Coronavirus live news: Iraq hospitals in crisis as anti-lockdown rallies loom in Victoria

Things are heating up at the anti-lockdown protest at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. These videos come via Aneeka Simonis at the Herald Sun.

The China Daily reports there are 10 new Covid-19 cases in the country today.

Here’s our story on the former Cook Islands prime minister Joseph Williams, who has died of coronavirus in Auckland, according to New Zealand’s health ministry.

And that’s all from Victoria. As we told you earlier, there have been 76 new cases and 11 deaths reported today. Six of those deaths occurred in the past 24 hours. The other five happened in recent days, according to premier Daniel Andrews.

Sutton is talking about his hopes for a vaccine:

There are over 30 who in those phase-three trials with tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people around the world now going through phase three trials where we will see what a vaccine might be able to achieve, and if just one of those vaccines, and there will be probably three or four or more of those vaccines that show effectiveness, that are safe, and can be produced, that is what we are hanging out for, so if we can do that and hang on for those months ahead when a vaccine is available and can be provided across the population, then we are all in a much better position.

Andrews is asked whether he believes the national cabinet process is “fractured” after the prime minister, Scott Morrison, yesterday ended the so-called consensus model of the body because of Queensland and Western Australia’s refusal to sign up to a border re-opening timetable.

From my point of view, I wouldn’t describe national cabinet in those terms, it has served us well and will continue to serve us well. There are some things that all of us need to put aside the things that sometimes occupy us, and instead of acting on those sort of interests, we act in what is undoubtedly the national interest, that is what has driven national cabinet, and I don’t see that changing.

At the same time, though, I will let the prime minister speak to those matters in more detail, he is the chair of that body … from my point of view, the outcome in relation to having free movement of key agricultural workers and the process to improve those arrangements between South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales was a very important outcome.

In New South Wales, five new cases of Covid-19 were diagnosed in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 3,915.

The new cases include:

• One returned traveller in hotel quarantine
• Four linked to the CBD cluster, bringing the total linked to this cluster to 61.

Andrews is asked about the heavy police presence in Melbourne before those anti-lockdown protests today:

There is a very visible, very significant police presence in the city. Some people have forecast that they in a selfish, dangerous and unlawful way protest and police are taking appropriate steps, and as for number they can leave it to Victoria police to provide you with any details.

Brett Sutton is being asked whether the roadmap out of lockdown, to be released tomorrow, would move to allow businesses to reopen while increasing protections around aged care.

He says it’s “important to understand that the real epidemic in aged care followed the epidemic in the community”.

And the number of new introductions in aged-care facilities happened at the height of community transmission. And so getting on top of community transmission is protecting aged-care settings. It’s both the response within those settings, so making sure that it doesn’t spread amongst residents, it doesn’t spread amongst staff, and it doesn’t go between staff and residents. But it’s also about keeping on top of the numbers in the community, because the aged-care outbreaks follow community transmission, and they’re now a challenge to make sure that it’s not reintroduced to prolong community transmission.

As this press conference goes on, a heavy police presence at Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance are already making arrests before a planned anti-lockdown protest.

Victoria’s chief medical officer, Brett Sutton, says there are in fact 64 new cases, based on some reclassification of previous cases. Only one is from an unknown source. Sutton says mystery cases have accounted for about 10% or 15% of total cases in recent days.

Andrews is addressing a push from members of the business community to force Victoria out of the stage-four restrictions:

I understand why they want to do that. It’s not just for profits, it’s for their people. Their staff. Their future. I absolutely get that. But when you really think about it, I don’t know that any business – my own experience, my family background, and the people that I speak to almost every day – no one is really advocating to open and be open for just a few weeks. And if you opened at these levels, that is exactly what would happen. It would be five minutes of sunshine and then a third wave that arguably will be even more devastating than the second. We just have to find a way to be as steadfast as this virus, it is stubborn. The tail of the second wave is a stubborn thing.