Australia coronavirus live update: people enjoy eased restrictions as four states record new cases – latest news

Thanks for following along today, readers. We’re going to wind up the blog shortly.

But first, let’s summarise the events of the day.

• Australia’s death toll has risen to 95 following another death in NSW at the Newmarch House aged care home, and the death of an 83-year-old woman in WA.
• Australia’s progress otherwise remains positive. Only 18 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours, remaining within the target of 20 new cases.
• Brendan Murphy, the chief medical officer, continued to urge caution, saying “there are still small outbreaks detected in Victoria and New South Wales, there is still evidence of some low level community transmission”
• He flagged a potential restart of face-to-face university activities and said the medical advice on schools remains clear: children are not high level transmitters and are at extremely low risk.
• About one in four adults with access to a smartphone have now downloaded the COVIDSafe App. Murphy said the more it is used, the more likely it is that authorities will be able to take bold steps to lift restrictions.
• In Victoria, a teacher tested positive for Covid-19 at the Meadowglen primary school in Epping. The school is to be closed for three days for deep cleaning. Victoria has otherwise recorded 13 new cases.
• Dan Tehan, the education minister, was forced to withdraw an attack on Daniel Andrews after accusing him of a failure of leadership on schools on Sunday morning. Tehan said he had overstepped the mark and withdrew his comments.
• The NRL team, the New Zealand Warriors, has arrived in Tamworth ahead of a planned resumption of the competition later this month. One player stayed home after feeling unwell.
• South Australia is hopeful of being completely free of Covid-19 after its 11th consecutive day without a new case. It only has seven active cases.

They’ve barely touched down, but Tamworth has already claimed the NRL’s New Zealand Warriors as its own.

Tasmania has recorded its second consecutive day with no new Covid-19 cases. Sarah Courtney, the state’s health minister, said the results were positive, but said Tasmanians must remain vigilant to avoid any second wave.

“We know in other jurisdictions, we know in other countries we have seen second waves which have had devastating consequences,” she said.

Only NSW, Victoria and Queensland have recorded new cases today.

The New Zealand Warriors have just touched down in Tamworth. They are planning to base themselves from the NSW town for the upcoming resumption of the NRL season and were given an exemption from travel restriction by the Australian Border Force.

NSW police say they have charged three people for breaching Covid-19 laws in the past 24 hours, including two alleged teenage trespassers in Edgeworth, a 63-year-old man in Redfern who was allegedly drinking alcohol in an alcohol-free zone, and a 37-year-old woman in Dulwich Hill who police say was driving erratically.

Police allege that none could provide a reasonable excuse for being outside.

We heard a brief update on the number of COVIDSafe App downloads a little earlier. Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said about one in four adults with a smartphone had downloaded the app.

He said the degree of confidence he could give to national cabinet about easing restrictions would be influenced by use of the app.

“The more confidence they can have, the more bold they might be,” Murphy said.

Meanwhile, in news neither related to Covid-19 or a looming by-election in Eden-Monaro, new “temporary accommodation pods” have just arrived in Cobargo for bushfire victims. Remarkable timing.

Let’s take a moment to recap the day’s events.

• Australia recorded just 18 new cases in the past 24 hours, remaining within its target of 20 new cases.
• Education minister Dan Tehan was forced to withdraw remarkable comments he made this morning, accusing the Victorian premier Daniel Andrews of a failure of leadership on his approach to the state’s schools. Tehan later said he had “overstepped”.
• South Australia has expressed hope of becoming Covid-19 free. It has just seven active cases and has had no new cases for the past 11 days.
• In New South Wales, another death has been recorded at the Newmarch House aged care home, the site of an outbreak. The 76-year-old woman who died became the 14th resident to die at the facility after testing positive to Covid-19. Four new cases were recorded in NSW, two of which were connected to Newmarch House.
• In Victoria, a teacher tested positive for Covid-19 at the Meadowglen primary school in Epping. The school is to be closed for three days for deep cleaning. Victoria has otherwise recorded 13 new cases.
• An 83-year-old woman who contracted Covid-19 from close contact is the latest confirmed death in WA. She was admitted to hospital in mid-April and died on 30 April. The state otherwise recorded no new cases overnight, the fourth consecutive day of zero cases. They now have only 19 active cases across the state.
• Chief medical officer Brendan Murphy said universities were likely to begin resuming some face-to-face activities this week.
• The New Zealand Warriors are flying to Australia today to begin preparations for a resumption of the NRL later this month. One of their players reportedly had to stay behind due to illness. The team were given a special exemption from travel restrictions.
• The ACCC says it was preparing to take Flight Centre to court over its policy of charging a cancellation fee of $300 to every per person that requests a refund for Covid-19 related cancellations. The legal action was avoided when Flight Centre said on Saturday it would waive the fee.
• States including Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia and the Northern Territory enjoyed their first weekend with loosened physical distancing restrictions.

South Australia has now registered 11 consecutive days of zero new coronavirus cases. That’s a pretty remarkable run.

As I mentioned, Nicola Spurrier is hopeful the state could soon be free of Covid-19, with only seven active cases.

The South Australia chief medical officer Nicola Spurrier is speaking now. She says the state now only has seven active cases, with 427 people now recovered from Covid-19. The state has a 98% recovery rate, she says.

If we don’t have any more cases, soon we will be able to say that we have no one with Covid-19 in the state, which will certainly be something to celebrate.

Spurrier is also announcing that playgrounds and skate parks will be reopened.

Looking at the risks involved, and also because we now have our schools back, I thought it was time that we should lift some of the restrictions on playgrounds.

A quick note that comments on this blog will close in about five minutes.

Murphy is asked about a report that one member of the New Zealand NRL team, the Warriors, had to stay behind for a Covid-19 test as the rest of the team travelled to Australia. He says he would be surprised if the test was positive, given New Zealand’s current low rates of Covid-19.

He’s asked whether more members of the team should be tested. Murphy says it is pointless testing people who are well.

There’s not a lot of value in testing well people, because you could be incubating the virus, we don’t know what that means.

Murphy warns anyone with any sign of illness, no matter how small, to stay away from aged care facilities. Even so much as a sniffle should be enough to prevent aged care visits, he says.

You have to be perfectly well to walk into the door of an aged care facility, that’s my message.

Murphy says a “cautious” restart of some university face-to-face activities will be discussed in national cabinet this week. He says it is likely that some face-to-face activities will resume.

I think universities are clearly in the mix of things that we’re talking about with national cabinet this week. It is likely that they will start to re-commence some activities, without pre-empting the decision of national cabinet.

The advice has not changed on schools and school-aged children, Murphy says.

Children are not high transmitters, he says. There is little risk to children.

We think that children are not high transmitters of this virus in the school environment. We have always said there is a potential risk for adults, in the staff room, adult interactions at the school, pick ups and drop off.

Murphy is asked how that squares with the Victorian government’s position.

He says the Victorian decision is based on the state’s desire to stop movement, rather than any concern about the safety of children.