Australia HK embassy bars Kiwi spouse

Jacquelin Magnay 02.50am: Vaccine a year off, says UK medical chief

Australia’s hopes for a coronavirus vaccine early next year to do away with damaging internal and external border restrictions have been dismantled by the frank assessment of the UK’s chief medical officer.

Professor Chris Whitty told reporters on the weekend that there was unlikely to be any vaccine before the end of next year, pushing out the hopes of Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and state premiers that a safe vaccine could be ready in 2021.

While Australia has taken a strict response to dealing with coronavirus by shutting its borders, and adopting a quasi-elimination approach, it leaves the country highly vulnerable to both the virus’ impacts and prolonged economic pain unless a vaccine is safely developed within a short time frame.

But Prof Whitty said it would be “reasonable’’ to expect another year before a safe vaccine is proven and ready to be distributed.

Read the full story here.

Rachel Baxendale 02.30am: State of confidence but virus is ‘stubborn’

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and his Chief Health Officer, Brett Sutton, have declared they are “confident” the state’s daily coronavirus figures will not exceed 300 or 400 cases a day again under their watch, but warned of “stubborn” transmission in certain settings that may be difficult to completely suppress as Victoria’s numbers drop.

The state’s cases peaked with 725 new cases and a seven-day daily average of 573 cases on Aug­ust 5, as part of a second wave linked to a handful of cases in hotel quarantine.

Sunday saw the state’s daily number of new cases rise above 200 for the first time in three days, with 208 new cases, following on from 182 new cases on Saturday and 179 on Friday.

The overall trend continued downward, with the seven-day daily average falling from 229 on Saturday to 218 on Sunday — the lowest such average since July 14, almost six weeks ago.

“The numbers are bouncing around a little bit, but we’re not going to see 300s and 400s again in Victoria — not under my watch at least,” Professor Sutton said.

Read what else the premier had to say here.

Cliona O’Dowd 02.25am: Retailing will never be the same

The rapid shift to online retail is not going to reverse even after the coronavirus pandemic has passed, according to Redbubble co-founder and chief executive Martin Hosking.

Indeed, the structural changes that were under way even before the lockdowns have accelerated in recent months as more consumers embrace online retail, Mr Hosking said.

“It is easy to think about the last five months as a passing phenomenon. Increasingly, this is not plausible. We all hope that the COVID-19 crisis will come to an end, but when it does, the landscape will be changed.

“Specifically, more consumers that have adopted online shopping will continue to shop in this way. The underlying trend has been accelerated — it has not changed. Bricks and mortar were already struggling. That is not going to reverse,” he told investors after handing down Redbubble’s full-year results, which included a 36 per cent jump in revenue.

Millions of new consumers exposed to online shopping through the crisis will continue to purchase goods that way, even as offline retailers get back up and running, he predicted.

“This is particularly true in the case of Redbubble and TeePublic as the experience and the products we provide do not exist in traditional retail.”

Read the full story here.

Jacquelin Magnay 02.20am: Australia HK embassy bars Kiwi spouse
Spouses of Australians, who have Australian families, have been cruelly separated by the Australian government in the latest crisis surrounding those stranded overseas.

One anxious Australian family living in Hong Kong, has been unable to return to their five children in Brisbane, including to a teenager that has ongoing medical issues and requires support.

While thousands of returning Australians are continually bumped off flights – as many as six times – including business class flights this week because of the strict government caps on the numbers of arrivals – it has emerged that the government has severely restricted the categories of people being allowed into the country.

Spouses of Australians are having to submit scores of papers begging to be allowed into the country to be reunited with their families, but are being rejected.

It appears that those trapped in the latest bureaucratic nightmare are New Zealanders, particularly those who are spouses of Australian citizens.

Candies Sullivan, is a New Zealander and has previously travelled every eight weeks between the family home in Queensland, where her Australian born children are, and her Australian husband who is based in Hong Kong as an airline pilot.

Read the full story here.

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