Health News at Your Fingertips

Some very specific detail about the rule saying that, from next Friday, no one can dance, sing, or mingle at a wedding in NSW.

Bride and groom (or bride and bride or groom and groom or any combination therein with spouse) presumably exempt because they’ve already kissed at the ceremony (and, you know, other times). The corona horse has already bolted.

Sports teams are not having much luck fleeing Melbourne as community transmission numbers here grow. Two super netball teams, Collingwood and Melbourne, were due to fly to Sydney on Wednesday, but that was put on hold because of the Crossroads Hotel outbreak. They’re now looking at the season being hosted in Queensland or WA, when the competition starts on 1 August.

Said Collingwood coach Rob Wright:

We could be flying somewhere tonight or tomorrow but we’re not sure and we don’t know where it is. The girls don’t know whether to pack a bikini or a beanie and we’re all waiting by the phone for our destination so it’s like Amazing Race.

More here:

A Queensland man who sailed alone from Tahiti to Brisbane – spending 35 days on his own at sea, or 2.5 quarantine periods – has been made to do 14-days of hotel quarantine upon his arrival in Brisbane.

David Fair told Nine news that he thought he would be able to avoid quarantine, as he has effectively been quarantining at sea for, again, 35 days. Instead, he has to pay the cost — about $200 a night — of another 14 days alone.

I left Tahiti, effectively it took me 35 days to sail from Tahiti to Brisbane. I’ve effectively done 35 days quarantine on my own in a boat from a country that’s been declared as coronavirus free.

French Polynesia declared itself coronavirus free on 19 May.

Fair said he was initially told by Border Force officers that he’d only have to spend one night in quarantine.

My partner and I have been separated for about five months now due to the coronavirus travel ban so I was actually stuck over in Panama and I’ve had to sail singlehanded over to Australia in order to be able to actually meet her again. It’s disappointing, the thought that once I reached the border I can’t even see her. So even though she’s quite close, she’s still quite far from me. So it’s quite frustrating.

It’s Australian policy that people on private yachts have to complete the full 14-day quarantine. Professional seafarers, so people on cargo ships, usually quarantine for a shorter period because they go back out to sea.

Slightly off-topic but I suspect it will be of interest to many of you: we have historian Jenny Hocking writing in Guardian Australia today about the Palace Letters, which were released due to her tenacity.

You can read it here.

South Australian premier Steven Marshall says the hard border closure with Victoria will remain in place “for an extended period of time”.

Marshall spoke to local media after the announcement that Victoria had recorded a record high daily total of 428 new cases.

This hard border remains in place and quite frankly I think it’s going to remain in place for an extended period of time.

I think the entire nation now is on high alert with what is happening in Victoria.

He said SA would also keep quarantine measures in place with NSW and the ACT, because of the Crossroads Hotel cluster and other untraced community transmission.

Thirty more Victorian police officers are in isolation after an officer based out of the Spencer Street crime command centre tested positive to Covid-19. We reported yesterday that 140 police officers, and 30 PSOs, were already isolating.

More from AAP:

The officer received the positive test result on Thursday, the force confirmed on Friday. The office area was deep-cleaned on Thursday afternoon.

A dozen police members who work in this area were told to immediately self-isolate and be tested, Victoria Police said.

The officer had been in Shepparton last week, prompting 16 police from that station to also be put into isolation and undergo testing.

“Victoria Police’s priority first and foremost is to ensure the safety of its people and the community,” a police statement said. “A thorough assessment of the impact on other police personnel and the community is being undertaken to identify any further close contacts.”

It’s the 6th anniversary of the downing of MH17.

Our thoughts remain with the loved ones of those who died.

If you’re currently in the ACT, but have recently been in south-west Sydney, you may be required to self-isolate.

The Maldives has reopened for tourists for the first time since March. You may remember its shutdown from this amazing story about a couple who just … didn’t leave.

Some 107 tourists arrived this week. It’s the first time they have welcomed foreign visitors since the borders closed on 27 March, and the country has set a target of 850,000 visitors by the end of the year.

Foreign minister Abdulla Shahid said:

Responding to Covid-19 has been tough, but we have come back stronger as a destination, with the Maldives being a safe destination for all tourists and hotel employees.

I’m putting this here just to torture all of us, because Australians can’t travel.

The Victorian inquiry into failures in hotel quarantine begins at 10am on Monday.

Former judge Jennifer Coate, who is chairing the inquiry, and the senior counsel assisting, Tony Neal QC, will both make opening statements, but there won’t be any witnesses on that day.

The hearings won’t be open to the public, for safety reasons (coronavirus spread) but they will be streamed online via the inquiry’s website.