Health News at Your Fingertips

The NSW Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal from the organisers of a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sydney.

It means that the rally tomorrow will be an “unauthorised event”.

Organisers have previously said the protest would go ahead regardless of the court’s decision.

Here are some key statistics and points from the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services daily update.

Four cases have been linked to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.

According to the department:

The cases are two parents, one patient and a healthcare worker.

All babies, staff and parents, including any RCH staff who have spent more than two hours on Butterfly Ward since 12 July will be tested.

Here are the current aged care outbreaks: 84 cases have been linked to St Basil’s Home for the Aged in Fawkner.

• 82 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer.
• 77 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping.
• 62 cases have been linked to Menarock Life Aged Care Facility in Essendon.
• 53 cases have been linked to Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee.
• 57 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth.
• 50 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg.

Other current outbreaks include:

• 95 cases have been linked to Somerville Retail Services in Tottenham.
• 71 cases have been linked to JBS in Brooklyn.
• 69 cases have been linked to Bertocchi Smallgoods in Thomastown.
• 47 cases have been linked to Australian Lamb Company in Colac.
• 13 cases have been linked to the Linfox Warehouse in Truganina.
• 8 cases have been linked to Diamond Valley Pork in Laverton North.
• 6 cases have been linked to Don KR Castlemaine.
• 26 cases have been linked to LaManna Supermarket in Essendon Fields.
• 22 cases have been linked to Brunswick Private Hospital.
• 6 cases have been linked to Parkville Youth Justice.
• 12 cases have been linked to Respite Services Australia in Moonee Ponds.

Across Victoria, there are 683 active cases relating to outbreaks across 61 aged care facilities, and 400 active health care worker cases.

Does Victoria need to do more testing?

Kidd says testing is already at record levels and authorities need to ensure they do not overwhelm the system.

Asked why masks were only mandated for aged care workers a few weeks ago, Kidd says authorities have taken an incremental approach in their response to the pandemic.

This is the first time that we have dealt with a situation like this in Australia in over 100 years as you are aware.

Kidd explains how the aged care surge workforce has been pulled together.

We have lots of health care workers who are putting up their hands, we have many people who have recently retired, particularly as nurses but also as doctors who have put up their hands to come back and be part of the workforce, and thank you to all the people who are committed to providing care to Australians at this time of national emergency.

Kidd is asked what authorities can do to stop the spread of conspiracy theories, which you might have seen in various videos and other content posted to social media.

He says:

You need to listen to the messages which are coming from government. The single source of advice or truth is health.gov.au. Please go to that website, use this as your source of credible information, don’t listen to myths on social media.

A reporter notes Scott Morrison’s comments earlier today saying NSW is doing better than Victoria. What are they doing better?

Kidd says:

Well we are seeing smaller numbers in New South Wales each day. Each of those cases is being followed up very quickly, and their contacts are being followed up very quickly and being tested. Requirement in New South Wales, particularly for people in a number of facilities where we have seen outbreaks is there have been a cool for each of the people who have been at those centres to get tested, but also to stay in isolation a 14-day period to prevent further possible transmission to other people occurring within Sydney and other parts of the state.

Kidd pays tribute to Dr Harry Nespolon, the president of the Australian Royal College of General Practitioners, who lost a battle with cancer overnight.

He has been leading the members of the nation’s largest medical college in their response to the Covid-19 pandemic up until last week.”

That included strong support for telehealth during the pandemic.

People will speak about his many contributions and his legacy over the coming days. I want to say that Harry Nespolon was a remarkable leader, and inspirational to many, undervalued, loved and respected friend and colleague.

Kidd is focusing on the situation in aged care. He notes, as Daniel Andrews did early, that there are now 600 cases in aged care facilities.

He says 5% of all cases of Covid-19 in Victoria since April have been among the residents of aged care facilities, while 4% have been among the staff working in aged care.

Kidd says an aged care response centre has been established over the weekend and commenced operations today.

Michael Kidd notes the 549 new cases today is the single largest daily number and eclipses the 502 new cases recorded five days ago.

He says the figures are “very concerning”.

Kidd says 2,884 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in Australia in the past seven days, while 259 people are in hospital.

The tragedy of Covid-19 is that we know with the number of new infections that we have seen today, that there will be many further deaths in the days ahead.

The deputy chief medical officer, Michael Kidd, has just started the national Covid-19 update.

As we discussed earlier, there is growing concern about the situation in Victoria’s aged care system.

The United Workers Union has conducted a survey of 1,000 workers. The findings, as summarised by AAP, include:

• Three in 10 residential aged care workers say they’ve received no additional training in coronavirus safety measures or correctly using PPE.
• More than two thirds of aged care workers do not feel very prepared to deal with a virus outbreak.
• Four in 10 workers do not feel their aged care facility has communicated their infection plan well.
• One in three home care workers say they do not have enough hand sanitiser and gloves.
• Nine out of 10 aged care workers are worried their colleagues may have to work if they have mild symptoms because of a lack of leave.
• Only 16% of workers report their providers have offered some form of paid pandemic sick leave.

Hello to you all. Hope you’re having a wonderful Monday afternoon. Thanks to Calla for her work today.

As Calla says, we’re awaiting a court decision on tomorrow’s Black Lives Matter rally planned for Sydney.

If you want to get in touch, you can send me a note at luke.henriques-gomes@theguardian.com or via on Twitter @lukehgomes.

On that note I will hand over to Luke Henriques-Gomes who will take you through the afternoon’s news, including the outcome of the court of appeal hearing on tomorrow’s Black Lives Matter rally.

Stay well, and exercise your human right to be considerate of others and wear a mask when recommended to do so.

An update from the Australian council of attorneys general meeting today, which considered the question of whether the age of criminal responsibility in Australia should be lifted from 10-years-old:

Police in NSW have fined three people for failing to self-isolate upon their return from Victoria, after they were apparently dobbed in by other community members.

On Saturday, police checked on a 33-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man living in a house in Deniliquin, following “reports” that two people who had recently returned to the town on the Riverina from Victoria had been spotted at the shops.

Deniliquin is about 78km north of the Murray River. The man and the woman had returned to the town from Victoria on 21 July and were four days into their 14-day self-isolation period.

They allegedly told police “it’s a free country”, and were fined $1,000 each.

Yesterday, police on the NSW south coast spoke to a 63-year-old woman who was supposed to be self-isolating at home at the Batemans Bay suburb of Surf Beach. Police had received “reports” she had visited a supermarket in town. She was also fined $1,000.

I do not have moody photographs of Daniel Andrews for you today but I do have a very rare smiling Daniel Andrews and Brett Sutton.

Victoria recorded 532 new coronavirus cases today, the highest daily case total in Australia since the pandemic began.

It is also, based on my very quick counting, the 25th day in a row that Andrews has given the daily coronavirus press conference and Sutton has been at most of them. So it’s nice to see a brief moment of levity, even on the worst day.

The court of appeal in NSW is currently hearing the appeal by organisers against its decision yesterday, banning a Black Lives Matter rally from going ahead.

We cut away from the prime minister’s press conference earlier today to bring you the bad news out of Victoria.

But readers of this blog will probably be very interested in what Scott Morrison had to say when asked for his opinion on treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s comments that he was drawing some inspiration from Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in addressing the economic crisis.

Morrison:

Well we’re leading an Australian response to this. A uniquely Australian response and that Australian response requires us to address the supply side issues in our economy.

And I’ve gone through them. And this is why the Covid commission today is so important.

So, it won’t be Thatcherism or Reaganomics, because it will be an Australian solution, but it will still be heavily reliant on supply side economics. Maybe we’ll get our own portmanteau.