Government officials in the United Kingdom are considering introducing a two-week circuit breaker lockdown which could see pubs, restaurants and leisure activities closed for a fortnight to combat a spike in infections.
There are concerns public compliance with COVID rules is slipping due to the rise in coronavirus case numbers.
UK Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer has accused the government of losing control of testing, saying they don’t “necessarily know where the virus is”. Image: AP
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COVID fines an impediment to honest contact tracing answers | Sky News AustraliaVictorian Premier Daniel Andrews says “you don’t need to be a Rhodes scholar” to work out people will not answer contact tracing questions truthfully if they are going to be fined as a consequence.\n\n“Even if they were prepared to pay the fine, they won't want to get other people into trouble,” he said.\n\nReports indicate while Victorian police have issued over 23,000 fines since the beginning of the coronavirus, less than one third have been paid.\n\n“Maybe we would all feel better if those people got a fine, but I think we will feel better again, better still, when we control these outbreaks,' Mr Andrews said. \n\n“On the point of what’s more valuable, a $1652 fine for someone who went to visit someone, or the true fortune that comes from them telling us when they went there, who they spent time with, who we should be going and tracing, testing and locking down, this is not thousands of dollars, that is billions of dollars.' \n\nImage: Getty
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Andrews praises Victorians after drop in COVID cases | Sky News AustraliaPremier Daniel Andrews has praised Victorians for sticking to the tough COVID-19 restrictions, after the state only recorded 14 new cases and five deaths over the past 24 hours.\n\nAccording to Premier Andrews, nine of the new cases are linked to known clusters and the deaths included four people in their eighties and one in their nineties.\n\n“We are, thanks to the hard work of every single Victorian, the vast, vast majority of Victorians who are following the rules, doing the right thing, getting tested as soon as they have symptoms,” Mr Andrews said.\n\n“That's why we're seeing the numbers come down and that's why we will continue to see them come down in accordance with our road map to COVID-normal. \n\n“There will, of course, always be debates about timing and whether we're on schedule, ahead of schedule, all of those things. \n\n“Ultimately, these numbers are cause for great optimism and a positivity, I would hope, right across Metropolitan Melbourne, just as regional Victoria this week has taken two big steps to open up and we're seeing stability in those numbers.”\n\nThere are 94 people currently in hospital in Victoria with Covid-19.\n
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Washington Post labels Daniel Andrews Australia’s ‘COVID dictator’ | Sky News AustraliaThe Washington Post has joined the litany of people and organisations asking why Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is still popular, even jumping on and labelling the embattled state leader a dictator, says Sky News host James Morrow.\n\n“Now one of the wokest papers in the world, they wonder the same question that everyone around the world is wondering; why is he still popular,” Mr Morrow said.\n\nAn article in the Washington Post posed the question why Mr Andrews is still popular even after draconian lockdowns.\n\n“Australia’s coronavirus ‘dictator’ enforces a drastic lockdown. He’s still popular,” the article was headed.\n\nIt comes as the Andrews government is expected to introduce sweeping new powers for public servants giving them the authority if authorised officers with the ability to indefinitely detain Victorians.\n\n“If you want to call somebody a dictator, somebody who empowers their bureaucrats to put you in jail indefinitely, I think that fills the definition of dictator,” Mr Morrow said.
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COVID-19 strategy is 'working': Daniel Andrews | Sky News AustraliaVictorian Premier Daniel Andrews says his government’s strategy is “working” as the state recorded its lowest daily caseload in close to three months.\n\nThe state announced 21 new cases and seven deaths on Saturday.\n\n“Those numbers tell a powerful story of what can be achieved when you stay the course,” Mr Andrews said.\n\n“When you don’t get sidetracked by some of the loudest voices, who I understand are hurting and want to open up, we would all like to open up as quickly as possible, but we won’t be open for very long if we don’t first get these numbers down to a low level.\n\n“And I think I would say to everyone watching and listening right now logic, common sense, international experience, our own experience shows us that you can’t hope to keep numbers low until you first get them low.\n\n“That is just an undeniable fact. \n\n“And if we were to open up far too early some would be pleased, but they would be pleased for a short period of time, because we would simply be closed again not long thereafter.”\n\nThere are currently 834 active cases across the state, with 806 of those in metropolitan Melbourne.
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NSW man dies from COVID-19 as the state records two new cases | Sky News AustraliaPremier Gladys Berejiklian has confirmed a man in his 70s has died from COVID-19 in NSW overnight.\n\n“I want to extend our deepest condolences to a man in his early 70s who unfortunately passed away at Royal North Shore hospital yesterday,” she said on Sunday.\n\n“He got the disease from one of the CBD clusters recently and unfortunately succumbed to the disease.”\n\nMs Berejiklian also confirmed there were two new virus cases recorded in the last 24 hours.
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