Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria reports 59 deaths and 81 new Covid-19 cases

Daniel Andrews will speak at midday

AAP has an update on the NSW cases:

Another Sydney school has been forced to shut after being linked to a positive COVID-19 case, while NSW has recorded eight new cases of the virus.

All staff and students at Regents Park Christian School are advised to monitor for symptoms but those who attended after-school care on Monday and Tuesday must isolate for 14 days.

The case, which was deemed COVID-positive on Wednesday night and is linked to a previously reported infection, was one of the eight NSW cases in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday.

Of the eight, one case was in a traveller in hotel quarantine while three were connected to the City Tattersalls Club gym cluster and two to the St Pauls Catholic College Greystanes cluster, taking the size of those clusters to 57 and 14 respectively.

St Pauls and nearby Girraween Public School reopened on Thursday after deep cleaning.

NSW Health on Thursday issued an alert for a church service at Life in the Spirit Ministry in Prestons, with anyone who attended on August 30 required to self-isolate for 14 days.

Health authorities on Friday added New Brighton Golf Club in Moorebank to that list, with patrons on the evening of August 28 deemed close contacts and told to self-isolate.

With Father’s Day on Sunday, NSW Health also advised against visiting Sydney, Blue Mountains or Central Coast aged care homes at the weekend.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian earlier this week suggested rules around nursing home visits may change for the weekend if virus case numbers remained low.

“This decision has been reached after careful consideration of the risks of COVID-19 being introduced into an aged care facility while the CBD cluster is brought under control,” NSW Health said on Friday.

Transport Minister Andrew Constance on Friday warned against complacency as summer nears and more people use public spaces.

“There’s no doubt people are going to want to travel around and we’ve just got to be mindful the virus is still amongst us, it can spike up at any point as we’re seeing,” Mr Constance told reporters.

“Everyone this Sunday, being out and about, be mindful you’ve got to do all the good things.”

Meanwhile, Ms Berejiklian has hit out at Queensland’s demand that NSW eliminate COVID-19 community transmissions before it considers reopening its border.

Queensland chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young said on Thursday that NSW needed to pass 28 days without any COVID-19 community transmission before the border rules would be reassessed.

“The guideline that’s been set by the Queensland government in relation to when they reopen their border is a pretty tall order,” Ms Berejiklian told reporters on Thursday.

“I don’t know anywhere on the planet where a society could function productively during a pandemic and get an assurance you’re going to (get) zero cases of community transmission.”

There are seven COVID-19 cases in NSW in intensive care, with four ventilated.

John Setka of the CFMEU has written to Daniel Andrews and Brett Sutton about the covid standards in the construction industry:

The commercial construction industry has continued to lead workers safely through the COVID-19 pandemic. Our priority has always been to protect the safety and livelihoods of our members.

We implemented extreme safety measures well beyond those we were required to do in the early stages of the pandemic to ensure the protection of all construction workers.

These procedures meant we were better placed than any other industry to continue working and we must be allowed to do just that – not only to protect the livelihoods of the 300,000 plus Victorian construction workers but to lead the recovery of the Victorian economy.

Some of the measures we have in place are.

– Onsite Infectious disease awareness training

– On site temperature checking

– Site mapping

– COVID-19 safe jobsite fogging

– On-going mobile testing by Incolink having tested over 18,000 construction workers to date with only 7 positive confirmed cases of COVID-19.

– Continuous medical grade sanitation cleaning

– Rostered breaks and split start times

– Social distancing also put in place for hoists, lunchrooms, and toolbox meetings

– Digital mapping trials are ongoing

The success of these safety measures is evident with the onsite COVID-19 confirmed commercial construction cases continuing to be at a minimum with only three cases in the past six weeks and zero cases in the past three weeks.

As the backbone of this country, the 300,000 plus Victorian construction workers across all sectors must go back to work now.

The onsite COVID-19 safety measures will continue to be an absolute priority, in the provision of protection for the construction industry and the community at large.

New Zealand will continue locking down Auckland for another fortnight.

Jacinda Ardern says authorities think there might be cases they have missed, so they need another two weeks.

NSW has recorded eight new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours – one in hotel quarantine and the other seven are linked to known cases.

Alan Tudge was also on ABC radio this morning, speaking about the government’s attempts to lure big companies to Australia.

He was asked how the government thought this would work, given Australia’s borders are closed – and 23,000 Australians are stranded overseas – and that’s just those who have registered to want to come home. There could be up to 100,000 if this goes into next year.

Q: Before we get to the details of this announcement, is it a little odd to be putting out the welcome mat for businesses when at least 23,000 Aussies are stuck overseas because flights keep getting cancelled?

Tudge: Well this is an initiative, which is about creating jobs for Australians in Australia, because if we attract businesses to our shores, we attract investments to our shores. Of course, in that process, we will be creating further jobs here and that is what this initiative is all about: job creation for Australians.

Q: But given our international borders are still closed, how quickly is this going to happen?

Tudge: Well it will take some time. We are not going to have a flood of people obviously next Monday. This is an initiative, which we are just kicking off today, and it will run for two or three years. And we’re going to be targeting some of those really high value businesses and trying to attract them to our shores. And in doing so creating those jobs, as well as targeting some of that exceptional global super talent out there, people who are entrepreneurial, some of the top scientists, some of the tech wizards who are in demand globally, and again be attractive to them, invite them to our shores to help generate jobs for Australians here.

Given all the expanded powers, this must be totally fine right?

Jacqui Lambie is the deciding vote in the mobile phone ban legislation.

The bill will make it illegal for refugees and asylum seekers to have mobile phones – their only lifeline to the outside world – in Australia’s immigration detention centres.

Think about how often you have used your phone in isolation.

And then write to Lambie to let her know what you think.

The Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry continues today.

Noel Cleaves from the health and human services department says it was the most “intense” work experience he has ever had:

I would have to say it was the most intense work experience I’ve ever had in my 35 years work. We worked very long hours in the first weeks. They declined a little bit after that but I would have to say they never declined substantially but the first few weeks we were doing regularly 16-18 hours days regularly without breaks and then every two to three days – nights a senior AO would have the responsibility of being on call for the AOs in the hotels who were working night shift and also a secondary role of being on call for the Victoria police – police operation centre. Primarily that was around the advice but very occasionally it required physical attendance.

While having a read of Tasmania’s restrictions, I found this fun one:

Restrictions remain in place for dancing in all venues where food and alcohol is consumed because of the increased risk of close contact, particularly where alcohol is consumed, and difficulty of tracing contact among patrons. This restriction will be in place at least until the end of 2020.

Dancing will only be permitted when it is pre-arranged, held in a separate room to where food and alcohol is consumed and contact information is recorded. For example, the following could occur:

• a pre-arranged dance class in a separate room of a pub;
• dance classes or dancing in a community hall; and
• water, tea, coffee and other non-alcoholic drinks could be consumed in the same room as a dance class or dancing.

The only other exception is dancing at a wedding reception. The wedding couple, their parents/guardians and other bridal party members can dance.

The management of risk associated with these activities must also be covered in a venue’s COVID-19 Safety Plan.

If someone hires a venue, such as a community hall, they share with the venue owner/operator the responsibility for managing dance and other activities, including physical distancing and facilitating a safe entry and exit to the premises.

Meanwhile, the same workplace concerns which happened before the pandemic, are still an issue.

But in short, Queensland will not be budging on borders.

Annastacia Palaszczuk said the debate had been “intense” and “intimidating” but she will “not give in to intimidation”.

Queensland has done extremely well by relying on the expert health advice of Dr Young. And let me make it very clear. They will not be changing that course anytime soon because you have seen the great results that have been occurring in Queensland.

Western Australia is also not budging.

The Northern Territory’s Michael Gunner had previously said he would be keeping his borders closed to hotspots for another 18 months (which would take us into 2022)

Tasmania won’t be opening up until at least December.

South Australia has said it would consider allowing ACT and NSW residents to travel across its borders, but is yet to make a decision.

In short, there won’t be a national unified position on this.

The Queensland CMO, Dr Jeannette Young, said she advised the government to close the borders.

“My advice is driven by health and that is the only issue that I consider,” she said last month.

Peter Dutton, who is a member of the federal government, and not privy to Queensland government advice, says differently:

I don’t have any problem with borders being closed if that’s the recommendation of the health authorities, but in Queensland it’s not.

And the trouble at the moment is that we have got a situation that is all political and we are seeing a lot of people suffer. I think the mental health issues that – [inaudible] – that the borders are open as soon as possible.

But New South Wales is dealing with community transmission but zero cases, if that’s the test for success, we are going broke. Businesses will close, those jobs won’t be there, so we have got to think about what’s happening today, but what happens over the next six months and the borders closed at the moment means complete devastation for families in Queensland and there is no reason for it.

Dutton is talking about the federal health advisors, who have not advised the national cabinet to close borders – but have repeatedly said it is a matter for the states CMOs to decide themselves.

Unfortunately for Matt Canavan, today is Jersey Day.

Just to be clear, there have been nine deaths in Victoria in the last 24 hours.

The 59 figure includes 50 deaths from between July and August.

So in the last 24 hours, nine people died and 81 people were diagnosed with Covid-19 in Victoria.

But there were another 50 deaths from aged care facilities, of people who had been diagnosed with Covid, who had not been officially recorded in the toll before today.

It is worth pointing out that this is a debate happening in the UK, but being talked about here.

Australian politics:

(via AAP)

A former colleague has come to the defence of Tony Abbott after he was labelled a misogynistic, homophobic climate-denier.

The former prime minister has come under heavy scrutiny after it emerged he was being lined up for a senior trade role in the United Kingdom.

He has also been criticised for suggesting older people should be left to die from coronavirus, to spare younger generations from the economic burden.

Senior coalition minister Mathias Cormann, who served under Mr Abbott, said he had a distinguished record.

“From where I sit, Tony Abbott is clearly a giant on Australian politics who has made a great contribution over a long time,” Senator Cormann told Sky News on Friday.

“Not everyone will agree with him, but people are entitled to their views, and that’s the way things work in a democracy.”

Mr Abbott has previously said he felt threatened by homosexuality, opposed same-sex marriage, and was accused of misogyny by fellow former prime minister Julia Gillard.

Julia Gillard was asked on UK television for her views on Abbott and declined to get involved with the debate.

And for those counting, as of 22 August, Scott Morrison has sat in the prime minister’s office for longer than Abbott.