The news from Australia is still unfolding with a daily dose of highs and lows. Yesterday NSW recorded no new COVID-19 cases for the first time since February 29. The same result was reported in Queensland. This evening the national toll of reported cases is sitting at 6980. These numbers surpass even the most optimistic of forecasts published less than two months ago.
Incredibly,
the nation’s COVID-19 death toll currently sits at 98. It had been stable with one
less victim for almost a week. Sadly, another
passenger from the deadly Ruby Princess cruise ship pass away overnight. Elsewhere, health care officials are battling persistent
coronavirus clusters in northwest Tasmania, a Sydney nursing home and a
Melbourne abattoir.
This week Australia
begins its first tentative steps towards winding back its lockdown
restrictions. The Government has announced
a three-step plan for putting us back on the road to
recovery. While individual states will determine their own timeline through
each step, their collective goal is to have all steps in place nation-wide by
mid-July.
Step 1 will
focus on carefully reopening the economy, and giving Australians opportunities
to return to work and social activities. This includes gatherings of up to 10
people, up to 5 visitors in the family home and some local and regional travel.
NSW and the city of Sydney are preparing to unwind its first tranche of stage one
restrictions on Friday. For example, several major retail chains are reopening
and restaurants can offer seating for up to ten diners.
Step 2
builds on step 1 with gatherings of up to 20. More businesses will be permitted
to reopen including gyms, beauty services and entertainment venues such as galleries and cinemas.
The final
step will see a transition to COVID safe ways of living and working, with
gatherings of up to 100 people. Arrangements under step 3 will be the ‘new
normal’ while the virus remains a threat. However, international travel and
mass gatherings over 100 people will remain restricted until further notice.
Chief
Medical Officer Brendan Murphy told a senate inquiry today that it’s
"inevitable" Australia will have more coronavirus outbreaks as
restrictions on movement ease, but the health system is well prepared. However,
with two-thirds of COVID-19 cases in Australia acquired overseas, he believes,
international borders will have to remain closed. Some commentators suggest it’ll be sometime in 2021 before
Australian are free to travel overseas again.
The new
normal still looks rather terrifying. The Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s largest
bank, has released modelling showing house prices could fall by almost a third
by the end of 2022 under a prolonged economic slump, as it braces for a sharp
rise in soured loans caused by the coronavirus.
Tomorrow the
Australian Bureau of Statistics will release its April employment report. All
expectations are for the largest ever increase in the number of people out of
work. The jobless rate is likely to soar through 7 per cent or higher.
Analysts are
tipping anywhere between 400,000 and 650,000 people to have become unemployed
in a single month. The previous monthly record, of 65,400 jobs lost in October
1982 during that year's deep recession, will be dwarfed by the April result.
The
Government is also facing the largest budget deficit in Australian fiscal
history. Deloitte Access Economics predicts it could reach $143 billion this
year and $131.6 billion in 2020-21 as the economy slumps due to measures aimed
at stopping the pandemic's spread. The
hard work has only just begun.
UPDATE: 15 April
Australia has suffered its single largest monthly fall in the number of people holding a job, with a record 594,000 drop in the number of workers during April.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday showed the unemployment rate spiking a full percentage point to 6.2 per cent last month.
UPDATE: 15 April
Australia has suffered its single largest monthly fall in the number of people holding a job, with a record 594,000 drop in the number of workers during April.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday showed the unemployment rate spiking a full percentage point to 6.2 per cent last month.
The number of officially unemployed people jumped by 104,500 to more than 823,300. The previous largest increase in unemployment in a single month was 65,400 in October 1982 during that year's recession. The jobless rate peaked at 10.5 per cent the following year.
It's the largest number of people out of work since September 1994. The bureau only started measuring the jobs market on a monthly basis in 1978.
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