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As the day unfolded: Victoria records 113 new COVID-19 cases as hotel quarantine inquiry resumes; two Sydney schools close as Australian death toll jumps to 584

Matt Bungard and Roy Ward

Updated August 28, 2020 — 8:04pm,first published August 28, 2020 — 6:42am

Summary

Victoria has recorded 113 new coronavirus cases and 12 deaths on Friday. Premier Daniel Andrews says the average time it takes to receive COVID-19 test results in Victoria is now less than a day.
NSW recorded 13 new cases on Friday and Premier Gladys Berejiklian has asked people to keep up social distancing this weekend with warm weather expected.
Queensland reported three new cases on Friday with all connected to the Queensland Corrective Services Academy.
University of Queensland researchers are looking for older people to join their expanded vaccine trial.

8.04pm on Aug 28, 2020

We are closing the blog for the evening

Thanks for reading. This is Matt Bungard signing off.

This is what you need to know from today:

Australia had 131 new cases today, 113 of which were in Victoria.
The number of new daily cases in Victoria could dip below 100 as soon as the weekend which Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton predicted would provide a psychological boost to the public enduring lockdowns.
The global death toll passed 832,000, and cases have passed the 24.4 million mark.
NSW is set to record double-figure increases in COVID-19 cases in coming days amid growing fears about a cluster in one of Sydney's oldest clubs and new data revealing half of those who have tested positive took three days to self-isolate.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has resigned after a prolonged battle with a chronic illness, declaring he could not give his full attention to the country's coronavirus crisis while fighting the disease.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk insists her health services are acting compassionately following the death of an unborn baby in a NSW hospital.
The inquiry investigating Victoria's hotel quarantine heard on Friday that 70 guards, contracted by MSS Security, were in one conference room and not socially distanced during a shift change-over at the Stamford Plaza.
The Australian death toll rose to 583.

7.51pm on Aug 28, 2020

'Not business as usual': No beach parties for schoolies at Byron and Surfers

By Natassia Chrysanthos

Schoolies celebrations will be without beach parties, concerts or large gatherings of students, as authorities confirm the end-of-year event will look very different at hotspots in the Gold Coast or Byron Bay.

But graduating year 12s are still encouraged to holiday with small groups of friends at the beachside destinations - just don't put on parties and abide by public health guidelines.

Last year’s schoolies event drew more than 18,000 young people to Surfers Paradise.Nathan Richter

While neither Byron Bay nor Gold Coast councils organise official events, young people and event planners have been warned that any parties will be shut down under public health orders.

Byron Bay mayor Simon Richardson confirmed schoolies in the northern NSW tourist town - emerging as the most viable schoolies option for Sydney students due to travel restrictions - would not be serviced with typical amenities this year.

Read the full story here

7.38pm on Aug 28, 2020

New COVID case linked to Queensland Corrective Services cluster

By Lucy Stone

An additional case of coronavirus has been confirmed linked to the Queensland Corrective Services cluster, bringing its total number of cases to five.

A trainer who worked at the Queensland Corrective Services Academy last week tested positive on Wednesday night.

A cluster at the Queensland Corrective Services Academy has grown.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed a further three cases on Friday morning, two on the Gold Coast and one in Forest Lake, and sources confirmed an additional case late on Friday evening.

The two Gold Coast patients, a woman aged 33 and a man aged 37, were recruits at the academy and travelled to work together, Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Martin said.

Authorities believe the pair came into contact with the original case, a trainer in his 60s, in the facility's dining room. The Forest Lake resident might have been infected while attending a training day.

A case confirmed late on Friday night was linked to the cluster but few details about the case were immediately available.

Read the full story here

7.16pm on Aug 28, 2020

'Utterly selfish': Lockdown protest planner arrested, faces $20,000 penalty

By Simone Fox Koob

Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius says police will not tolerate "batshit crazy" anti coronavirus theories and warned people planning on attending protests that their feet "won’t touch the ground" before they are arrested.

Mr Cornelius dismissed protesters on Friday as the "tinfoil hat-wearing brigade" after a Melbourne man was arrested and charged with incitement for allegedly helping to organise an anti-lockdown protest planned for next week.

The protest, scheduled to take place in Melbourne's CBD on September 5, attracted interest from thousands online but the North West Metro region assistant commissioner said police had been monitoring the activity on social media and arrested a man on Friday.

6.55pm on Aug 28, 2020

Single-day case record for Indonesia

By James Massola

Indonesia has reported 3,003 coronavirus infections, a single-day record for Australia’s near-neighbour.

COVID-19 infection rates have been steadily rising, day-on-day for months in Indonesia as the and the national government implemented a limited lockdown which was quickly wound back.

The total number of cases in Indonesia has now risen to 165,887 infections and the total number of suspected cases - people who probably have the virus - has now hit 77,857 people.

The death toll, which is the highest in south-east Asia by a considerable distance, is now 7,169 people after rising by another 105 people on Friday.

The national COVID-19 taskforce reported just 16,649 people had been tested on Thursday.

The capital city of Jakarta, led by Governor Anies Baswedan and home to about 10 million people excluding satellite cities, is the only province that has met the World Health Organisation’s minimum standard of one test per 1000 people.

It reported 869 new cases on Friday, the highest in the country, and has reported 37,082 cases in total, which is also the highest in the country.

According to the Worldometer website, which tracks cases, testing and deaths from the coronavirus in every country, Indonesia ranks 162nd in the world for tests per 1 million people. It has conducted 7,798 tests per 1 million people.

Australia has tested 236,875 people per 1 million people and the states of NSW and Victoria, home to 7.5 million people and 6.3 million people respectively, are both conducting more tests on a daily basis than Indonesia, which is home to 270 million people.

Other near neighbours such as Thailand (10,729 tests per million), Malaysia (37,397 per million), Singapore (312,897 per million) and the Philippines (22,215 tests per million) also far exceed Indonesia’s testing rates.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age recently reported that two of Indonesia’s leading epidemiologists believe the total number of cases in Indonesia may have already passed 1 million people.

The Indonesian government responded by attacking the report as “speculation” that relied “heavily on hearsay and baseless assumptions”.

6.33pm on Aug 28, 2020

Where are Sydney's COVID clusters?

NSW's overall response to COVID-19 has kept the number of total cases low in recent weeks, but several clusters around the state have made themselves visible.

Data journalist Pallavi Singhal has examined all the clusters, how each links with others, and how many total cases can be associated from places such as the Crossroads Hotel or the Thai Rock restaurant in Wetherill Park.

You can see all that information in this graphic:

6.11pm on Aug 28, 2020

Japanese PM Abe resigns

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has resigned, citing a prolonged battle with chronic illness.

Mr Abe once before spoke about having to step down, before medical developments enabled him to continue to do his job for the past eight years without issue.

"In June, I had a regular check-up and there was a sign of the disease," he said on Friday evening.

"Last month ... I was short of health and a resurgence of the ulcerative colitis emerged."

He said he had "pulled out all the stops" to try to continue his job, but that today he was making the decision to stand down.

"I've made a judgment that I should not continue my job as Prime Minister."

5.59pm on Aug 28, 2020

LIVE: Japanese PM expected to resign, provide COVID-19 update

5.09pm on Aug 28, 2020

Opinion: The pandemic is forcing us to rethink the future of cities

By John Kemp

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of densely populated cities, with crowded accommodation and public transportation systems, to the transmission of airborne viruses

Even if an effective vaccine can be deployed, the outbreak is unlikely to be the last, with future epidemics of coronavirus, or other airborne viruses, likely in the next few decades.

Young people have been partying from London to Melbourne - and often try to avoid contact tracing after they are infected with coronavirus.Getty

The novel coronavirus should prompt a deep re-examination of how densely populated and highly connected cities, especially "megacities" such as New York, London and Tokyo, can be re-engineered and made safer in the medium and long-term.

Pandemic planning

5.00pm on Aug 28, 2020

'Poking the bear': young and old debate the divide in wealth and wellbeing

By Orietta Guerrera

The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic crisis have put the future of young Australians in particular in sharp focus

With the pandemic's end date unknown and employment prospects uncertain, remaining optimistic can be challenging.

'Baby boomer' readers were keen to point out that they haven't all had a charmed life.Michele Mossop

In an opinion piece this week, economics editor Ross Gittins outlined how the greatest burden of recessions such as this always falls on the young: entry-level hiring is postponed at such times, young people are likely to miss out on pay rises that are more common in the first decade of one's working life, and the young dominate the ranks of the underemployed.

"If past recessions are any guide, most of us will have recovered from the coronacession and be back enjoying the life we love long before most of the present crop of youngsters leaving education have found themselves a decent job," he wrote.

Click here to read the full column.