Health News at Your Fingertips

The University of New South Wales has offered almost 500 voluntary redundancies to staff, according to the Community and Public Sector Union.

The CPSU, which represents non-academic staff at the university, said on Wednesday that the university had offered 493 redundancies to staff, blaming the federal government for failing to offer increased funding to the tertiary education sector during the coronavirus crisis.

“It is clear that Australia’s higher education sector is in a perilous situation – we need jobkeeper in our universities now, and then we need a fundamental rethink of the higher education system,” Troy Wright, assistant secretary of the CPSU in NSW, said in a statement.

“We will hold a mass meeting with members tomorrow to make sure their voice is heard clearly during talks with the university. We will support our members every step of the way and work with the university to minimise the disruption to students and staff.”

The university sector has been savaged by the pandemic, in large part because one of its most important funding sources – international students – has been cut off.

“The university sector is in crisis, but it was under pressure long before Covid-19. A lack of proper investment made the sector fragmented and over-reliant on international students,” Wright said.

UNSW has been approached for comment.

Western Australia has recorded eight new cases of Covid-19 overnight.

All of the eight new cases relate to returned overseas travellers who are in hotel quarantine. There are currently 29 active cases in WA. It brings the state’s total to 644.

Grocery giant Woolworths will remove most limits on product purchases across Victoria from tomorrow – but restrictions on toilet paper will remain.

In a statement today Woolworths said it would lift restrictions on 23 products across Victoria “as demand moderates to more normal levels across the state”.

The products include:

• rice
• pasta
• flour
• mince
• sugar
• eggs
• dairy
• bread
• tissues
• paper towels

But a two-pack-per-person limit on toilet paper will remain in place nationwide.

“We wish to thank customers for returning to their normal shopping routines over the past week. We’ll continue to monitor the situation closely and reinstate product limits if we see further demand spikes,” Woolworths said in a statement.

Police in the ACT have politely been requesting that people in Canberra stop answering the door in the nude during Covid-19 compliance requests.

In a press conference this morning, Detective Superintendent Jason Kennedy said those in isolation had been offering police a “warm reception”.

But, as News.com.au reports, some of the welcomes were a little too friendly: “Some of them may need a reminder to put some clothes on before they open the door for a compliance check,” Kennedy said.

“We did get a few surprises on the weekend.”

The ACT has again recorded no new cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday.

Here’s the full story on the AFL’s decision to relocate to Queensland in a bid to keep the already-disrupted season alive.

This is quite helpful from the ABC reporter Casey Briggs. You might have seen reports about the role of the Black Lives Matter protests in the spread of the virus in Victoria today. This seems to, erm, contradict some of that reporting.

Six staff affiliated with Melbourne’s Royal Women’s hospital are among those confirmed to have Covid-19 as part of Victoria’s recent outbreak, my colleague Melissa Davey reports.

Good afternoon and welcome to the ‘up late’ edition of the Guardian’s Covid-19 blog.

If you’ve been following Calla Wahlquist’s excellent coverage today you’ll know where we’re at, but for everyone else let’s do a quick recap:

• Victoria recored 238 new cases of Covid-19 to 8pm last night. There are currently 105 people in hospital, up 20 from yesterday, and 27 in intensive care, up one from yesterday. A woman in her 90s died last night.
• The state’s police have issued some 500 fines for breaches of public health orders since last Wednesday. The deputy police commissioner, Rick Nugent, told media today that police were “finding people in cupboards” and had fined people eating KFC and playing Pokémon.
• The AFL CEO, Gillon McLachlan, announced Victorian AFL teams will be based in Queensland for up to 10 weeks as the league scrambles to continue running in the face of the outbreak.
• There were 13 new cases in New South Wales, including 10 cases connected to the Crossroads hotel, bringing the size of that cluster to 34. Genomic testing has linked that cluster to a man who travelled to the state from Victoria.
• The Northern Territory announced it will keep its borders closed to all of Sydney, as well as to Victoria, when it allows domestic travel to resume on Friday.

This is where I leave you for the day, in the trustworthy hands of Michael McGowan.

Stay safe, stay at home if you’re in Melbourne, and try not to hate Queensland too much for stealing the football and pretending they know what cold is. They’re only trying to help.

This is where Victoria’s AFL players, Wags and support staff will be spending the next 10 weeks:

It’s allegedly cold there today.

A reminder that, excepting AFL players and others deemed to be providing an essential service, the penalty for Victorians trying to smuggle into Queensland is $4,003.

There are currently 35 active cases of coronavirus in regional council areas outside of the areas covered under stage 3 restrictions. That is, not including the Mitchell shire.

Of those, seven are in the Greater Geelong local government area.

Some detail on the major outbreaks in Victoria.

First, some 247 people living in public housing towers in North Melbourne and Flemington have tested positive to the virus. An additional 36 people have tested positive in the Carlton towers.

The tower at 33 Alfred Street, North Melbourne remains under hard lockdown for another four days.

Here are the other major outbreaks:

• 150 cases have been linked to Al-Taqwa College
• 33 cases have been linked to Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham
• 29 cases have been linked to Menarock Life Aged Care Facility in Essendon
• 21 cases linked to JBS abattoir in Brooklyn
• 12 cases linked to LaManna Supermarket, Essendon
• 9 cases linked to Embracia Moonee Valley aged care
• 5 cases linked to Steel Mains in Somerton
• 4 cases linked to Waste Equipment and Hiab Services, Ardeer
• 4 cases linked to TD Cabinets in Dandenong South
• 3 cases linked to Bell Collision Repair Centre in Preston
• 2 cases linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner

We’ve now got the details on the new Victorian cases.

As reported earlier, Victoria recorded 238 new cases overnight. But due to 14 cases being removed due to duplication, there’s only a net increase of 224. (Still big.)

That brings the total number of cases in Victoria since 1 January to 4,448. Of those, 1,931 are currently active.

And 790 cases have been caused by community transmission – that’s up 38 from yesterday.

There are currently 105 people in hospital, up 20 from yesterday, and 27 in intensive care, up one from yesterday.

To date, 27 people have died from the virus in Victoria, including a woman in her 90s who died overnight. Some 2,488 people have recovered.

The number of coronavirus cases in regional areas has increased by seven overnight. There are now 305 cases recorded in regional areas – although that’s a pandemic-long figure, I’ll bring you the figure on the number of active cases in regional areas shortly.