Coronavirus Australia live news: Boris Johnson not yet back at work, Australian restrictions in place for at least another four weeks
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson remains off work as he recovers from coronavirus, as the UK Government announces a goal to reach 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month.
Look back on Wednesday as it unfolded.
Live updates
Prime Minister's press conference, key points:
By Simon Smale
- Attention of Government "has now been turning to the road out, having worked through the road in"
- Mr Morrison warned the country must prepare for some "very sobering news" in terms of the economy in the months ahead
- Mr Morrison said Australia is "doing relatively well" at suppressing coronavirus
- Australia is not planning to eradicate the disease, although acknowledged this could be a byproduct of the current approach due to the economic impact. Neither is it looking to develop herd immunity
- There are three goals that need to be in place before lifting restrictions: More "sentinel testing", increased "industrial capability" tracing and greater local response capability
- Mr Morrison said Australia "has one of the most extensive testing regimes in the world today" but still "needs broader testing"
- There are no plans to change the social restrictions for the next four weeks
- Mr Morrison said economic "lifelines" will run for six months, but could change depending on the circumstances, the health and economic advice at the time
- Restarting some elective surgeries will be considered on Tuesday, including IVF procedures
- Mr Morrison released a list of seven national principles for schools but added that schools were state responsibilities
- "The health advice has been consistent that for children schools are a safe space for children," Mr Morrison said.
- National Cabinet agreed a financial plan for people with disabilities building on $1 billion in financial assistance for NDIS providers to support increased costs and maintaining business viability
- If employers are withholding JobKeeper payments from staff, the Prime Minister said they should be reported to the police and ATO, saying it is "appalling behaviour"
- The Prime Minister said despite having "valid criticisms" of the WHO, Australia would continue working with them
Professor Murphy's comments:
- Australia currently has 6,457 cases, there have been 63 deaths with 42 people currently on ventilators
- There have been less than 50 new cases per day "for the last few days".
- Professor Murphy said: "If we relax the distancing measures that are stopping or reducing that community transmission, that will inevitably lead to some more outbreaks of community transmission"
- "We can't afford to do relaxation until we have a public health system which is so finely tuned that it can detect and respond to any outbreak"
- "All of our states and territories have a very high symptomatic case detection rate. What that tells you is that our testing regiment, our surveillance regiment, is highly effective," Professor Murphy said.
- "Our public health system is one of the best in the world … But we just have to hold the course while we get ourselves completely ready so that we can live through these next difficult months together"
- A London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Model shows Australia is currently detecting 92 per cent of all symptomatic cases, according to Australia's figures
- The model published in London estimates Australia has the best symptomatic detection record in the world at 84 per cent
- the effective reproduction rate is well below one in most states, which is "showing that the epidemic is reducing"
Bye for now
By Sophie Meixner
I’m going to make it my effort to call the other bloggers Sophie whenever they are blogging as Sophie is the true blog Queen. Love your work Sophie.
-GH
Other countries with coronavirus tracing app
By Sophie Meixner
Has the British Govt Introduced a phone app to help trace C19 infections?
-Moz
“Today I wanted to outline the next step: a new NHS app for contact tracing. If you become unwell with the symptoms of coronavirus, you can securely tell this new NHS app and the app will then send an alert anonymously to other app users that you’ve been in significant contact with over the past few days, even before you had symptoms, so that they know and can act accordingly.”
Elective surgeries
By Sophie Meixner
Hi Sophie, I’ve seen that resuming elective surgeries will be considered Tuesday. Any news on which surgeries will be considered?
-Danny
- Total hip replacement
- Total knee replacement
- Shoulder reconstruction
- Removing tonsils
- Removing haemorrhoids
- Laparoscopy for endometriosis
- Breast reconstruction
- Breast reduction
- Varicose veins treatment
- Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction
Travelling within your state
By Sophie Meixner
What is the acceptable distance to travel to visit someone in Queensland?
-Dani
It is absolutely imperative that people stay in their state and they stay in their suburb. I want to combat this virus as quickly as possible and we don't want to see mass movements. As the Prime Minister said last night, school breaks are going to be completely different to what we have experienced before. It is not about packing up your family and going camping. It is not about packing up your family and going to a beach. You must to stay in your suburb if we're going to combat this as a nation. We can get through this. I'm absolutely certain if we're taking the correct measures now we will get through this together and come through the other end.
Coronavirus alert for nursing homes
By Sophie Meixner
What's going on with Boris Johnson?
By Sophie Meixner
- Boris Johnson is continuing his recovery at the Prime Minister's country estate Chequers and is not working
- The Government's goal is to reach 100,000 tests per day by the end of the month
- The Prime Minister will look at ways to recognise veteran Tom Moore for his heroic efforts raising money for the NHS
- The UK is "moving towards a position" where the country will have in excess of 20,000 ventilators
- The spokesman said the government did not want to undo the progress it had made by easing social distancing measures too soon
Poland makes it compulsory to wear face masks in public
By Sophie Meixner
"I think this is very important, because many people may be infected with coronavirus and without symptoms, which means they don't know about their infection. So it is only reasonable to use Personal Protective Equipment in public spaces."
11 new cases in Tasmania
By Sophie Meixner
Hi Sophie any updates on Tassie? It's getting late and I'm exhausted from doing nothing all day and hanging out for bed.
-Kris
Landslide victory for South Korean President, coronavirus response credited
By Sophie Meixner
Territory Day is off
By Sophie Meixner
Some more of your comments
By Sophie Meixner
Hi Sophie, great to have you back with us again :) Any chance of a deft GIF or light-fingered keyboard whirl before my tired brain switches off for the night?
-Sophie+Simon follower
Legend thanks Bridget for answering on antibodies- I will now call myself the Oracle. You and the blogging team are awesome thank you for the all updates and wit. Invaluable.
-T
The 'Mo Show for gold logie!!!!
-TV Addict
BREAKING: Virgin and Qantas to get government support
By Sophie Meixner
The reproduction rate
By Sophie Meixner
Check out Angela Merkel's brilliant explanation of the "Reproduction Rate" on this guys Twitter account (he has supplied subtitles): twitter.com
-Izzy
So are we, Josh
By Sophie Meixner
Excited we get to hear from The Sco' twice in one day
-Josh
The SA 'blitz'
By Dean Bilton
Yesterday, SA Premier expanded testing for a ‘blitz’. Does that mean that anyone with a mild runny nose (or other mild symptoms), and no contact with anyone, can now be tested in SA?
-Sneezy Over Reactor
Will the government give Virgin Australia a loan?
By Sophie Meixner
It sounds like there's some wiggle room here:
Of course we want to see two viable commercial airlines in Australia. I'm concerned about all those jobs. JobKeeper is there to protect six million jobs. The Government has been clear about our support for jobs. We are not going to get in the way of a market commercial solution to that issue in Virgin...Secondly, we're going to make sure anything we do in this space, like in other countries, we would do it on a sectorwide basis. We have clear principles here. What's very important is that we don't get in the way of a commercial solution.
Could we ever see a situation where lockdown is only in place for over-60s?
By Sophie Meixner
During the course of this, I get lots of health advice from business people and lots of business people from doctors. What I tend to do is focus on the health advice from those who are expert there and on the business advice I've been listening very carefully to both the economists and business leaders and others to getting our plans right... we want your viewers to know on the other side we get out of this and we return to a life that we're missing at the moment but we will get again. But we're going to have to work hard for it in these months ahead.
Does the PM accept some of the restrictions are inconsistent?
By Sophie Meixner
Leigh asks the PM why people can't sit in the park by themselves but can sit on a crowded bus.
On the practical level on the ground and the way the states are implementing these issues, of course it's difficult. We are in unprecedented, uncharted times. I think people have been very understanding of these issues. And I think everyone's working to try and get these issues as consistent as they can. And that's why when we get that cooperation, when we can get cooperation on this tracing app when it comes out, then I know a lot of these issues will move away because we've got the tools in place to be able to track these things down very quickly and respond.
More discussion about schools
By Sophie Meixner
The health advice is that children are safe. That the risk for children at school is very low. But for teachers it's different. For adults the risk is different. They're at risk when they're with each other. Teachers are more at risk in the staff room than they are in the classroom. The other place they're at risk is during school drop-off and pick-up where there might be groupings of parents.There is also a range of issues about hygiene in schools and cleaning down of play equipment and the application of sanitiser and all those things that need to be in place.... We're all working to the same goal and ultimately we want to get children back to school, learning in a classroom, in front of a teacher, because that's the best place for a child to get their education.There are some teachers who shouldn't be at school, particularly teachers who might be in older age groups who might have other health conditions and things like that... I know how passionate teachers are about teaching. I know for so many teachers, they love teaching kids and they'll be finding it hard to be away from them.