Health News at Your Fingertips

Some more detail on that NSW Health alert about the flight from Melbourne to Sydney.

Jetstar has issued this statement to my colleague Josh Taylor:

We’ve been advised that a passenger who travelled from Melbourne to Sydney on 27 September has tested positive, and we are working with NSW Health to follow the necessary contact tracing procedures.

“Passengers travelling on flights to and from Melbourne are required to wear masks on board flights and throughout the airport.

“The safety of our passengers and crew is always our number one priority and we have extra measures in place to ensure the health and wellbeing of our customers, including enhanced cleaning and masks and sanitizing wipes.”

West Australian premier Mark McGowan has again waved away questions over when the state will reopen its borders, AAP reports.

Asked today whether WA would consider a travel bubble with South Australia and the Northern Territory, he said there was “no benefit” and it would only result in WA losing tourist dollars.

The federal finance minister, Mathias Cormann, who is from WA, accused McGowan of keeping the borders closed for the purposes of economic protectionism, which he said was “explicitly prohibited in the Australian constitution”.

McGowan shrugged off the attack, highlighting the federal government’s short-lived intervention in support of businessman Clive Palmer’s legal challenge against WA’s border closures.

“Had they been successful when they were doing that, when the virus was raging in Victoria, chances are the pandemic would have come back to Western Australia and the economy would have been devastated,” he said.

“I’m very comfortable our cautious approach has kept the health outcomes good and the economic outcomes outstanding within Western Australia.”

With all other states and territories set to reopen by Christmas, the premier again refused to put a date on when WA’s border restrictions might end.

But he said the removal of lockdown restrictions in Victoria would influence how things progressed in coming weeks and months.

“The advice from the chief health officer is they’ll watch what happens in Victoria and see how it goes and whether there’s any third wave,” he said.

“My fear is if you act too early, if you’re not cautious, the virus comes back and we end up in a situation that Melbourne has been going through for months and months.

“A bit of caution goes a long way … that’s why we’re doing this.”

South Australia has added to its hotel quarantine capacity by adding another hotel to its program

SA currently has about 900 people in supervised hotel isolation but has the capacity to take more, AAP reports.

Police commissioner Grant Stevens said another hotel had been added, taking the number of facilities now in operation across SA to five.

“The repatriation of Australians is an ongoing commitment we have and we’re doing our bit to support that,” Stevens told reporters.

“Obviously, that comes with a resource commitment from a police, health and security point of view.

“We won’t make a further commitment to increasing the number of hotels available until we know we can properly resource it and safely manage the people.”

Experts have responded to the aged care royal commission’s report yesterday, saying that it did not go far enough.

The special report into Covid-19 made six recommendations and said the sector was “insufficiently” prepared for the pandemic.

But aged care experts and advocates said they feel let down by a much-anticipated report.

Prof Joseph Ibrahim told Guardian Australia the report was “pretty benign in terms of an investigative approach”.

“The public should understand this was a fact-finding mission not a critical analysis,” he said.

Our full story is here:

Crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie has just confirmed she will vote against the government’s proposed bill that would remove mobile phones from immigration detention.

In an email statement the senator said:

I was on the fence about it, because I thought there were some good points and bad points to the bill. I asked the public what they thought, and I got over 100,000 people write back to me.

96% of them wanted me to vote no.

The NT chief minister, Michael Gunner, has welcomed the trans-Tasman travel bubble, saying it is a “big win” for the territory’s economy.

The NT and NSW are the first two Australian states and territories to be included in the bubble, meaning that New Zealanders will be able to visit from 16 October.

“The fish are biting, the beers are cold, and we can’t wait to share the territory lifestyle with our Kiwi cousins,” Gunner wrote on Facebook.

Under the plan, New Zealanders will be allowed to enter the NT without going through quarantine, as long as they are not from a designated hotspot.

Gunner added on Facebook: “Anyone who has been in a Covid-19 hot spot in New Zealand will not be allowed to come here.”

More on the trans-Tasman travel bubble, which the government is calling a “safe travel zone”.

It means an extra 325 passengers a week will be able to enter Sydney, because New Zealanders won’t need to enter hotel quarantine.

In a joint statement from PM Scott Morrison, deputy PM Michael McCormack, foreign minister Marise Payne, health minister Greg Hunt and home affairs minister Peter Dutton, the government said it was looking to opening up with other countries as well.

“We are committed to opening up both domestic travel within Australia and travel with New Zealand, as well as other low risk countries as soon as the health advice says it is safe to do so,” the statement said.

“Passengers from New Zealand will be able to travel to Australia, quarantine-free, from Friday, 16 October, provided they have not been in an area designated as a Covid-19 hotspot in New Zealand in the preceding 14 days.”

That will use the definition of a hotspot as a three-day rolling average of above three locally acquired cases a day.

“There are currently no Covid-19 hotspots in New Zealand,” the government said. “The last locally acquired case with an unidentified epidemiological source occurred on 21 August 2020.

“Normal visa requirements will apply and travellers returning to New Zealand from Australia will be required to comply with New Zealand’s travel requirements.

“The Australian government will provide increased Australian Border Force support at airports to support the establishment of green lanes of travel for New Zealanders and collecting information on arrivals to assist with contact tracing if required.”

An explainer on the knowns, and the known unknowns around Trump’s coronavirus diagnosis:

In NSW news, premier Gladys Berejiklian says she has struck a deal with her Nationals colleagues over the state’s koala protection policy, AAP reports.

“I am very pleased to say ahead of the cabinet meeting on Tuesday the NSW Coalition has rested on a very balanced and fair approach,” she said on Friday.

“It was never our intention to have to go through the process we did, but that is what it is.”

Berejiklian said the deal ensures koalas are protected but also that farmers are not adversely impacted by the policy.

Acting deputy premier Paul Toole said under the changes farmers will be primarily able to continue doing what they’re currently able to do.

“Unless there are significant changes to the use of your land, you will not be impacted by the Sepp – that’s when it triggers off,” he said. “Farming has been taken out of that Sepp.”

The NSW agriculture minister, Adam Marshall, said it was a “huge win” for agriculture, farms and the environment.

He said the deal will ensure agriculture and farming will continue to be regulated by existing land management codes and private native forestry will still be regulated under the existing code arrangements.

The agreement comes three weeks after NSW Nationals leader and deputy premier, John Barilaro, threatened to implode the Coalition if concessions to the policy weren’t made.

Shortly after, Barilaro announced he was going on mental health leave for up to four weeks.

The policy will be debated at a 6 October cabinet meeting.

NSW Health has issued an alert to passengers and crew on a flight from Melbourne to Sydney.

A passenger, who was returning to NSW from Victoria, tested positive while in quarantine today, and is believed to have travelled while infectious.

“The majority of passengers on the Jetstar Flight JQ510 which left Melbourne at 11am on 27 September are already undertaking mandatory hotel quarantine,” NSW Health said.

“NSW is contacting 47 passengers travelling with special permits or quarantine exemptions or crew. Those deemed close contacts of the case have been advised to immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days and stay isolated for the entire period, even if a negative test result is received.

“This traveller tested positive to a Day 2 test in hotel quarantine and is believed to have travelled while infectious.

“There is no ongoing risk of infection to the general public.”

Hi all, it’s Naaman Zhou here. Thanks to Amy Remeikis as always for her work.

As we reported a few minutes ago, yes, US president Donald Trump does have coronavirus.

We’ll be bringing you the big updates on that here. But for the most frequent developments, consider also following our global liveblog, which is running here:

And a reminder also that Trump, who is 74, appeared on stage with Joe Biden, who is 77, in the presidential debate earlier this week.

The benchmark ASX 200 index suddenly turned south shortly before 3pm, eating away at gains made during the day.

The ASX had opened the day lower but, until Trump’s announcement, was on course to recover much of its early losses off the back of good news about Australia and New Zealand agreeing to a travel bubble.

And on that note, I am going to hand the blog over to Naaman Zhou and just take in this week.

And it has been A week.

Thank you to everyone who has joined me this week. I will be back on Monday, where we will also be blogging the budget – it is back to Covid and politics live from next week, so I hope you’ll join us.

If you have a question, you can reach me on here and here. But please take a moment to switch off and do something for yourself this weekend – even if it is just taking a moment of silence.

These last three months are going to be pretty tough.

Take care of you. Ax