Coronavirus: Melbourne warned restriction easing could be delayed; Worrying infection spike in US

Mr Andrews primed the city this week for a significant restriction-easing announcement on Sunday amid low daily case numbers. But the Victorian premier on Saturday put a dampener on the next step of opening up, saying there were still “thousands” of COVID-19 tests that were still being processed. “We are still optimistic that we will be able to have positive things to say, but it’s a note of caution, with so much information yet to come to us, we need to be guided by that. Again, I stress numbers are not always the most accurate guide,” Mr Andrews said. “That has always been the way. That is what has delivered these low numbers.” Melbourne was due to take another step in easing restrictions when the city’s all-important 14-day coronavirus average reached five. It hit that figure today. However, there are concerns over case numbers in the city’s north. Four members of the one family in the northern suburbs tested positive, with one child attending Croxton School and another child attending East Preston Islamic College. Victorian health authorities have urged all East Preston Islamic College and Croxton School families and staff to get tested immediately, even if they don’t have any symptoms and to stay home until they get their results. The health department said both schools would remain closed for the next two weeks. Mr Andrews was adamant more infections would emerge across Melbourne’s northern suburbs. “Almost certainly we will get more cases out of these separate outbreaks, the key point will be tomorrow and Monday and throughout the week, are they linked,” he said. “Are they cases that can be, if you like, linked. If they‘re not, if there are no linkages, if they’re not linked in any way, that speaks to the fact that there may be more virus in that northern part of the city than we would be comfortable with.” Quizzed over whether localised lockdowns in the city’s north may be a solution to contain outbreaks while the rest of the city moves to open up, Mr Andrews replied: “I don’t think that will be the appropriate response. “But we will look at all those things based on the results we receive later today and into tomorrow. Ultimately, unless you have no movement out of a dedicated or specified geographic area, then that does not work.” A drive-through testing centre will also be opened at East Preston Islamic College from Saturday. There are currently 10 testing sites in the Hume, Banyule and Darebin council areas with additional pop-up centres to be opened in coming days. The health department said a number of secondary close contacts at Sirius College and Ilim College are also being tested as they are connected to separate close contacts who will be tested again over the weekend. On Saturday, Melbourne recorded seven new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths. US HITS STUNNING NEW HIGH NUMBER OF NEW COVID CASES The USA recorded a massive increase in COVID-19 infections on Thursday (local time), with nearly 72,000 new cases as the number of deaths also climbed. Thursday was the first day with more than 70,000 new US COVID-19 cases in three months, and the hospitalisation rate is soaring, new data reveal. Thirty-two states reported rising infections, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Thursday was the highest day for new infections since July 24 and the day with the fourth highest total ever at well over 70,000. More than 41,000 people were hospitalised across the country, according to the COVID Tracking Project. This is the highest level of nationwide hospitalisation since August 20. The number of people hospitalised has increased by 33 per cent since the beginning of October. Deaths are also creeping upward, with 856 on Thursday, Johns Hopkins says. The 7-day average of deaths continues to climb and is up to 763. That is the highest level of average weekly deaths in a month. The country is now recording more than one million tests a day. The US is not alone in recording huge increases in the number of new infections. England, which has about a fifth of the population on the US, recorded 35,000 new cases of the virus a day from October 10 to 16. HOPES BORDERS COULD REOPEN BY CHRISTMAS AS AUSSIES ARRIVE HOME Scott Morrison has announced Australia will lift its arrival caps again from next month, with multiple states giving their caps a healthy boost. “(There will be) an additional 140 next month in Western Australia,” the prime minister told reporters after National Cabinet met on Friday. “Another 150 in Queensland, but we have also got continued support out of South Australia, the ACT, and we have the arrangement with the Northern Territory that I announced last week. “Tasmania stands ready to assist – I want to be very clear – but as they don‘t yet have an international airport and those systems (border force) in place, if we needed to stand that up in order to achieve what we have set out (to) then we will certainly do that.” There are currently more than 30,000 Australians still stranded overseas. The Prime Minister said there were about 26,200 Australians who registered themselves as needing to get home on September 18 and 4100 of those were vulnerable. Since then, he said 1278 vulnerable Australians have returned – 4591 in total – excluding a Qantas flight from London that landed in Darwin on Friday afternoon. The Qantas flight is the first of eight charter flights that have been made available for about 5000 Australians stuck around Europe, India and South Africa. “We continue to make good progress towards returning Australians home,” Mr Morrison said. “We want to do that as effectively and quickly and as safely as possible and we will continue to work with all state and territory jurisdictions to facilitate that whenever we can.” As arrival numbers go up, National Cabinet will also consider ways to ease pressure on the hotel quarantine system, including considering at-home quarantine arrangements, requests from universities to have on-campus quarantine and how corporations can set up their own quarantine facilities. Mr Morrison said anything new would be set up under “strict guidelines and standards – obviously overseen and accredited by state authorities”. “But the more options we can identify, the more capacity it frees up and the more we can move back to more normal arrangements,” he said. “There’s no undue haste, there’s no undue risk and we’ve agreed before we make any of those decisions, we want to know what the options are, whether they work and whether they are safe. “You don’t want to build that aeroplane in the sky, you want to build it before it takes off.” The National Cabinet also made another in-principle agreement to have the nation’s borders open again by Christmas – with the exemption of Western Australia which continues to hold reservations. “We agreed in principle again … on the reopening framework for Australia by Christmas. “This is the plan, it sets it out. It will be very familiar to many. “Importantly, this plan not only details the opening of the various activities within the economy and our community and society … an important part of this plan is it includes the necessary actions to support a public health response.” Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said Australia was doing “remarkably well”, with just over 200 active cases across the country. Professor Kelly said there had been no new aged care cases since September 28, and of the 19 patients currently in hospital, none were in intensive care. “We’re doing remarkably well in the last seven days,” he said. “Only 109 new cases, of those almost 80 per cent are actually overseas acquired.” FIRST EIGHT REPARATIONS FLIGHTS REVEALED The first of eight repatriation flights to get Australians stuck overseas back on home soil touched down in Darwin on Friday. The flight was carrying more than 170 passengers and crew. Passengers on flight QF110 disembarked at the RAAF base at Darwin airport were undergoing testing for COVID-19 before being bussed to the Howard Springs quarantine facility, the NT News reports. Among the passengers were eight newborn Australians delivered overseas. “Captain Craig Heinrich gave a very special welcome to everyone on-board, including a reminder about this weekend’s footy finals,” Qantas wrote on its social media page. US APPROVES NEW DRUG FOR COVID TREATMENT It is the same drug President Donald Trump received a received a five-course dose of when he was hospitalised for the potentially deadly virus three weeks ago. Remdesivir — which is delivered intravenously and was originally developed to fight ebola — has received mix reviews among the scientific community over how effective it is at treating COVID-19. A recent, preliminary-stage clinical trial by the World Health Organisation found that Remdesivir had no substantial effect on COVID-19 survival, but other studies had rosier results.