International

Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison has cancelled the next planned sitting of the federal parliament in Canberra due to the growing spread of Covid-19 cases, especially in the country's two largest cities of Melbourne and Sydney.  Morrison announced on Saturday he was cancelling the sitting on the advice of the chief medical officer who warned of "a significant risk" in allowing politicians to come to Canberra, due to increased community transmission of the virus in Melbourne and Sydney. "The government cannot ignore the risk to parliamentarians, their staff, the staff within the parliament and the broader community," Morrison said in a statement. In Canberra, the number of Covid-19 cases was zero for weeks, until several arrivals from Melbourne brought new cases in July. The parliament, due to return on August 4, will now only return on August 24. Opposition Labor Leader Anthony Albanese accepted that the prime minister's decision was based on medical advice, but said he is disappointed the government will be avoiding scrutiny. On Thursday the government is planning to lay out its post-pandemic economic recovery plan, which would have been a topic of discussion in the parliament. Victoria, the state of which Melbourne is the capital, on Saturday reported 217 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths - both people aged in their 80s - Premier Daniel Andrews said. The new figures come a day after the state reported three deaths and 428 new virus cases, which was the highest ever single-day increase in the country since the pandemic began. The state's outbreak, which has been mostly community transmission, started late last month and health authorities are testing more than 20,000 people a day.  The increase is said to have been due to security lapses in hotel quarantine for people returning to Melbourne from overseas. A total of 405 health care officers have been infected, including 11 that tested positive overnight, health authorities said on Saturday. More than 150 police officers have also been put in self-isolation after potentially being exposed to the virus. While other parts of Australia have been relaxing restrictions, Victoria's borders have been shut from other states. About 5 million Melburnians have been asked to stay home unless for essential work and to wear a mask in public. Overnight, there were 15 new cases in New South Wales, with most cases in Sydney, state health authorities said Saturday. A man from Melbourne is responsible for increased cases in Sydney, which are largely related to a cluster at a pub in the city's south-west. So far at least 45 cases have been linked to the venue. The latest spike forced the New South Wales government to ban dancing, singing, and mingling at weddings with caps at 150 people.  Restrictions have also been reimposed for funerals and places of worship, which can now only have 100 people. The latest spikes in Melbourne and Sydney have dampened Australia's status as one of the countries on the way to eradicate Covid-19. Australia has recorded more than 11,000 coronavirus cases and 118 Covid-19-related deaths.

Australia’s Victoria state reported a record daily increase in Covid-19 cases yesterday while neighbouring New South Wales said it was banning dancing, singing and mingling at weddings as authorities struggle to contain a new wave of infections.  Victoria, which has forced nearly 5mn people in the country’s second most populous state into a partial lockdown for more than a week, said it has found 428 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, most from community transmission. The Victoria outbreak led to Australia posting its second biggest one-day rise in new Covid-19 infections, with 438 cases yesterday. It was largest 24-hour spike since late March, when most cases detected in Australia were people returning from overseas. “These are large numbers today, that is disturbing,” Australia’s acting Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told reporters in Canberra before striking a more upbeat note. “Be patient... we are starting to get on top of the situation in Victoria.” The surge in new cases reinforced expectations that Victoria will implement tougher restrictions on residents. “We are in the fight of our lives,” Victoria state’s Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos told reporters in Melbourne. The state has already extended a ban on international arrivals by three weeks to at least Aug 8, Melbourne Airport said.  Stricter restrictions would inevitably crimp economic activity in a country facing its first recession in nearly three decades. Data released on Thursday showed unemployment at a 22-year high. Australia has recorded just over 11,000 cases of Covid-19. The death toll rose to 116 after the death of three people in Victoria yesterday, still well below many other countries. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government will provide any assistance needed, as he urged against panic.  “We would not have expected to see the results of the lockdown measures put in place in Victoria as yet,” Morrison told reporters. Australia and New Zealand had hoped to open their borders to each other in September, but the start of any “travel bubble” appears to be delayed. Amid fears of a national second wave, Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews urged residents to wear masks when outside, having previously only asked those around Melbourne, the state capital, to cover their face. Victoria’s neighbours have closed inter-state borders and renewed social distancing restrictions. New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state, said it has found eight cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, mostly from community transmissions believed to have emanated from Victoria.  NSW state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said new restrictions will be imposed from next week. Funerals and places of worship will be allowed no more than 100 people. Venues must also ensure they have 4 square metres of space per patron. Weddings in the state will be capped at 150 people, Berejiklian said, and they must remain seated.  “No dancing, no singing, no mingling,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. Less than a month ago, Australia was widely heralded as a global leader in combating Covid-19. But security lapses in Victoria led to people returning from overseas spreading the virus, prompting an inquiry into how the state went from the brink of eradicating the virus to soaring infection numbers. State Premier Andrews is under mounting pressure, with one of Australia’s biggest selling tabloid newspapers running a front page with the headline: “Dan-made disaster.” Australian researchers invent 20-minute Covid-19 blood test Researchers in Australia have devised a test that can determine novel coronavirus infection in about 20 minutes using blood samples in what they say is a world-first breakthrough.  The researchers at Monash University said their test can determine if someone is currently infected and if they have been infected in the past. “Short-term applications include rapid case identification and contact tracing to limit viral spread, while population screening to determine the extent of viral infection across communities is a longer-term need,” the researchers said in a paper published in the journal ACS Sensors yesterday.  The research team was led by BioPRIA and Monash University’s Chemical Engineering Department, including researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent BioNano Science and Technology (CBNS).  Their test, using 25 microlitres of plasma from blood samples, looks for agglutination, or a clustering of red blood cells, that the coronavirus causes. While the current swab test is used to identify people who are infected with the coronavirus, the agglutination assay — or analysis to detect the presence and amount of a substance in blood — can also determine if someone had been recently infected, after the infection is resolved, they said.  Hundreds of samples can be tested every hour, the researchers said, and they hope it can also be used to detect antibodies raised in response to vaccination to aid clinical trials. A patent for the innovation has been filed and the researchers are seeking commercial and government support to scale up production.  The novel coronavirus has infected more than 13.8mn people around the world and killed nearly 600,000 since it emerged in China late last year. Australia has reported more than 11,000 cases and 116 deaths.

Australia announced yesterday A$2bn ($1.4bn) to retrain workers impacted by the coronavirus fallout, as unemployment rose to its highest level in more than two decades.   Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new funding would create more than 300,000 places in training programmes that aimed to funnel graduates and the newly jobless into “growth” sectors.  “It is upsetting for many Australians that the industries and places where they’d been working, they will find it very difficult to find new employment in those sectors,” he said.  “And so we want to ensure they have the opportunity... to find employment in other sectors, potentially, so they can actually move forward with their own lives.” The unemployment rate rose from 7.1% to 7.4% in June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, bringing the jobless total to almost one million in a country of 25mn.  It is the country’s highest unemployment rate since 1998 and comes as Australia heads into its first recession in nearly 30 years. The conservative government has spent billions on propping up the economy since a nationwide shutdown that began in March, including wage subsidies for worst-hit businesses and boosting support for welfare recipients.  With those subsidies due to expire in September, yesterday’s announcement was an early indication of how Morrison plans to follow them up.  Morrison said the Australian economy was “fighting back”, with most of the country easing restrictions in recent weeks since curbing the virus spread.  But a growing outbreak in Melbourne is casting a pall over economic recovery hopes, with a fresh lockdown imposed on Australia’s second-biggest city last week expected to cost the economy A$6bn.  Morrison acknowledged a record 317 cases detected in Victoria state over the previous 24 hours was “a big setback”, saying he expected July’s unemployment figures to be impacted as a result. Yesterday’s new cases pushed the national daily total to its highest level since late March, as the outbreak continues to frustrate Australia’s early success in suppressing Covid-19.  Seven coronavirus patients have died since Friday, bringing Australia’s total fatalities to 113, out of nearly 11,000 infections.  

An Australian woman jailed with her British DJ boyfriend for beating a Bali policeman to death was freed yesterday after nearly four years in prison on the Indonesian holiday island.  Sara Connor, 49, left Kerobokan prison and was placed in the hands of immigration authorities to await deportation, Bali officials said.  Connor and David Taylor were convicted in 2017 of fatally assaulting officer Wayan Sudarsa, whose battered body was found in the popular tourist area of Kuta the previous year. Sudarsa’s blood-soaked body was covered with dozens of wounds on his neck, chest and head. Connor was given early release from her five-year term for good behaviour, while Taylor is serving a six-year jail sentence for his role in the attack. Taylor, whose stage name was DJ Nutzo, had admitted getting into a fight with Sudarsa on the beach after accusing the officer of stealing Connor’s handbag, and admitted hitting him with items including binoculars and a beer bottle. However, Taylor claimed at trial that he had feared for his life and acted in self-defence during the late-night brawl.  Mother-of-two Connor had maintained her innocence, insisting she only intervened to try to break up the fight. This claim was rejected by a Bali court that said she held down the victim as Taylor beat him.  The pair fled the scene but Connor’s driving licence and ATM card were found next to the body.  After police launched a massive manhunt for the couple, they took refuge in the Australian consulate in Bali but later handed themselves over to local authorities.  At trial, prosecutors said the pair, who were tried separately, should not be convicted of murder because they did not intend to kill the officer.

Australia announced on Thursday A$2bn ($1.4bn) to retrain workers impacted by the coronavirus fallout, as unemployment rose to its highest level in more than two decades. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the new funding would create more than 300,000 places in training programmes that aimed to funnel graduates and the newly jobless into "growth" sectors. "It is upsetting for many Australians that the industries and places where they'd been working, they will find it very difficult to find new employment in those sectors," he said. "And so we want to ensure they have the opportunity... to find employment in other sectors, potentially, so they can actually move forward with their own lives." The unemployment rate rose from 7.1% to 7.4% in June, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, bringing the jobless total to almost one million in a country of 25mn. It is the country's highest unemployment rate since 1998 and comes as Australia heads into its first recession in nearly 30 years. The conservative government has spent billions on propping up the economy since a nationwide shutdown that began in March, including wage subsidies for worst-hit businesses and boosting support for welfare recipients. With those subsidies due to expire in September, yesterday's announcement was an early indication of how Morrison plans to follow them up. Morrison said the Australian economy was "fighting back", with most of the country easing restrictions in recent weeks since curbing the virus spread. But a growing outbreak in Melbourne is casting a pall over economic recovery hopes, with a fresh lockdown imposed on Australia's second-biggest city last week expected to cost the economy A$6bn. Morrison acknowledged a record 317 cases detected in Victoria state over the previous 24 hours was "a big setback", saying he expected July's unemployment figures to be impacted as a result. Yesterday's new cases pushed the national daily total to its highest level since late March, as the outbreak continues to frustrate Australia's early success in suppressing Covid-19. Seven coronavirus patients have died since Friday, bringing Australia's total fatalities to 113, out of nearly 11,000 infections. Health officials are now focused on restricting the virus to Victoria, which has been effectively sealed off from the rest of the country. However, a cluster centred on a popular pub in Sydney has been traced back to a man visiting from Melbourne, raising concerns it is already spreading.

Australian states yesterday tightened restrictions on movement as authorities struggle to contain a fresh outbreak of Covid-19 in the country’s southeast that has pushed the national tally of cases beyond 10,000. With growing fears of a second coronavirus wave nationally, two states extended border restrictions and Australia’s most populous state imposed limits on the number of people allowed in large pubs. The changes come as scores of new cases were uncovered in Victoria, the country’s Covid-19 hotspot, despite a return to lockdown last week for nearly 5mn people in state capital Melbourne. Active cases in the state rose to nearly 2,000 after another 270 infections were detected in the past 24 hours, authorities said, taking Australia’s total number of cases to about 10,000. Australia’s death toll hit 110 yesterday after two people in their 80s died from the virus in Victoria. “We haven’t turned the corner yet. I hope to see that this week, but there are no guarantees,” Brett Sutton, Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer told reporters in Melbourne. Australia avoided the high Covid-19 casualty numbers of other nations with swift and strict measures, but a spike in community-transmitted cases in Victoria and a rise in new cases in New South Wales has worried other states. South Australia cancelled plans to reopen its border to New South Wales on July 20, while Queensland introduced a mandatory two-week quarantine for people who have visited two areas in Sydney’s western suburbs. “Our primary responsibility in South Australia is to the health, safety and welfare of all South Australians,” Premier Steven Marshall told reporters in Adelaide. Australia’s Northern Territory said it will decide today whether to allow anyone from New South Wales to enter when its domestic borders reopen later this week. New South Wales, which has seen several dozen cases linked to the outbreak in Victoria, said pubs will now be limited to no more than 300 people, responding to an outbreak centred at a large hotel in southwestern Sydney. Authorities believe 600 people visited the Crossroads Hotel on July 3, when the outbreak is believed to have begun. “Indoor activity, where people aren’t seated is a huge health risk. It increases the chance of transmission,” state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.

Sydney residents were warned Monday to put the brakes on partying as a new coronavirus cluster emerged at a city pub on the heels of a major outbreak in Melbourne. Three pubs in Sydney and its surrounds were closed after being linked to outbreaks or failing to comply with social distancing requirements, while other events were under investigation with Australia on edge over a resurgence of the virus. The new cluster emerged after Melbourne entered a six-week lockdown on Thursday, and surrounding Victoria state was sealed off from the rest of the country in an effort to contain the virus. Authorities reported 177 new infections in and around Melbourne Monday, marking a week of triple-digit increases. New South Wales police assistant commissioner Tony Cooke on Monday slammed the ‘moronic behaviour of people at dance parties’, after local media published footage of large private get-togethers in Sydney's wealthy eastern suburbs. City residents are allowed a maximum of 20 visitors to their homes under restrictions which have been gradually eased in recent weeks as the number of infections dwindled. At least 21 infections have now been linked to a growing cluster at Sydney's Crossroads Hotel -- a popular drinking spot on a major traffic route -- raising concern the virus could be spreading in the state. - Stepped-up penalties - A dozen military personnel who visited the pub while poised to deploy on an anti-virus mission were on Monday in isolation at an army base in rural New South Wales. The state's police minister David Elliott warned that if the situation was not brought under control, pubs could be closed again. ‘If we have to close hotels and clubs again, the patrons will have to take some of the ownership of that,’ he told a press conference Monday. ‘I will, however, work to my dying breath to make sure that that doesn't happen.’ Police have stepped up penalties for breaching coronavirus restrictions in recent days, with almost Aus$220,000 ($153,000) in fines handed out across Melbourne in the past 24 hours. On Friday, a group whose house party was exposed by their large KFC order was fined Aus$26,000 while six people from Victoria who tried to cross Queensland's border illegally were each fined Aus$4,000 the following night. Australia has recorded just under 10,000 coronavirus cases and 108 fatalities. Most states and regions have reported few or no new daily cases of the disease in recent weeks, allowing much of the country to ease restrictions on movement and gatherings.

Australia will halve the number of citizens allowed to return home from overseas each week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday, as authorities struggle to contain a Covid-19 outbreak in the country’s second most populous city.  The state of Victoria reported 288 new cases yesterday, a record daily increase for any part of the country and sparking fears of a wave of community transmission in a country where most cases have involved returned travellers. “The news from Victoria remains very concerning,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra. Since March, Australia has allowed only citizens and permanent residents to enter the country with some 357,000 having returned to date. Australia will now impose a cap of 4,175 people allowed to return each week and those returning will also have to pay for a mandatory 14-day quarantine in a hotel, which until now had been paid for by state governments. “The decision that we took ... was to ensure that we could put our focus on the resources needed to do the testing and tracing and not have to have resources diverted to other tasks,” Morrison said. Neighbouring New Zealand also introduced measures this week to limit the number of citizens returning home, seeking to reduce the burden on its overflowing quarantine facilities. The announcement of the new restrictions comes days after Victoria reimposed a lockdown in Melbourne for six weeks following a surge in cases linked to social distancing breaches in hotels where returned travellers were held in quarantine.  In addition to forcing 5mn people to stay home for all but essential business, the flare-up has led the rest of the country’s states to ban Victorians from entering and dealt a blow to hopes for a speedy recovery for the nation’s economy. The state’s chief health officer warned there would be a sharp rise in hospitalisations, intensive care cases and deaths in the coming days as a result of the spike in infections. Victoria yesterday also became the first state in the country to urge people to wear masks when they leave home.  To ease the pain for businesses in Melbourne forced to shut again and holiday spots hit by cancellations, the state government also said it would provide a further A$534mn ($371mn), on top of A$6bn already provided. “This is us saying: ‘We’re here with you all the way through what will be a very traumatic, a very distressing and a very difficult time for all Victorians,’” state Treasurer Tim Pallas said in a televised media conference.  The state, which makes up about a quarter of Australia’s economy, expects unemployment to peak at 11%, up from 6.9% now. Victoria’s economy is expected to shrink by 14% and take two to three years to recover, Pallas said. The outbreak has also slowed the planned opening of a quarantine-free “travel bubble” with New Zealand, which Morrison discussed with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday.  Despite surging case numbers, Victoria has relaxed restrictions on most of the 3,000 people who were locked down in nine public-housing towers in Melbourne. One of the nine towers will remain in a hard lockdown for another eight days.  Even with the latest outbreak, Australia has done relatively well in controlling the novel coronavirus so far, with around 9,000 cases and 106 deaths.

Five million people in Australia’s second-biggest city began a new lockdown yesterday, returning to tough restrictions just weeks after they ended as Melbourne grapples with a resurgence of coronavirus cases.  Residents have been told to stay at home for six weeks after other measures to contain a spike in Covid-19 failed to prevent the virus spreading.  The state of Victoria, which announced a further 165 new cases yesterday, has been effectively sealed off in an effort to preserve the rest of Australia’s success in curbing the virus.  However, a rush of travellers across the border into neighbouring New South Wales on Wednesday has raised concerns those efforts could be torpedoed. Police said about 30,000 cars made the crossing in less than 36 hours.  “A few cases coming over the border from Victoria (can) tip that magic number into outbreaks that are going to be very hard to control,” epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws told public broadcaster ABC.  New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said two cases of Covid-19 had been identified in the border town of Albury and she warned against travel to or from communities on the state frontier. “We want to make sure we’re flushing out any potential seeding that occurred prior to that spike in cases becoming evident,” she told reporters in Sydney.  Queensland state announced yesterday it would turn away all travellers from Victoria – removing an option that had allowed them to spend 14 days in quarantine on arrival. In Melbourne, there are concerns over the economic and mental health impacts of the second lockdown, which officials estimate will cost the economy A$6bn ($4.2bn).  Restaurants and cafes are limited to serving takeaway food, while gyms, beauty salons and cinemas have been forced to close again.  Residents are restricted to their homes except for work, exercise, medical care or to buy essentials.  Despite the harsh measures, many said they support the restrictions. “I think it is a very good thing,” resident Don Sherman told AFP. “Everybody has to be aware of their rights and what they have to be (doing) in this critical situation.”  Authorities yesterday eased a controversial “hard lockdown” of a high-rise public housing estate, where roughly 3,000 people spent five days confined to their apartments amid fears the virus had spread across the towers.  Health officials said just one of the nine towers would remain subject to Australia’s harshest isolation after it was found that most of the 111 residents who tested positive lived in a single building.  Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said it was a “difficult” decision to keep the one tower’s residents in lockdown but was part of a strategy to “try and drive down numbers”.  “That is an abundance-of-caution approach that not only protects the welfare and the well-being, the health of all of those residents, but also protects public health as well,” he told a press conference.  New cases were also detected among staff at several hospitals and aged care facilities in the city yesterday, sparking concerns for the sick and elderly patients.  Melbourne resident Monica Marshall said the most difficult part of the new lockdown was being separated from her 91-year-old mother, who recently entered a care home.  “The idea of not being able to see people that you love and care for is really distressing, really distressing,” she told AFP through tears.  “I hope that people have got the message that they really need to take notice – it’s very disconcerting watching some people on the news where they really don’t care.”  Government workers are going door-to-door in Melbourne urging residents to get tested for the virus, with officials saying about 10,000 people have refused after being influenced by online disinformation. Australia has recorded just over 9,000 cases of Covid-19 among a population of 25mn, with 106 deaths.  Outside of Victoria, the country has seen few new infections, with most cases involving returned international travellers in hotel quarantine.

Five million Melbourne residents were ordered back into lockdown after coronavirus cases surged in Australia’s second-biggest city yesterday. Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews announced a six-week lockdown would begin Wednesday, warning “we can’t pretend” the virus crisis is over.   It is the first such spike in Australia since the virus was believed to have been suppressed countrywide in April, and is a brutal reminder that risks remain even as life returns to normal.  After the south-eastern city detected 191 new cases in 24 hours, Andrews said there were now too many to trace properly, so restrictions were needed. “These are unsustainably high numbers,” he said. “No-one wanted to be in this position. I know there will be enormous amounts of damage that will be done because of this. It will be very challenging.” Residents will be restricted to their homes except for work, exercise, medical care or to buy essentials. Most students will return to remote learning while restaurants and cafes will be limited to serving takeaway food. Experts have warned that people everywhere will have to get used to the “new normal” of on-and-off restrictions as new clusters emerge and subside.   But there is growing concern that most of Melbourne’s new cases are not directly linked to residents returning from overseas.   “The situation we are in is more serious than late March, because we have community transmission, which is much harder to track than infection in return travellers,” said Raina MacIntyre, a biosecurity expert at the University of New South Wales. “People all over Australia must accept the gravity of the situation and play their part.” Although the lockdown covers the Melbourne metropolitan area, the entire state of Victoria will effectively be sealed off from the rest of the country from overnight Tuesday, as state borders are closed. An AFP reporter in the border town of Albury said that hours before the closures were expected to start, residents were still trying to secure permits allowing them to cross for work or essential business.   Police and the military say they will patrol dozens of border crossings and use drones and other aircraft to check the vast frontier with other states, where the coronavirus has been contained. Health officials last week effectively shut off about 300,000 Melbourne residents from the rest of the city until the end of July, but that has now been extended beyond those neighbourhoods.   Around 3,000 people in the city were also locked down in their homes on Saturday in Australia’s strictest coronavirus response to date after a cluster emerged in a high-rise public housing estate. So far, 69 cases have been recorded across the nine densely populated towers and there are concerns the virus could spread widely, with one health official likening the crowded conditions inside to “vertical cruise ships”. Cruise ships emerged as early coronavirus hotspots, with passengers and crew often packed in small cabins and at high risk of infection.  Australia has recorded almost 9,000 cases of Covid-19 and 106 deaths from the virus.   Almost all new cases are being detected in Melbourne, while other regions are enjoying relaxed restrictions after largely curbing the virus’s spread. Health officials have begged the public to get tested, saying online disinformation had spurred more than 10,000 people to refuse testing.

Australia will effectively seal off the state of Victoria from the rest of the country, authorities said yesterday, announcing unprecedented measures to tackle a worrying surge in coronavirus cases.  For the first time since the epidemic began, the border between Australia’s two most populous states — Victoria and New South Wales — will be closed overnight today, officials from both states said.  Home to more than 6.6mn people, Victoria announced a record 127 new cases yesterday as the virus spread through Melbourne — including a cluster in several densely populated apartment blocks. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews described the decision to close off the state as “the smart call, the right call at this time, given the significant challenges we face in containing this virus”.  Police said they will use “drones and other aerial surveillance” to patrol the vast border, with large fines and up to six months in jail for people who breach the order. Plans to reopen Victoria’s border with South Australia have already been put on ice.  After weeks of easing virus restrictions, Melbourne has seen a huge spike in community transmission, leading health officials to effectively shut off some neighbourhoods to the rest of the city until the end of July.  Sixteen of the new cases were detected in nine high-rise public housing towers, where 3,000 residents were locked in their homes on Saturday in Australia’s strictest coronavirus response to date. So far, a total of 53 cases have been recorded in the buildings, which are home to a large number of vulnerable migrants.   There are concerns the virus could spread rapidly, with one health official likening the crowded conditions inside to “vertical cruise ships” — a reference to high transmission rates seen on ocean liners.  Community leaders have raised concerns about the targeted nature of the “hard lockdown”, which saw hundreds of police officers deployed with almost no warning, leaving some residents with little time to stock up on essentials.   Andrews said food and toys had been delivered to families, while mental health and other medical support was being provided as officials sought to test every resident over the coming days. “This is a massive task and the message to everybody in the towers... (is) those staff — thousands of them — are doing the very, very best they can and they will continue to do everything they can to support those who are impacted by this lockdown,” he said.   Tensions flared when a man tried to leave one of the towers yesterday, sparking a scuffle during which police allege he bit an officer. The 32-year-old was arrested and taken into custody.  Australia has recorded more than 8,500 cases of coronavirus and 106 fatalities from Covid-19, including two deaths in Victoria over the past 24 hours.   The bulk of new daily cases are now being detected in Melbourne, while most other regions are enjoying relaxed restrictions after largely curbing the virus spread.

A man died Saturday after being attacked by a shark while spearfishing off Australia's east coast, police said. The 36-year-old was bitten on a leg in waters near the popular tourist destination Fraser Island, about 400 kilometres north of Brisbane. A nurse and a doctor treated the man on shore before paramedics arrived, but he died from his injuries at the scene, police said. Police did not identify the species of shark. It is the fourth known fatal shark attack in the country this year. "This (is) a tremendously sad day for our community," Fraser Coast mayor George Seymour said on Facebook. "Our deepest condolences go to this young man's family and friends." Shark expert Daryl McPhee told the Courier Mail that Fraser Island was a "key spawning location for migratory fish" which attract sharks. "It's no surprise that there's an unprovoked shark bite there; it's perhaps more surprising that people are actually diving there," said McPhee, an associate professor of environmental science at Bond University. Last month a 60-year-old surfer died after being mauled by a three-metre shark south of Brisbane. Australia has one of the world's highest incidences of shark attacks, but fatalities remain rare.

Thousands of protesters gathered on Saturday in cities across Australia, shouting slogans in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and aiming to raise awareness of the mistreatment of indigenous people. Rallies in the cities of Brisbane, Darwin and Perth drew a smaller turnout than a month ago, however, amid calls for a halt from authorities concerned about the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Bogaine Spearim, one of the organisers, said the protests were a continuation of global protests unleashed by the death of African-American George Floyd in police custody in the US city of Minneapolis in late May. "No police officer or prison guard has ever been criminally charged with murder and sent to prison, so that's why we are here for justice," added Spearim, an organiser of the Brisbane demonstration. Television broadcast images of protesters shouting, "Always was, always will be Aboriginal land" and, "No justice, no peace, no racist police". A protest is planned in Sydney on Sunday, a month since the first Black Lives Matter rallies in Australia. 

Australia’s second most populous state said yesterday it is considering reimposing social distancing restrictions after the country reported its biggest one-day rise in new coronavirus infections in more than two months.  Propelled by Victoria state reporting 75 cases, Australia recorded 85 new Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours, its biggest daily outbreak since April 11. Australia has fared better than many countries in the coronavirus pandemic, with around 7,800 cases and 104 deaths, but the recent surge has stoked fears of a second wave after several weeks of fewer than 20 new cases a day.  The resurgence in Australia comes as total infections hit 10mn cases worldwide and the global death toll from the virus tops half a million people. As new coronavirus cases have mounted, Victoria has embarked on a massive testing regime and the state’s chief health officer said the state may need to re-introduce social distancing restrictions. “Changing the law is something we have to consider because we have to do whatever is required to turn this around,” Brett Sutton told reporters in Melbourne, referring to questions about enforcing localised lockdowns. Victorian state officials last week deployed ambulances and mobile test centres in a bid to test most residents in 10 hotspot suburbs. However, some locals declined the voluntary throat and nasal swab tests. Victoria is hoping a new saliva test, which is less intrusive, will encourage more people to get tested - even though it is slightly less accurate. “We think it will play a role in bolstering testing reach across the state,” said Professor Sharon Lewin, Director of the Doherty Institute, which developed the test. “Vulnerable populations or in people who have trouble with the throat swab, such as children or other individuals who find it more acceptable.” In May, Victoria - home to more than 6mn people - began lifting restrictions imposed a month earlier to slow the spread of the virus. It has pledged to remove the bulk of restrictions by the end of July. The restrictions, including forcing restaurants and cafes to offer only takeaway services, shutting schools and halting sports proved successful in slowing the spread of Covid-19. But it was a hammer blow to Australia’s economy, which is heading into its first recession in three decades as the unemployment rate hits a 19-year high of 7.1%. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called on states to continue easing restrictions, insisting the country’s economy must be revived. Morrison ruled out a blanket extension of a A$60bn ($41.1bn) wage subsidy scheme beyond its scheduled end in September. “It can’t be sustained forever,” Morrison said, adding that another phase of stimulus at the end of September would be targeted “to the people who need it most”. The Grattan Institute, an independent think tank, said in a report published yesterday the government needs to inject up to A$90bn more in stimulus, including extending its wage subsidy programme. That stimulus was needed before the annual budget in October to bring the unemployment rate down to about 5% by the middle of 2022, the report said.

Australia’s state of Victoria recorded 41 new confirmed cases of coronavirus yesterday, double the daily rate seen a week ago, struggling to gain control over the pandemic while the rest of the country continues easing social distancing restrictions. Victoria, the country’s second-most-populated state, has now seen 11 straight days of double digit new cases, most linked to known outbreaks in Melbourne’s suburbs, health officials said. Victoria has 204 of Australia’s total of about 270 active cases. “We are very concerned,” deputy chief health officer of Victoria, Annaliese van Diemen, said at a press conference. One of the new cases was a returned traveller. Australia requires all locals who return to quarantine in hotels for two weeks. But about 30% of people in Victoria have declined a Covid-19 test before leaving quarantine, health officials said. New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, recorded six new cases yesterday and officials said that returned travellers who declined to be tested will have to stay in a mandatory quarantine 10 days longer. Despite the spike in cases in Victoria, Australia’s infections numbers of around 7,600 and 104 deaths have remained well below that of many other nations.

Health workers fanned out across suburbs of Melbourne yesterday in a testing blitz aimed at choking off a surge in coronavirus cases in Australia’s second-biggest city.   Officials reported another 30 new Covid-19 infections in the city overnight in a continuing outbreak that has raised fears of a second wave in Australia, which looked like it had successfully contained the epidemic.  It was the 10th straight day of double-digit rises in new cases in Melbourne and surrounding Victoria state, while most other Australian regions have seen no or low single-digit new infections for weeks.  The outbreak has rattled people across Australia, with major supermarket chains yesterday re-imposing nationwide limits on purchases of toilet paper and paper towels to counter a surge in panic-buying not seen since the first days of the pandemic in March.  “Stop it, it’s ridiculous,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said when quizzed about the public rush on stores at a press conference. The chains slapped the buying restrictions on stores in Victoria earlier this week, but extended them after noting excessive demand spreading to other states. “While the demand is not at the same level as Victoria, we’re taking preventative action now to get ahead of any excessive buying this weekend and help maintain social distancing in our stores,” Woolworths Supermarkets said in a statement.  Around 200 soldiers were deploying to Melbourne over the weekend to help with the testing offensive in 10 suburb “hot spots”, where officials are going door-to-door to track the virus.  Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has set a goal of testing 100,000 people in 10 days in the targeted suburbs. Around 20,000 tests were carried out in the first 24 hours of the effort, state deputy chief health Officer Annaliese van Diemen said yesterday.  Morrison’s chief health adviser played down the likelihood that the Melbourne outbreak would evolve into a broader “second wave” of the epidemic. “We’re very likely to see more such outbreaks, not just in Victoria - it could be anywhere in the country,” said Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy. “We’re prepared, we’re responding and we’re very, very comfortable with the way things are going.”  But the Melbourne outbreak has rattled officials elsewhere in Australia. In neighbouring New South Wales, officials said they would bar Victorians from attending professional sporting events when they begin allowing fans next week - a particularly stinging move in the sports-mad country. Australia has recorded roughly 7,500 coronavirus cases and 104 deaths in a population of 25 million, with several regions believed to be effectively virus-free.

Australia’s second most populous state deployed ambulances and mobile test centres in a coronavirus testing blitz as the country recorded the biggest daily rise in cases in two months.  Victoria state said 33 people tested positive for coronavirus in the past 24 hours, marking nine days of double digit new cases in the state. It has around 200 current cases out of a country total of 270. Desperate to contain the outbreak, Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said authorities are beginning a testing blitz across the 10 most effected suburbs. “We have ambulances and other vans that will literally be at the end of people’s streets,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne. “We will see these (case) numbers go up in coming days.” Andrews said about 100,000 tests will be conducted over the next 10 days. Victoria’s efforts to contain the virus will be supplemented by about 1,000 Australian military personnel who are expected to arrive today, Minister for Defence Linda Reynolds said. The bulk of the troops will assist with the mandatory 14-day quarantine of anyone who arrives in Australia, though Reynolds said about 150 personnel will also help the state’s testing programme.  The surge in new cases comes just weeks after Australia began easing social distancing restrictions, and authorities believe the increase in new cases stemmed from family get-togethers attended by people with mild symptoms. Alarmed by the rise in new infections, thousands of people have flocked to testing centres, while Australia’s two biggest retail chains, Woolworths Group and Coles, have imposed fresh limits on how much customers can buy for specific goods amid a spate of panic buying. Australia’s death toll from Covid-19 was yesterday revised up after tests showed an 85-year-old man who died in April had contracted the virus. Australia now has recorded 104 deaths from just over 7,500 infections. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia has safeguards in place to prevent the virus growing beyond the control of authorities, as he insisted states and territories must continue to reopen large swathes of the economy. “We’ve gotta live alongside Covid. It’s not going anywhere,” Morrison told reporters in Sydney. “We’ve gotta keep forging ahead.” Australia has committed to removing the bulk of social distancing restrictions by the end of July, but each state will determine when and how easing takes place. Regular domestic travel is expected to begin within weeks, while sporting stadiums will from July 1 allow up to 10,000 fans to attend. Australia’s international borders remain closed. The reopening of Australia’s states and territories has stirred hopes its economy can avoid a prolonged trough, though it is on course for its first recession in nearly 30 years.  The International Monetary Fund yesterday revised its estimate for Australia’s economic contraction to down 4.5%. It previously saw Australia’s economy shrinking 6.7%.

Facebook on Monday rejected calls from the Australian government and news companies that it share advertising revenue with the media, suggesting it would rather cut news content from its platform. The US tech giant said in a submission to Australia's competition watchdog that news represents a ‘very small fraction’ of the content in an average user's news feed. ‘If there were no news content available on Facebook in Australia, we are confident the impact on Facebook's community metrics and revenues in Australia would not be significant,’ it said in a thinly veiled threat to boycott local news companies. ‘Given the social value and benefit to news publishers, we would strongly prefer to continue enabling news publishers' content to be available on our platform,’ it said. In an effort being closely watched around the world, Australia is set to unveil plans to force Facebook and Google to share advertising revenue they earn from news featured in their services. The initiative has been strongly pushed by Australia's two biggest media companies, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and Nine Entertainment. They argue that the crisis roiling the news industry worldwide is mainly because of Google, Facebook and other large tech firms capturing the vast majority of online advertising revenues, without fairly compensating media companies for advertisements placed against news content. Newspapers' loss of advertising dollars has forced cutbacks and bankruptcies across the sector, a process exacerbated by the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic. More than 170 newsrooms have seen cuts or halted publication in recent years. - Code of conduct - Australia's competition regulator, the ACCC, has estimated that Google and Facebook together earn some Aus$6 billion (US$4 billion) a year from advertising in the country. Leading news publishers have demanded the two companies pay at least 10 percent of that money each year to local news organisations. Google last month already rejected the demand, saying it made barely Aus$10 million a year from news-linked advertising. Google and Facebook both argue they provide hundreds of millions of dollars in value to Australian news companies by driving traffic to their websites, where they can be monetised through ads or turned into paying subscribers. ‘We allow news organisations of all sizes, not just the big ones, to post links, raise awareness of their brands and drive monetisable traffic to their websites, free of charge,’ said Mia Garlick, Facebook's director of public policy for Australia and New Zealand. Facebook and Google also say they provide millions of dollars to media companies through grant programmes and limited purchases of news content. Both companies say they are willing to participate on a collaborative ‘code of conduct’ in Australia to mediate complaints, provide greater transparency in how they rank and distribute news on their platforms and share data on user interactions with their content. But Facebook insisted Monday it was ‘not healthy’ to expect two private companies to solve the challenges facing Australian media. The rejection bodes ill for ACCC-led negotiations. The watchdog has until the end of July to draw up the final code, which the government has vowed to implement quickly.

Australia's prime minister expressed concern Monday after an Australian man was sentenced to death, in a case that could further inflame tensions between Beijing and Canberra. A Chinese court revealed on Saturday that Karm Gilespie, a Sydney-based actor turned investment coach, had been condemned to death earlier in the week on drug smuggling charges -- after being held secretly in jail for seven years. The sentence raised worries it could add to increasingly troubled diplomatic and trade relations between Australia and China, its biggest trade partner. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australian authorities were aware of the arrest and had been in touch with their Chinese counterparts on multiple occasions over his case. ‘I and the government are very sad and concerned that an Australian citizen, Mr Karm Gilespie has been sentenced to death in China,’ he said. Chinese state media said Gilespie, in his mid-fifties, was arrested on New Year's eve in 2013 at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, northwest of Hong Kong, with more than 7.5 kilograms (16 pounds) of methamphetamine in his checked luggage. His arrest was not made public and friends told Australian media they had been confounded by his sudden disappearance. Gilespie's family issued a statement Monday asking his acquaintances to ‘refrain from speculating on his current circumstances, which we do not believe assists his case.’ ‘Our family is very saddened by the situation. We will not be making any public comment and ask that the media respects our privacy at this difficult time,’ they said in the statement issued through the foreign ministry. The sentence could further damage the increasingly troubled relationship between Beijing and Canberra, with tensions growing recently after China reacted furiously to Australia's call for a probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. Beijing subsequently imposed tariffs on Australian goods and warned Chinese tourists and students about visiting because of racism Down Under. Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said Sunday that Australians ‘shouldn't necessarily’ see Gilespie's sentence as further retaliation by China. But conservative commentators were quick to make the link. Greg Sheridan, foreign editor of The Australian newspaper, said the sentencing ‘has to be seen as Beijing continuing its fierce and increasingly vicious punishments of Australia.’ Last year, China sentenced two Canadian nationals to death on drug trafficking charges during an escalating diplomatic row with Canada over the arrest of top Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. Canadian attempts to plead for clemency for Robert Schellenberg and Fan Wei have so far been unsuccessful.

Australia's two largest states will further ease public coronavirus restrictions at libraries, community centres and nightclubs, officials said on Sunday, despite recording increases in new infections. New South Wales (NSW), the most populous state, said that from July 1, a 50 person limit on indoor venues such as restaurants and churches would be scrapped, so long as the venues observed a one person per four square metre rule. Nightclubs and music festivals would also be allowed to operate from August if new cases remain low, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said. The state on Saturday reported the first locally transmitted COVID-19 case in weeks, and state officials on Sunday said there had been nine new infections since late Friday. In neighbouring Victoria, where pubs and other venues are currently limited to 20 people, indoor businesses will be allowed to have up to 50 seated patrons from June 22, said state premier Daniel Andrews. All sports for children would resume, he said. Indoor sports centres and physical recreation spaces like gyms will be allowed to host 20 people, with caps of up to 10 adults per group, he added. Strict lockdown restrictions and the closure of state and national borders have allowed Australia to curb the spread of the coronavirus, with many parts of the country claiming to have eliminated the disease. With only 102 deaths, much lower than most other developed nations, the federal government has stepped up pressure on state and territory leaders to reopen internal borders, a step viewed as key to reviving the country's economy. ‘We would love to open everything tomorrow. We can't do that. Because if we did we would be almost making it certain that we would have a second wave,’ Andrews told reporters in Melbourne. ‘They are happening in many countries around the world and it's just not my practice to follow models that are proven by others not to work.’