officer (Mental Health) Dr Ruth Vine, who is from Melbourne.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
Dr Ruth Vine, the country’s first top health bureaucrat focused purely on mental health, said this week’s changes, with home visits allowed again and hospitality and retail reopening, would provide an immediate filip for mental health for some but not all.
“I do have to say and I give myself this advice, which is yes you have this sense of relief and sense that 'hey hey, maybe things are getting back to normal', but don’t rush too fast,” Dr Vine told ABC’s Radio National.
“Don’t be too fast, don’t stop being vigilant, measure that moving out, and don’t think some people aren't going to find it hard. There will be many difficult questions to answer still.”
Victoria’s mental health minister James Merlino yesterday revealed presentations to hospital emergency rooms with mental health episodes had grown 25 to 30 per cent during the state’s second wave.
Asked whether there was enough urgency around mental health, Dr Vine said speed was important at the moment but that could not replace getting it right.
“There is an irony there because there is an urgency but of course COVID itself has delayed many things … I think for instance the Victorian Royal Commission [into mental health was to report in October but that’s been pushed back to February,” she said.
“I think there's an urgency, but I don’t think urgency should replace consideration and consultation and really trying to get it right.”
Wherever you are, it's always a good idea to check in with your friends and family to see how they are.
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'Rather cute' NSW has to wait for Queensland election for border decision: Berejiklian
By Mary Ward
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said she thinks it is "rather cute" that her state is waiting until the Queensland state election to hear if they will be able to cross the state border again.
Speaking to Ben Fordham on 2GB this morning, Ms Berejiklian said she continued to be annoyed by the border closure, having recently spent time in northern NSW and heard the stories of affected regional communities.
Resuming the beef: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.Credit:Getty Images, Brook Mitchell
"It think it's rather cute that it's happening the day before her election, and I'm just so upset and frustrated that the border has been in place for so long," the Premier said, adding she hoped an announcement would come before the end of the week.
"I just wish she'd had the courage to do it earlier," she quipped.
Asked about her own border closure, the Premier said she thinks "everyone would accept that Victoria is in a different situation".
"They're still in partial lockdown, and we know it's much easier for the virus to not spread when no one is going to work or school," she said. (All Victorian school students returned to school this week.)
She said she did not want to reopen the NSW border in stages – i.e. allowing regional Victorian residents first – due to operational difficulties at checkpoints.
"If we see, within a couple of weeks, the virus is still under control, we will have no problem taking the border down."
Home visits start today in Melbourne - have you got your whiteboard?
Melburnians can as of today visit each other in their homes, marking another step on the road to economic and social recovery following 15 long weeks of lockdown.
There are, of course, rules and limits.
Premier Daniel Andrews described it this way: "If you're having visitors, you can't be a visitor to somebody else's home. And if they have visited you, they can only visit you on that one day."
Basically, two visitors at any one time, and that can be everyone in the group's only home visit that day. So, have you got your whiteboard?
Tuesday's announcement came as a relief for Northcote father Rob Wallace and his family of seven, who are going to have to use a whiteboard to manage their comings and goings and ensure all of the family get a visit or a visitor.
Rob Wallace and his five children, who will use a white board to track their home visits.Credit:Penny Stephens
"I totally get that you can’t just have a free for all," he said. "It’s just about thinking ‘what can we do? We can do this', and that’s good because last week we couldn’t do that."
However, Rachel Bensimon from East Melbourne – who also lives with six other people – said she was frustrated the rules limited the visits to two adults and their dependents,
"It just seems so arbitrary," Ms Bensimon said. "Why are we picking and choosing parts of the family?"
"My 13-year-old, who has been home for months secluded in his room, again I should tell him, 'actually you can’t come with us to visit your grandparents, we’re just going to take the younger ones.'"
United States could struggle with virus for years even with vaccine
The U.S. strategy to rely on vaccines and treatments, rather than emphasising social distancing, masks and testing nationwide, threatens to delay the return to normal life for Americans.
US President Donald Trump at the White House this week ahead of the election next Tuesday (US time).Credit:AP
While the U.S. has committed more than $10 billion to develop new shots to fight covid-19, about half of Americans say they are wary of taking them, according to a Gallup poll reported this month. Meanwhile, any shortfalls in the vaccine program could mean the country will struggle with the virus well into 2023, according to the London-based firm Airfinity Ltd.
At the same time, cases are climbing as the weather cools and more activity moves indoors.
In the waning days before the U.S. election, the Trump administration's response is focused on a swift rollout of vaccines developed in its Operation Warp Speed program. On Sunday, Mark Meadows, Trump's chief of staff, outlined the strategy on CNN.
"We're not going to control the pandemic," Meadows said. "We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations."
But ending the crisis won't be quick or easy. Vaccines may initially slow deaths among the vulnerable, such as those with chronic conditions. But the logistical, production and public education challenges of immunising 60% to 70% of national populations - the level the World Health Organisation says is needed to achieve herd immunity - will be a time-consuming process.
A vaccine isn't "a magic wand," said Marie-Paule Kieny, a research director at the French health-science institute Inserm and a former World Health Organisation official. "It will not be a quick fix, even if it's effective."
Front-runners Pfizer Inc., Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc all may deliver positive results in the coming weeks from final-stage trials, with emergency clearance possible by the end of the year and full-blown rollouts taking longer. Meanwhile, U.S. regulators are demanding only 50% effectiveness for emergency authorisation, which may spur drawbacks combined with limited uptake.
"The less it is effective, the more we need people to take it," said Brian Castrucci, chief executive of the Maryland-based de Beaumont Foundation in a recent interview. "We just don't know yet."
United Kingdom and France record most COVID-19 deaths in months
The United Kingdom and France reported the most coronavirus deaths since May and April respectively and Italy and Greece posted record numbers of new cases as the pandemic showed no signs of abating across Europe.
"We continue to see the trend in deaths rising, and it is likely this will continue for some time," Yvonne Doyle, medical director of Public Health England, said in an emailed statement Tuesday after the U.K. posted 367 new deaths.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has much to worry about.Credit:Leon Neal/Getty
France reported 523 deaths from the disease on Tuesday, the most since April 22. President Emmanuel Macron will speak in a televised address Wednesday evening to announce additional measures to tackle the virus's resurgence. Covid-19 patients now occupy 57.5% of France's intensive care beds, almost 3 percentage points more than on Monday and up from 42.9% a week ago.
Italy, France and other European countries have instituted curfews in some major cities as governments try to build a firewall against the virus without returning to the full-blown lockdowns that brought Europe's economies to their knees earlier this year.
However, Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands, among Europe's hardest hit countries, said all scenarios including a full lockdown are on the table after the number of new cases on a weekly basis rose to 67,542 from 55,587. In Belgium's Flanders region, just to the south, the government closed theaters and kept a midnight curfew in place, while leaders in Brussels and Wallonia lifted theirs.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's government approved a relief package to help sectors hit by the latest set of restrictions - which include curfews and early closing hours for restaurants and bars - amid growing protests in several cities. The country reported 21,994 new cases on Tuesday, joining Greece, Bosnia and Serbia in setting records.
Germany is also heading for harsher restrictions on movement. On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel will propose measures such as closing restaurants and banning major events to the country's 16 state premiers.
Bloomberg
When will the NSW-Victoria border open?
As Melbourne enjoys its reopening, a key topic will becomw when New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian opens the border she shut in early July as Victoria's second wave surged.
Multiple federal government MPs and state politicians along the Victorian border, along with Qantas and other transport operators, have called on the New South Wales government to allow Victorians unfettered access to the state.
Premiers Dan Andrews and Gladys Berejiklian.Credit:Getty Images
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said that nationally there had only been three locally acquired cases of coronavirus in the last 48 hours. “It is time for the states and territories to safely reopen their borders,” he said.
In NSW, however, MPs appear to still be sceptical, including the Premier herself, who has previously said she would like to see Victoria record at least a fortnight of low case numbers.
"It’s easy not to spread the virus when everyone is confined to their home or has limited mobility. But once you ease restrictions and people start moving around again, that’s the real test," she said.
Another NSW MP said that "a couple of zeroes does not make a COVID-free state".
The border issue is expected to be top of the agenda at the NSW government's weekly crisis cabinet meeting today. We'll bring you any updates on the issue as they arise.
And another Australian institution reopens in Melbourne... who's got the snags?
By Zach Hope
And we're away at Bunnings.
About 20 people, not wanting to waste a minute more, had lined up outside the Coburg store for its 6.30am opening.
Phillip Giordimaina was at the front of the queue sporting a long list of items - blades, tap fittings, grout, nails, brackets, among others - for banked up jobs around the home.
He's been here since 6am.
"It's better than waiting two days for online, that's for sure," he said.
It has been one of the cruel realities of lockdown - so much time and so much to do, yet no way to get all of what you need.
"I've got some home renovations happening, so there's a whole heap of things," said Neil, second in line.
"Some of it's been done but some of the crucial bits like painting. I mean, you can buy basic paint but when you need something special you can't get it. That's my main mission this morning."
Bunnings Warehouse is running on extended hours for the next two weeks in Melbourne to accommodate the rush.Credit:Robert Peet
Behind Neil, Paula is eager to replenish her garden.
"Out of all the places reopening, this is the first place I wanted to come," she said.
"I've got so many things I need to do at home. I'm going to buy plants, I'm going to buy flowers, mulch, potting mix some things for the garden, and inside.
"The way that companies and organisations have come up with a process during a covid is very good.
But I like to look at plants first. I've always been like that. Even with clothing, I need to touch it and try it on."
Melbourne's hospitality scene reopens
Look, I know it's early, but would you have a look at that?!
Some establishments chose to open as the clock struck midnight today, and our photographer Luis Ascui and food writer and restaurant critic Gemima Cody were there to soak some of it up.
What are your plans for the day? I hope you've had more luck than me in booking your favourite restaurant, cafe or bar.
Some punters in Melbourne enjoy a midnight pint.Credit:Luis Ascui
A barman at The Supper Club in the early hours.Credit:Luis Ascui
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2020-10-27 20:02:00Z
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