In Australia, some Melbourne childcare centres say they may have to close within weeks without more government support, thanks to a combination of the Covid-19 lockdown and changes to federal subsidies.
Mandy Kelly, who runs the Melbourne University Family Club Co-operative, says she could lose about $12,000 a fortnight as families unenrol or choose not to send their children during the lockdown.
“It looks like we will be dipping into any reserve we have got left,” she says.
“It looks like six weeks is the maximum we could go for and following that will have to think about closing. It makes me feel terrible. We have been here for 55 years.”
Israelis protest against government’s handling of coronavirus crisis
Israeli police used water cannons to disperse demonstrators around Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence on Saturday as protests mounted against him over alleged corruption and his handling of the coronavirus crisis, Reuters reports.
Hit by high unemployment, a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases and reimposed coronavirus curbs, Israelis have taken to the streets in almost daily demonstrations against the government.
Public anger has been compounded by corruption alleged against Netanyahu, who went on trial in May for bribery, fraud and breach of trust – charges he denies.
In Jerusalem, hundreds gathered outside the prime minister’s residence and then marched through the streets, calling for Netanyahu’s resignation as police used water cannons to disperse the crowds. At least two people were arrested, police said.
In Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, thousands gathered at a rally by the beach, demanding better state aid to businesses hurt by coronavirus restrictions and to people who have lost jobs or have been put on unpaid leave. Unemployment presently stands at 21%.
Restrictions tightened in Barcelona, Spain
In Spain, more than four million people in Barcelona were advised to stay at home on Friday except for necessary trips from this weekend onwards, after Alba Vergés, the Catalan health minister, said the measure was the best way to avoid a new lockdown.
Cinemas, theatres and nightclubs were closed and gatherings of more than 10 people were also prohibited.
The new restrictions came barely four weeks after Spain ended its state of emergency when its 47 million residents were subjected to one of the world’s toughest lockdowns to slow the spread of the virus.
France is watching coronavirus clusters in neighbouring Spain very closely, prime minister Jean Castex said on Saturday, less than a month after the border between the two countries was reopened.
Spanish health officials are monitoring more than 150 outbreaks across the country just weeks after they ended one of the world’s toughest lockdown regimes. They are particularly alarmed at clusters popping up in Catalonia, one of the border regions.
“We are monitoring this very closely, here in particular, because it is a real issue that we also need to discuss with the Spanish authorities,” Castex said in response to a question about the possible closure of borders, according to AFP.
The upsurge in cases in Catalonia has already prompted the reimposition of lockdown in one area.
Some 160,000 people in Lleida and surrounding towns were ordered to stay in their homes on Wednesday, following a standoff between the regional government and a local court that had blocked the order.
Hard lockdown ends in Victorian public housing towers
Still in Australia, public housing residents in North Melbourne, in the state of Victoria, will be released from a two-week ‘hard’ lockdown after the Covid-19 outbreak in Victoria prompted the state government to enforce a dramatic lockdown of a number of residential towers in the city.
The enforced shut-in of public housing residents at 33 Alfred Street since 4 July ended late Saturday night, meaning they can now leave their homes for food, medicine, exercise, study and work – like the rest of Melbourne.
However, up to one third of the tower’s residents, who either have the virus or are a close contact of someone who does, will be required to remain in their units until they’re cleared.
The hard lockdown of public housing tenants in Melbourne was the subject of harsh criticism of the state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, and Victoria’s ombudsman is investigating the treatment of people across the Alfred Street tower and eight other towers that were shut down for five days in July.
Karen Percy
(@PercyKaren)A quiet morning in North Melbourne as the folks in the public housing tower at 33 Alfred St wake up to freer movement. After two weeks of a hard lockdown they now subject to Stage 3 restrictions like the rest of Metro Melb and Mitchell Shire. pic.twitter.com/sEH3sqgxEA
Updated
at 7.59pm EDT
Australia’s two largest states will hope Sunday brings good news as both Victoria and New South Wales grapple with Covid-19 outbreaks.
On Saturday Victoria, which is in the grips of a second-wave outbreak, recorded 217 new cases of the virus well down from the record 428 the previous day. Victoria’s capital, Melbourne, is currently in a six-week lockdown as it attempts to get the caseload under control.
In NSW the state government is sweating on the status of a few recent outbreaks which have seen cases increase in recent days. The original cluster, at the Crossroads Hotel in Casula in Sydney’s south-west, is now above 40 cases. But the state’s health officials are scrambling to establish links between that outbreak and other recent cases including at a Thai restaurant in western Sydney.
NSW recorded 16 new cases on Saturday, including five which have not yet been linked to any known outbreak. On Saturday the NSW deputy chief medical officer Jeremy McAnulty said authorities remained “really concerned” by the cases with no known source of community transmission.
“The good news is the majority of cases have been able to be linked together,” he said. “We are still investigating those five cases from yesterday. We are hopeful a link will emerge between all those cases, we haven’t given up doing that.”
