Summary
- Victoria has recorded 55 new COVID-19 cases, indicating the state's daily figures are now firmly in the double digits after the Premier unveiled the road map to recovery. Sadly, eight more Victorians have died. The state's Health Department 'outbreak squad' will be scrutinised when the hotel quarantine inquiry resumes today.
- A Silicon Valley tech company will give Victoria's contact tracing system a much-needed digital revamp. Under a new data management system, automated text messages will alert Victorian health officials, infected people and potentially their close contacts about positive COVID-19 tests.
- More than 100 staff from both Liverpool and Concord hospitals in Sydney are in isolation as a COVID-19 cluster grows. Infectious disease experts are investigating whether the virus could have been spread at the hospitals through contact with computer screens, pens or paper.
- Spain has become the first country in western Europe to register 500,000 coronavirus infections, after a second surge in cases that coincided with schools reopening.
- The number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the globe has passed 27.2 million, while the death toll has exceeded 890,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. More than 18.1 million people have recovered from the virus.
Watch live: Victorian, NSW press conferences
We have dual press conferences today, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to speak at 11am. You can watch their press conferences live, below.
Or if you prefer, you can continue to watch Victoria's hotel quarantine inquiry:
Latest updates
Victorian health authorities to focus on local 'rapid response'
By Paul Sakkal
The Victorian government is increasingly using local contact tracing and rapid response units to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Jeroen Weimar, the former head of Victoria's Department of Transport who is now involved in the state's pandemic response, said local contact tracers in regional areas have partnered with councils, health authorities and community groups to carry out contact tracing swiftly and successfully stem outbreaks.
Jeroen Weimar, former CEO of Public Transport Victoria.
He said the model had been successful in tracing the virus in areas including Bendigo, Castlemaine, Geelong and Colac.
“It has enabled us to really get hold of those outbreaks very quickly. And we've seen over the last four or five weeks some quite big outbreaks from Victoria, but [they were] brought to an end far more swiftly and that's critical to our success,” Mr Weimar said at today's press conference with Premier Daniel Andrews.
He said 11 outbreak rapid response teams had responded to about 70 complex outbreaks at places including schools and seafood markets.
Victorian mission to travel to NSW for contact tracing lessons
By Paul Sakkal
A mission of ADF officials, Victorian health bureaucrats and Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel will travel to NSW to glean lessons from the state's "gold-standard" contact tracing system.
Dr Finkel and ADF officials have been embedded in Victoria’s Health Department working on its tracing program.
They will travel to NSW, where contact tracing has worked seamlessly, later this week, Premier Daniel Andrews has announced.
Australia's chief scientist Alan Finkel.Credit:Jessica Hromas
Mr Andrews said his government would begin publishing more regular and granular information about the performance of the state’s contact tracing, which he said had improved.
“We will again just double and triple check whether there is anything that is different between our response and the response in New South Wales,” he said.
“They've got case numbers at levels that we are heading towards, and there might be when you are dealing with that particular challenge of very low numbers and trying to keep them very low - some insights that they can provide us given that they are in a different place.”
Mr Andrews revealed five suburban contact tracing hubs were being established around the state. He said one of the changes involved in moving to a digitised system delivered by US tech company Salesforce - as revealed by The Age and the Herald today - was decentralisation.
“Those local teams come into their own when there are very low numbers but the tolerance for keeping those numbers low is also very, very small,” he said.
“There's less pen and paper, there's less manual data entry. It also facilitates the notion of devolving some of our response. So it's not just at the centre, but there are regional teams, suburban teams and everybody can import into the same platform.”
Hospitals not understaffed, despite 100 staff in isolation: NSW Health Minister
By Mary Ward
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard has said it is "not unexpected" that coronavirus would spread among healthcare workers in a "once-in-100-year pandemic".
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, the Health Minister said the number of healthcare workers in self-isolation as a result of the outbreak across Liverpool and Concord hospitals remained about 100.
However, he stressed the state's hospitals were "amongst the safest places in the world to be".
"We certainly do have enough staff to make sure that the positions are filled," he said.
Repeating Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant's comments yesterday, Mr Hazzard said there was no reason for people to not attend either hospital for medical care.
It comes as the state government has announced funding for a new hospital in the Shellharbour region, south of Sydney.
NSW Health issues alerts for northern Sydney gym, netball association
By Mary Ward
NSW Health has issued alerts for a northern Sydney gym, after a person who later tested positive for coronavirus attended while infectious.
Anyone who attended Plus Fitness gym at Epping on Saturday from 9am to 10.15am has been directed to get tested immediately and self-isolate for 14 days even if their test is negative.
A number of other alerts have been issued for venues in the surrounding area and in Sydney's inner-west. People who were at these locations at these times should be on alert for even the mildest respiratory symptoms – such as a scratchy throat or a runny nose – and get tested immediately if they develop:
- Charles St Kitchen at Putney on Saturday between 10.45am and 11.30am;
- Eastwood Ryde Netball Association at Meadowbank Park in West Ryde on Saturday between 12.15pm and 1.30pm (some people who attended at this time were identified as close contacts and have been contacted directly to instead get tested immediately and isolate for 14 days);
- Missing Spoon cafe at Wahroonga on Saturday between 4.45pm and 5.30pm; and
- Croydon Park Pharmacy at Croydon Park on Thursday between 1pm and 2pm.
Rydges a 'COVID' hotel, but had no comprehensive clinical service, inquiry hears
By Tammy Mills
Melbourne's Rydges on Swanston hotel was a designated "COVID hotel" under the state's quarantine program, but it had no comprehensive clinical service.
The decision to house people infected with COVID-19 at Rydges was made between April 9 and 11, the state's hotel quarantine inquiry has heard today.
The inquiry has previously heard that Rydges was referred to as a "hot hotel" for that reason.
The main source of Victoria's second wave of coronavirus - the Rydges on Swanston hotel.Credit:Penny Stephens
"A decision was made ... to treat the Rydges hotel in Carlton as a COVID positive hotel, but one that didn't have a comprehensive clinical service with respect of it," said Ben Ihle, the counsel assisting the inquiry.
In late May, a hotel worker and security guards contracted the virus from returned travellers. That outbreak spread into the community and drove 90 per cent of Victoria's deadly second wave of COVID-19.
Alfred Health's chief operating officer Simone Alexander told the inquiry there was a "definite benefit for having a very comprehensive clinical-based level of expertise".
Alfred Health was called in mid-June to run the quarantine program at the Brady Hotel, a hotel that became what authorities called a "health hotel" - another way to describe the hotels housing infected people.
Simone Alexander from Alfred Health.
The health service established a program at the Brady with clear lines of responsibility and communication, with a focus on infection control.
"This was a really hard task, it was a very unwieldy program, it was incredibly dynamic," Ms Alexander said.
"You need to make sure you've got very clear lines of responsibilities and communication ...You need to make sure that people don't work in silos because there needs to be a very team-based approach to this program.
"Our focus was absolutely in infection prevention and control."
Testing numbers drop dramatically in Victoria
By Paul Sakkal
Only 8704 coronavirus tests were carried out in Victoria yesterday, one of the lowest numbers in months.
It's a concerning figure for Premier Daniel Andrews.
“That is less than we would like, but we will see in coming weeks and months with so little flu, so little cold symptoms, we will see less symptomatic people in the community, in general,” Mr Andrews said.
A queue for COVID testing in Keilor back in June.Credit:Darrian Traynor
“If you have even mild symptoms, the chances of you having this coronavirus are that much higher. That's why it's so important that every single Victorian who has even the mildest symptoms - as soon as those symptoms begin, please come forward.”
Victoria recorded 55 new cases today, but the tally of active coronavirus cases has fallen to 1696 – 85 fewer than yesterday.
Sadly, eight more Victorians lost their lives to the virus: two men in their 60s, two men in their 80s and one woman and three men in their 90s. Six of the eight deaths were connected to aged care outbreaks.
The number of active cases in regional Victoria dropped to 82 - 13 fewer than yesterday. Active cases have also dropped in both aged care and disability facilities.
There are 238 Victorians in hospital, including 22 in intensive care. Of those in intensive care, 13 are on a ventilator.
There are 260 healthcare workers with the virus, an increase of one since yesterday.
NSW records nine new cases, including mystery case in Sydney's south-east
By Mary Ward
NSW has recorded nine new coronavirus cases, including five linked to known clusters and one mystery case with no obvious source which has emerged in south-eastern Sydney.
There have been three new cases linked to Concord Hospital: two additional healthcare workers and the visitor to the emergency department, which we reported yesterday.
Six staff who worked at Liverpool Hospital and Concord Hospital's emergency departments have now tested positive.Credit:Kate Geraghty
It brings the size of the outbreak across Concord and Liverpool hospitals – after a health professional worked at both facilities while infectious last week – to seven. That figure includes six healthcare workers and one visitor.
Two of today's cases are linked to the Sydney CBD cluster. One of these cases is a household contact of a previous case and the other is a student at Kincoppal-Rose Bay School in Sydney's east, where two students linked to the cluster have previously tested positive.
The student is a boarder and the school's boarding operations have been suspended with students self-isolating at home with their families or in a facility, NSW Health's Dr Jeremy McAnulty said.
The remaining three cases were returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
The total number of cases in NSW since the start of the pandemic is now 3937, after a previously reported case in a student at Lidcombe Public School was identified as a false positive.
There were 12,494 tests carried out yesterday, up from 10,129 in the previous 24 hours.
Health Department failed to meet basic needs of returned travellers: inquiry
By Tammy Mills
One of the lead lawyers for the probe into Victoria's hotel quarantine program has given the strongest signal yet that the inquiry has formed the view the Health Department failed to meet the basic needs of returned travellers who were detained.
Counsel assisting the inquiry, Ben Ihle, said that those quarantined were vulnerable and at the mercy of the government and its agencies to meet their basic health and human needs when he opened this week's hearings a short time ago.
Ben Ihle, counsel assisting the quarantine inquiry.
"Based on the evidence of nurses and returned travellers, much of which is uncontested, it is open to the [inquiry] board to find that there were shortcomings in meeting those needs," Mr Ihle said.
Their needs were the core work of the Department of Health and Human Services, he said.
In summarising the last week of evidence, Mr Ihle said there were conflicting directions and protocols given to those working on the ground because there was no clear line of command, nor an understanding about who was in charge.
He said this led to different perspectives and understanding about where the "responsibility for matters of infection control and training lay".
The program was established within 48 hours before the first arrivals touched down in Melbourne on March 29.
Mr Ihle said the evidence demonstrates that ordinary government procurement practices were not followed and that a substantial percentage of security work went to a company that had been refused inclusion on the government panel of preferred security contractors.
That company was almost entirely reliant on subcontractors, he said.
Although the inquiry heard last week the use of private security guards came at the recommendation of former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, it is still not clear about who decided to use security instead of police.
"It has proved to be a contentious decision. And there is a range of views about whose decision it actually was," Mr Ihle said.
"More evidence will be called on that topic next week, including on what other options there might have been for security arrangements."
Man charged after falsely claiming grandfather was dying to leave quarantine
By Mary Ward
A Victorian man has been charged after falsely claiming his grandfather was terminally ill in an attempt to avoid hotel quarantine in NSW.
The 30-year-old man arrived at Sydney Airport on a flight from Melbourne on Friday without a travel exemption and was placed in hotel quarantine.
He was released from the hotel on Saturday morning after he provided what he claimed to be an exemption document stating he was in NSW to visit his terminally ill grandfather in hospital, police said.
However, checks revealed the man's documentation was false and his grandfather was not in hospital.
The man was arrested at a home in Penrith, in Sydney's west, on Monday. He was charged with failing to comply with a noticed direction and producing a false or misleading application.
He was granted bail to appear before Penrith Local Court on October 12 and has been returned to hotel quarantine.
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2020-09-08 01:50:00Z
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