Health News at Your Fingertips

In the Philippines, almost one million people have been evacuated from the projected path of Super Typhoon Goni, which slammed into the country this morning.

The strongest typhoon of the year made landfall at 4:50 am, and is expected to cause “catastrophic violent winds and intense to torrential rainfall” across the Bicol region over the next 12 hours, according to the state weather agency.

There is concern that the conditions in evacuation centres could fuel the spread of the virus. The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports that safety officers will be deployed to monitor evacuees, and to ensure people comply with physical distancing and wear masks.

The Philippines has reported more than 380,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases, the second-highest in Southeast Asia, with 7,221 deaths.

The UK’s culture secretary Oliver Dowden has provided more clarity on the lockdown measures due to be imposed in England from Thursday 5 November. Pubs and restaurants will shut unless serving takeaway food, and all leisure and entertainment venues and non-essential shops will close.

However, Dowden said elite sport and film and TV productions will be allowed to continue behind closed doors. Under the previous lockdown, the Premier League season was suspended for three months.

Protesters opposing Covid-19 restrictions have clashed with police in cities across Spain after a six-month state of emergency was imposed this week.

Reuters reports that riot police shot blank bullets to disperse scores of demonstrators who were setting fire to rubbish bins in Madrid’s main thoroughfare, Gran Via. Meanwhile, protesters pelted police with rocks and other projectiles in Barcelona. In the northern Spanish city of Logroño, about 150 people attacked police with stones, set fire to containers and looted shops. Riot police were drafted in to quell disturbances in Haro, in the wine-growing region of La Rioja.

This follows demonstrations on Friday, when 14 people were arrested and 30 injured.

Earlier local police said about 1,500 hotel and restaurant workers took part in a peaceful demonstration against restrictions imposed under the state of emergency which they claim will threaten their jobs.

All bars and restaurants have been closed in the Spanish region of Catalonia, which includes Barcelona, until 13 November. Similar disturbances happened in the cities of Burgos, Vitoria, Santander, Valencia and Zaragoza on Friday.

New South Wales in Australia has recorded no new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 over the past 24 hours to 8pm yesterday local time.

However, it did record four new cases among people who had acquired it overseas and are in hotel quarantine.

Health authorities also said they had detected one new case of local transmission, after 8pm yesterday – that will be included in tomorrow’s figures.

NSW Health said this new diagnosis was a person linked to the Hoxton Park cluster in south-west Sydney.

“This case is the second child to have likely acquired their infection at Flip Out Prestons Indoor Trampoline Park, Unit B/238 Hoxton Park Road, Prestons, while there at the same time as a positive case, also a child, on Sunday 25 October,” it said.

Anyone who attended this venue from 11am to 2pm on Sunday 25 October is considered a close contact and must get tested immediately and isolate for a full 14 days from exposure regardless of the result. Anyone who was there after 2pm is considered a casual contact and must monitor for symptoms and get tested immediately if they develop.

Anyone who attended Spendless Shoes at Westfield Liverpool on 28 October from 4-4.20pm is considered a casual contact and do the same.

Large crowds have been left behind at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania.

The Victorian deputy premier and education minister, James Merlino, is leading the daily coronavirus press conference in Melbourne today.

He described it as a “very, very good day”, with no new cases or deaths for the second day in a row: “My thanks to all Victorians.”

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, has condemned violent protests against Covid-19 restrictions after the country imposed a six-month state of emergency this week.

On Saturday local time, protesters pelted police with rocks and other projectiles in Barcelona in a second night of disturbances in the city.

Reuters report that in the northern Spanish city of Logroño about 150 people attacked police with stones, set fire to containers and looted shops. Riot police were drafted in to quell disturbances in Haro, in the wine-growing region of La Rioja.

Sanchez tweeted: “Only from responsibility, unity and sacrifice will we be able to defeat the pandemic that is devastating all countries. Violent and irrational behaviour by minority groups is intolerable. It is not the way.”

Butler also paid tribute to Labor’s Queensland election win, saying that “federally we are going to take a lot of heart from last night’s result”.

“[Opposition leader] Deb Frecklington had called for the borders to be opened 64 times. This is a premier who has stood up to the bullying, has listened to the health advice and as a consequence has kept people safe, so full credit to Annastacia Palaszczuk.

“There was a lot of concern around seats like Cairns and Townsville, but once the PM became involved, people didn’t like what they saw from the prime minister and did like what they saw from Labor.

“The lesson for federal Labor is if you get the policies right, if you get the health response right, then people will like what we are going to say.”

There’s been a bit of a groundhog day moment on the ABC.

Insiders host David Speers is interviewing Labor’s environment spokeswoman, Terri Butler, following Labor’s previous public brawling over gas and this week’s decision to support new gas projects.

He asks her the same question four times: “Would you like to see more gas used in Australia or less?”

Butler answers, mostly, the same way each time: “Australia can become a renewable energy super power and we also believe that gas will be an important part of the transition to getting there”.

Speers asks Butler repeatedly to clarify if this means “more gas or less”.

Butler replies: “We would like to see gas form an important part of the transition to Australia becoming a regional superpower.”

Speers: “I will try one more time: does that mean more reliance on gas or less?”

Butler: “It means that gas is an important part of the energy mix while we transition to becoming a renewable energy super power.”

She tells him: “I know it is not the answer that you necessarily want, but … that’s the ambition we have for this country.”

Counting will resume in the Queensland state election, and more results in the closer seats will trickle in today.

It is clear that premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has won a third term – the first woman in Australian history to win three consecutive elections – and she could have an increased majority.

The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, has just been on the Insiders program with a morning update.

“It is certain that Labor has a majority,” he said. “47 is the bare majority in the parliament, but as it is, at the end of the night, based on prediction, the Labor party could end up with 50 or 51 seats by the end.

“Labor has held all of the Townsville and Cairns and regional city seats, so the concerns that Labor had in the north of the state were washed way.”

Record numbers of children in Australia are being vaccinated, statistics released today show.

AAP reports:

Notably the vaccination rate has also risen among five-year-old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, where it has reached 97% coverage.

The vaccination rate for all five-year-olds, from January to September this year, rose to 94.9%.

Among all two-year-old children, the coverage rate has risen to almost 92.4%, which is the first time it has climbed above 92% since 2014.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander two-year-old vaccination rate has also risen to almost 91.2% in the current quarter.

The overall vaccination rate for one-year-olds has also increased in the past 12 months, reaching 94.7%, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander one-year-old vaccination rate increased to 93.5%.

The federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said the results were “a clear indication that the Morrison government’s childhood immunisation education campaign is getting results”.

“The most recent phase of the campaign specifically targeted parents of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 0-5 years,” he said.

In the US, Texas’s final early voting statistics are in. And it’s huge. More than 9.6 million Texans have voted early this year – which is more than the total number of votes cast in the state in all of 2016.

My colleague Alexandra Villarreal reports that 30.4% of this year’s early ballots have been cast by voters who didn’t participate in 2016.

The state of Victoria in Australia has recorded zero new cases of coronavirus, and zero deaths, for the second day in a row.

The 14 day average is now down to 2.2.

Yesterday was also a day of zero cases in the state, after one reported in the morning turned out not to be new.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to our continuing global coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It’s Naaman Zhou here in Sydney. We’ll take you through the developments in Australia and around the world as they happen.

So far, in the past 24 hours:

• UK prime minister Boris Johnson has announced a second month-long national lockdown for England, as the UK surpassed 1m infections on Saturday.
• Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has urged Scots not to travel to England.
• The number of Covid-related hospitalisations hit record numbers in at least 14 European countries this week, as the second wave of the pandemic hit.
• Italy recorded 31,758 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, its highest daily tally since the start of the pandemic.
• Austria announced a night-time curfew and the closure of cafes, bars and restaurants on Saturday amid “exploding” coronavirus infections.
• Brazilian health minister Eduardo Pazuello is in stable condition in a hospital after being diagnosed with Covid-19.