As it happened: No new cases for Perth as McGowan challenges Commonwealth

Thank you for joining our live coverage of Perth’s second day of lockdown. We’ll be back tomorrow to provide you with more live updates.

Here are the key points from today:

• WA has recorded no new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday but Premier Mark McGowan flagged the lockdown, or at least some of its measures, would continue beyond Monday.
• There are new exposure sites across WA, including a Caltex Woolworths petrol station, a childcare centre and a restaurant.
• Despite COVID cancelling many ANZAC Day commemorations last year, people have flocked to Melbourne and Sydney events across the city today to mark the day together.

You can read a wrap of the day here.

Every man and his dinosaur was in Rockingham in Perth’s south for WA Premier Mark McGowan’s COVID update on Sunday.

As Mr McGowan was trying to speak with journalists at his daily COVID-19 press conference, the Premier was stopped multiple times by passersby and motorists shouting out expletives in support of the state’s leader.

Despite the stay-at-home orders, about 20-30 people attended the press conference in the Premier’s home suburb, however all did follow the advice to wear masks.

Some even dressed up for the occasion, with one bystander wearing a dinosaur suit next to police officers standing guard for security.

Others gave the Premier a COVID-appropriate ‘elbow-touch’.

The gathered crowd even gave Mr McGowan and WA Health Minister Roger Cook, who was also at the conference, a round of applause.

New Delhi: India’s coronavirus second wave is rapidly sliding into a devastating crisis, with hospitals unbearably full, oxygen supplies running low, desperate people dying in line waiting to see doctors – and mounting evidence that the actual death toll is far higher than officially reported.

For the third consecutive day, the country set a global record of new infections a day, this time 346,786 cases on Saturday. India alone now accounts for almost half of all new cases.

But experts say those numbers, however staggering, represent just a fraction of the real reach of the virus’ spread, which has thrown this country into emergency mode. Millions of people refuse to even step outside – their fear of catching the virus is that extreme. Accounts from around the country tell of the sick being left to gasp for air as they wait at chaotic hospitals that are running out of lifesaving oxygen.

Read more here.

Two more additional COVID exposure sites in WA have been added to the list.

Caltex Woolworths petrol station at Morley Galleria and Woolworths in Bentley Plaza were added on Sunday afternoon following an earlier announcement a childcare in Joondalup was also an exposure site.

A COVID-positive case attended the Caltex on Russell Street on April 21 from 6:30-7:30pm and the Woolworths on Albany Highway the day before from 11:15-12:15pm.

“If you have attended any of the potential exposure locations, get tested immediately,” WA Premier Mark McGowan said.

“Even if you have not visited one of the locations, if you have symptoms get tested and self quarantine until you get your result.

“More locations will likely be added as our contact tracers continue to identify potential exposure locations.”

Melbourne’s glut of empty CBD offices and apartments could be used to revive the inner city’s ailing creative sector, which has left the area in droves over the past 20 years, according to a leading urban designer.

Hodyl and Co managing director Leanne Hodyl, who conducted a built form review of the CBD for the Victorian government, said there was more empty office and student apartment accommodation in the city than there was demand for either.

Office vacancy rates hit 13.2 per cent in March, according to Macquarie.

And more than a year after international borders shut and much of Melbourne’s thriving international student population was forced to abandon the city, apartment vacancies are also high.

A one-bedroom flat in the CBD recently sold for $180,000, 30 per cent less than its owners paid for it 15 years earlier.

Read more here.

A decision will be made on Monday morning whether school children in Perth and Peel will return following the long weekend.

While Western Australia’s Premier Mark McGowan would not say whether schools would be open on Tuesday, he confirmed there would be further lockdown measures to come.

But he did not yet reveal what those rules and regulations could be.

Mr McGowan confirmed that parents and guardians would be advised on Monday morning whether children would be returning to schools in Perth and Peel.

Western Australian Health Minister Roger Cook said the government would not be opening up if there was the potential for a further outbreak.

“We have to be cautious, we are not going to make a move which will elevate the risk to the WA public,” he said.

Mr Cook said he would wait for fresh health advice on Monday morning before making the decision.