Coronavirus: What we know today, July 27
Victoria has recorded 532 new cases overnight – its highest total since the pandemic hit. Follow this post for rolling updates on the impact of the coronavirus in South Australia, the nation and the world.
Photo: AAP/Daniel Pockett
Refresh this page for updates – scroll down for links to official health information.
KEY POINTS
- Victoria posts record number of cases
- Fines for people refusing to wear masks
- Black Lives Matter protester vow to defy court ban
- Global infections pass 16 million, 644,000 deaths
- Spain battles fresh outbreaks after lifting restrictions
Victoria posts worst figures since pandemic began
Victoria has had its worst day of the pandemic, recording 532 new cases overnight.
Premier Daniel Andrews said six more people have died from coronavirus.
He said five of those were connected to outbreaks in aged care.
The figures come 24 hours after Victoria recorded Australia’s highest single daily death toll of 19, with 459 new cases.
The latest deaths take the state toll to 77 and the national figure to 162.
SA man to face court over border breach
A man allegedly driving a car with blacked-out number plates has been charged with breaching COVID-19 restrictions after crossing from NSW to South Australia.
The car was on the wrong side of the Barrier Highway when it sped through the Oodla Wirra on the SA border checkpoint about 7.15pm on Friday, police said.
The car was later found abandoned in bushes off a dirt road and a 30-year-old man from Elizabeth Downs was arrested nearby.
Police say the non-essential worker was required to quarantine at Elizabeth Park and charged with multiple offences, including failing to comply with quarantine under the Emergency Management Act, drug and traffic offences.
He was refused police bail and will appear before the Port Pirie Magistrates Court on Monday.
South Australia recorded no new cases today, leaving only two active cases in the state.
NSW cases rise
NSW residents are being urged to remain on high alert and monitor their health after 17 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed across the state.
The new cases were diagnosed in the 24 hours to 8.00pm on Sunday from 22,032 tests, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 3,496.
Non-mask wearers called out
Victorian police on Sunday said they had issued 20 $200 for failing to wear a mask, including to a man and a woman who refused to give police details when they were stopped.
Videos released on social media of a woman challenging Bunnings workers who asked her to wear a mask to enter a store, and calling out a post office worker have also sparked outrage.
Stores like Bunnings operate on private property and have a right to make requests of customers, including that they wear masks.
The woman in question told the Bunnings worker she was being discriminated against and the request was against the law and her human rights.
Anti-racism protesters vow to defy court ban
A Sydney Black Lives Matters rally is now a prohibited public assembly, opening up demonstrators to arrest and fines for breaching coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings.
In a rare Sunday decision, the NSW Supreme Court sided with police that the risk of community transmission in Sydney made Tuesday’s planned event for about 1000 too risky.
Justice Mark Ierace acknowledged there was no evidence a far-larger rally on June 6 – attended by at least 10,000 – had resulted in any transmission of the virus.
But the expert health evidence had since been elevated to “medium” due to multiple clusters in Sydney and the resurgence of the virus in Victoria, he said.
“That current assessment of the level of risk, in spite of relatively low numbers of community transmission, is consistent with NSW presently being on the knife-edge of a further escalation in community transmission,” Justice Ierace said, in written reasons.
He found the protest’s lunchtime CBD location “particularly concerning” as large numbers of pedestrians not associated with the protest would move through the area and would not be leaving contact details.
Organisers have nevertheless promised to risk arrest and rally as planned on Tuesday.
Infections pass 16 million
More than 16.13 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus globally and 644,836 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
Infections have been reported in more than 210 countries and territories since the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
The United States, Brazil and India have reported the highest number of cases followed by Russia, South Africa and Mexico.
Spain reacts to fresh outbreaks
Outbreaks in the northeast region of Catalonia have prompting authorities to tighten restrictions that were relaxed only a month ago.
Catalonia ordered all nightlife venues to close for 15 days and applied a midnight curfew on bars in and around Barcelona and Lleida late on Friday, hours after French Prime Minister Jean Castex urged French citizens not to visit Catalonia due to the upticks in new infections.
Local mayors said the shutdown should have been ordered days earlier.
Spain reported over 900 new daily infections on Thursday and Friday as authorities warned that the country which lost at least 28,400 lives before getting its outbreak under control could be facing the start of a second major onslaught.
OFFICIAL SOURCES OF ADVICE AND INFORMATION
Local updates and resources
State Government central information
Mental health support line (8am to 8pm): 1800 632 753.
National advice and information
Australian Government Coronavirus information hotline: 1800 020 080
Government information via WhatsApp: click here
Travel
Australian Government travel advice: smartraveller.gov.au
Check your symptoms
Free, government-funded, health advice: healthdirect.gov.au
– Reporting by InDaily staff, AAP and Reuters
