Tag Archives: oceania

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Sydney's COVID-19 restrictions extended

Sydney's snap COVID-19 restrictions introduced on Thursday have been extended for another week, with one significant change to mask rules.

The extension comes despite New South Wales recording no new local cases again overnight.

Health authorities remain concerned about how an eastern Sydney couple in their 50s acquired their infections, as contact tracers fail to find a link with the genomically-linked US case who entered hotel quarantine in Sydney on April 26.

READ MORE: Long-awaited mass vaccination hub to open in Sydney tomorrow

https://twitter.com/GladysB/status/1391198751369228289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

"Despite extensive investigations to date, NSW Health has not identified how the initial case, the man in his 50s, was exposed to COVID-19, which suggests he acquired the infection through brief contact with a currently unidentified person who was infectious in the community," NSW Health wrote in a statement.

Restrictions around mandatory masks, a limit of 20 people gathering inside homes, and visits to aged care facilities are now scheduled to end at 12.01am on Monday, May 17.

Singing and dancing are also banned indoors, with the exception of weddings, and pub-goers must remain seated while drinking.

The extended rules apply across Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, the Illawarra, and the Blue Mountains.

However, rules around mask use have been eased slightly, with masks no longer compulsory for customers shopping at retail stores.

Commuters wearing masks disembark from the light rail at Central Station in Sydney.

Masks continue to be mandated for retail staff in public-facing roles.

There were six new cases of coronavirus found in the state's quarantine hotels in the past 24 hours.

The results come from just over 18,000 tests – down from over 22,000 the day before.

The rule tweaks come after a new health alert was issued yesterday for a Woolworths in Sydney's eastern suburbs after the store was visited by a positive case.

Anyone who was at the Woolworths supermarket on the corner of Kiaora Lane and Kiaora Road in Double Bay last Monday, May 3, between 10.45am and 11am has been deemed a casual contact.

They must get tested for coronavirus immediately and isolate until they receive a negative result.

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1390854578518720517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

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'It's a pandemic Budget': Frydenberg defends skyrocketing debt

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has defended the federal government's record debt and deficit levels, even as he confirms billions in new expenditure designed to drive unemployment to historic lows.

Speaking on Weekend Today this morning, Mr Frydenberg told Nine's political editor Chris Uhlmann that Tuesday's Budget will include more than $10 billion for aged care over the next four years.

"It is a very significant commitment designed to deal with what the Royal Commission has found, to strengthen our system and ensure that older Australians can retire, can live with dignity, respect and with safety," he said.

READ MORE: Plan to allow single parents to buy a home with just two per cent deposit

The funds will support in-home care as well as improvements to residential facilities.

In another new announcement today, the Morrison government has confirmed that more than $350 million will be allocated to supporting women's health, including cervical and breast cancer,

The funds will include just over $100 million for improved cervical and breast cancer screening and $95.9 million for genetic testing of embryos for genetic or chromosomal abnormalities.

"In 2009, GPD (global domestic product) fell by 0.1 per cent – last year, it fell by 3.1 per cent.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, the total level of Commonwealth debt has skyrocketed to unprecedented highs.

It is forecast to soon surpass $1 trillion – almost five times the level seen during the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

Then, the Coalition lambasted Labor's spending as a "debt and deficit disaster" creating a "Budget black hole".

Queensland outlines budget wish-list

But Mr Frydenberg told Uhlmann that the Coalition's response has been proportionate to the current crisis.

"There has been a once-in-a-century pandemic," he said.

"In 2009, GPD (global domestic product) fell by 0.1 per cent – last year, it fell by 3.1 per cent.

"You can't compare the two events in terms of size and the dislocation they have caused."

READ MORE: What we know so far about government's big Budget cash splash

He said that while Budget funding for aged care and childcare were "baked in" to the Budget as long-term measures, other expenditures such as new infrastructure projects and tax relief were short-term steps to boost the economy and return employment to pre-pandemic levels.

Of the government's record expenditure, $90 billion of it was poured into JobKeeper to keep Australians in work through COVID-19 lockdowns and a global economic slow-down.

It is a spend the Treasurer credits with today's falling unemployment and Australia's relatively swift economic recovery, compared to other nations.

But the government has set itself a new unemployment target, with Mr Frydenberg saying he hopes to drive it down below 5 per cent – a low not maintained since the 1960s.

Currently, the unemployment rate is at 5.6 per cent with the historic long-term average since the 1970s of around 6 per cent.

Mr Frydenberg said this will be achieved through fresh investment in apprenticeships, jobs programs and tax relief which will boost the economy in the short-term and create jobs.

"It is designed to boost the long-time productivity of the nation by boosting demands in the short term with stimulus measures like tax relief," he said.

"Our focus is not to bake (these measures) into the Budget and we are not seeking to undermine the structural integrity of the budget… but to frontload the Budget."