Coronavirus Latest: NSW Eases Lockdown, Allows Friendly Home Visits
Tuesday: Trace app hoax messages, Centrelink confusion, Clive Palmer's 33m dose donation, NRL fines
Morning! It’s Tuesday, April 28. Here’s today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’.
Each day I’m bringing you 5 things to know about the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak + 5 non-corona things to start your day off.
If you haven’t already, please sign up above ^^ to get this every day in your emails.
You can email me at joshb2@protonmail.com if you have tips, feedback, ideas or want to chat
You can also find me on Twitter at @joshbutler; on Facebook; or on Instagram
Wash your hands and sneeze into your elbow. Practise physical distancing - at least 1.5 metres of separation. “Stay the fuck at home”.
Latest Australian stats: as of 6am Tuesday, Australia has 6725 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +12 since the day before), with 5206 reported as ‘recovered’; there have been 84 deaths; and more than 521,000 tests have been done, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. Full global stats breakdown below
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
NSW allows home visits from friends
Australia’s worst-hit state has moved to slightly ease coronavirus lockdowns, allowing two people to visit homes from Friday. Currently, people are not really meant to visit someone else’s house except for care or medical reasons, but Premier Gladys Berejiklian said this morning that “two adults will be able to go and visit anybody else in their home” (story here).
She said it would be “on the basis of care, on the basis of reducing social isolation”, but also added “this isn't a license to go wild and have wild parties.”
It comes after QLD, WA and SA all started easing their own rules slightly. This will be a long road back to normal, with infectious disease experts telling me recently that it would be a slow process, with small changes applied gradually, so their impact on virus spread could be gauged (my story here). If things go well, more rules might be eased; if virus cases spike, rules might get put back on.
Aussies upset by Centrelink coronavirus pay confusion
The new Centrelink coronavirus supplement of an extra $550 a fortnight was due to start flowing on April 27. That’s yesterday. But nobody got it, due to the technicalities of Centrelink reporting periods and payment dates. People won’t start getting it for up to two weeks — my story here explains why.
"I'm frustrated. It's another one of those Centrelink loopholes, they're technically correct, but it wasn't portrayed that way," Bianca told me.
Tracing app hoax
So the coronavirus trace app is finally out, and around two million people have already downloaded it — despite still lots of confusion about how it works, what people (especially those using iPhones) have to do exactly, and security concerns. The Guardian’s explainer (here) is about the most comprehensive and useful one I’ve seen so far, so it should answer most questions you have.
But already, despite legitimate questions about the app, there are hoaxes circulating.
One fake text message, which circulated on Facebook and Twitter on Monday, claims to show the app itself sending a person a text message warning that they had travelled too far from their home. It’s fake. A health department spokesperson said “The COVIDSafe App does not have any geolocation capability, it does not track your location.” More info here, but long story short, don’t share the text — it’s fake.
Hydroxy and Clive
Remember hydroxychloroquine? Donald Trump talked it up a lot, then when trial results started coming back to show it wasn’t all that as a cure, he stopped. Trials continue, but the results aren’t bringing the house down (story here). Nonetheless, Aussie mining billionaire and former MP Clive Palmer claims he has donated nearly 33 million doses of the drug to the national stockpile.
Helpfully, he put out multi-page ads in the papers this morning telling you all about it.
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 7.30am AEST Monday) report 3,029,452 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide — ticking over 3 million overnight. There have been 210,551 deaths.
The United States has 983,848 confirmed cases, with Spain next but far behind on 229,422, then Italy (199,414). The U.S. has the most deaths (55,906), then Italy (26,977) and Spain third on 23,521. France and the U.K. aren’t far behind.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 6am Tuesday) show 6725 cases, 5602 people recovered, 84 deaths, and 521,000 tests.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Instagram has started a food delivery option (story here).
Restrictions on alcohol purchases, put in to stop recent panic-buying, will lift from today (story here).
Joe Biden is being challenged to pick a black woman as his vice presidential running mate (story here).
“The Department of Defense has officially released three declassified videos showing Navy pilots interacting with "unidentified aerial phenomena," aka UFOs”, reports BuzzFeed. Really.
There’s a new Michelle Obama doco on Netflix on the way (story here).
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
You “must” stay home at all times unless to shop for essential supplies; get medical care; exercise alone or with one other person; or work and education (more info here).
be hygienic; wash your hands properly, at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here
Australian government latest statistics here
Signing off - stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others
Josh