A Sydney church has closed for deep cleaning after a member of the parish tested positive for COVID-19.
Anyone who attended a prayer group at St Agatha’s Catholic Church in Pennant Hills on August 3 between 7pm and 8pm have been advised to stay home until they are contacted by NSW Health.
“The Diocese of Broken Bay is working with NSW Health to contact trace those who have had close contact with the confirmed case of COVID-19 and will continue to follow the NSW Health advice,” the Catholic Diocese of Broken Bay wrote in a statement.
“Parishioners are reminded that if they are unwell with flu like symptoms such as fever, cough, sore throat or shortness of breath they must get tested immediately and isolate.”
More than 260 people were issued fines in Victoria yesterday for breaking COVID-19 health restrictions.
Police handed out 268 fines, which included 38 fines for failing to wear a face covering, 13 fines at vehicle checkpoints and 77 fines for breaching curfew.
Here are some of the notable breaches from yesterday:
– A man was stopped by police after helping his friend move a TV from Doncaster East to Dandenong. After the move the man though he would stop at a fast-food outlet to get a burger. He was slapped with a $1652 fine for breaching Melbourne’s curfew.
– Another man was fined for breaching curfew after police spotted him walking on William Street in Melbourne’s CBD at 2am despite living in St Albans. The man claimed he had been in the city to meet some friends at a hotel and have some drinks.
– A Berwick woman was caught breaching restrictions after admitting to travelling from Scoresby to Patterson Lakes. She also stated she was considering visiting her mother in Hallam.
– Man was caught in breach of being outside of the 5km radius of his home. He stated he was from Garfield and was exercising and shopping in Frankston. He was issued a fine for breaching the stage four restrictions.
– A man was fined after he was caught having four friends visit him in his bungalow in the backyard of a property in Mount Alexander. The man told police his friends were over to “watch the footy”, despite being in breach of stage four restrictions.
Late on Saturday night, Victoria’s Minister for Health Jenny Mikakos took to Twitter to speak at length about the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, apologising for any mistakes she had made.
At 11.54pm, Ms Mikakos said she was “deeply sorry”, admitting that “humans are flawed”.
She defended the state government’s actions while acknowledging that perfection was impossible at a time like this.
It was work that needed to be done quickly and nimbly because the virus would not wait and no doubt, mistakes were made along the way, because humans are flawed yet contagious viruses are unforgiving.
Ms Mikakos then took some personal responsibility for the government’s handling of the pandemic.
“Since that fateful day on 25 January, when we had our first-ever case, I’ve worked every day to keep everyone safe. I have put every ounce of energy I’ve had into that effort,” she said.
“If it wasn’t enough, then I’m deeply sorry.”
I’ve always striven to be upfront and measured about the challenges facing us. So it pains me to see the incorrect assumption made that somehow I can single-handedly report on the actions of countless individuals and many agencies involved in our pandemic response.
-Alex Turner-Cohen, read more.
There have been no new COVID-19 cases in the ACT, with the state also having zero active infections.
ACT #COVID19 update (9 August 2020)▪️ Cases today: 0▪️ Active cases: 0▪️ Test results (past 24 hours): 567▪️ Negative tests: 57,177▪️ Total cases: 113▪️ Recovered: 110▪️ Lives lost: 3ℹ️ https://t.co/YGW9pOHG3e pic.twitter.com/6C3GzTJRck
Police appear to have thwarted a planned anti-mask rally in Melbourne that would have defied strict stage four lockdown laws, but an apparent lone protester has been arrested after refusing to move on.
Up to 400 people were expected to gather on the steps of Parliament House on Sunday for an event billed as “Freedom Day Celebration”, with the organisers reportedly believing coronavirus is a “biochemical” weapon and opposing masks, vaccinations and business shutdowns.
Dozens of police attended on foot and on horseback, questioning passers-by and handing out fines for lockdown breaches.
-Rebecca LeMay, read more
Two men walking around parliament without masks have just been arrested by police. They refused to give officers their names and addresses. One claimed he has a medical exemption as he was led away yelling “Nazi Australia” @9NewsMelb pic.twitter.com/Pxnr7WOG73
The premier was asked to respond to an open letter calling for his resignation if he doesn’t allow sole traders to continue to operate under stage four restrictions.
Founder of Jim’s Mowing, Jim Penman, wrote an open letter to Premier Daniel Andrews, in which he called him “weak” and accused him of sending Victoria into “a spiral of deep despair” over Melbourne’s stage four lockdown.
Speaking at Sunday’s press conference, Mr Andrews said if he responded to every open letter and “impassioned plea” there would be more people at work this month than were allowed to work last month.
“And that will mean this simply goes on for a very, very long time. I understand and appreciate that these are very challenging, very challenging decisions for businesses and workforces, for families, for individuals to live with,” Mr Andrews said.
“But the simple fact of the matter is that if every single person came to me and argued passionately, eloquently that they’re low risk and that they should get a pass, then we would finish up with more people at work and more people moving around the community in August than we had in July or June and that will just mean that we have zero chance, like no chance whatsoever, of driving these numbers down.”
The premier said he appreciates it is a “painful” time for many workers but if he let everyone who asked go back to work then the lockdown would become a six-month lockdown instead of six weeks.
Premier Daniel Andrews has labelled COVID-19 a “wicked, silent enemy”, warning Victorians they will have no chance of driving down case numbers without the state’s tough restrictions.
“These are heartbreaking decisions to make. These are very challenging settings to put in place. But unless we do this, this second wave will not end anytime soon,” he said.
“If we don’t limit movement, if they don’t follow the rules, we, as a state, have zero chance of driving down these numbers. It won’t happen by accident. It won’t happen because of good fortune. It won’t happen because of the passage of time. We need to make these decisions.”
Mr Andrews said there is no alternative way to stop the virus spreading within the community.
“There’s just no alternative. This virus is a wicked silent enemy, and it will only be defeated if we have a united front against it, and that is about everyone making the best choices,” he said.
Victorians have been warned they will be living under COVID-19 restrictions longer than they should be if people continue to flout the rules.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the coronavirus crisis was “a fight” the state had never experienced before.
“This is a fight the likes of which we’ve never been engaged in. But we overcome. We overcame fire. We overcame drought. We overcome lots of challenges. We are a resilient people,” he said.
“This could not be more serious. This is a challenge, a fight, a battle, the likes of which we have never experienced before. And unless all of us, to the best of our ability, make the right choices, then we’ll be in this longer than we should be.”
Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
Mr Andrews praised the Victorians who were doing the right thing, but said there will always be a percentage of people who “make consistently bad choices”.
“Victoria Police are out there and the fines are higher than they were. The best part of $5000. And if you’re really just flouting the rules, then there are other options to take you to the Magistrates Court and the fines get substantially bigger,” he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews has held off labelling today’s lower daily case numbers as a sign the state in suppressing the virus.
“We’ve avoided tens of thousands of cases and therefore, death rates that would have been substantially higher. But I’m always wary to try to take one day’s data and turn that in a trend,” he said.
“The only way this strategy works is if everyone follows the rules, everyone acknowledges that whether we like it or not, we are in this together unless everybody plays their part.”
Mr Andrews said the only way the state will drive numbers down is it everyone plays their part and follows restrictions.
“Obviously, any day where there’s less cases than the previous day is a good one. But I wouldn’t want to be trying to predict, I wouldn’t want to take one day’s data or even a week’s data,” he said.
“The other point to make is that we have had only a couple of days of the stage four settings.
“In fact, some of them don’t actually kick in until midnight tonight. So we’re probably seeing the tail end of the stabilisation that was the product of the stage three rules.”
#BREAKING 394 new cases confirmed in Victoria, and the 7 day average has dropped below 500 cases/day pic.twitter.com/GuSaZjni09
Mental health minister Martin Foley has announced a $59.7 million boost to mental health funding across Victoria.
Mr Foley said the funding increase was in response to the spike in demand in acute mental health services since the start of the pandemic.
“We know that particularly at the moment, we want to keep those people with mental illness away from emergency departments,” he said.
“Emergency departments are busy at the best of times, particularly now in the height of a pandemic.
“We want to make sure that we keep those people who need support for mental illness with the support that they need in the community. And that’s the main focus of today’s package is how to deal with the surge in demand.”
Picture: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
There has been a 9.5 per cent yearly increase in self-harm in emergency departments across all age groups.
For people under 18, that figure has increased by 33 per cent year on year.
“And overall, across all aspects of how mental illness is presented at our emergency departments, we’ve seen a 23.3 per cent increase in people presenting in those acute settings with a mental illness,” Mr Foley said.
“So the object of this package is to make sure we shift that focus immediately and sustain it over time into more community settings.
“That is better in terms of treatment for those people, and more importantly, it frees up the resources in our emergency departments as well.”