UK minister tests positive as deaths outside China pass 1,000– as it happened

We are turning off this blog now. Thanks for reading. All of the latest updates will be covered on our new live blog, which you can find here.

And before we leave that Australian press conference, one final word from the chief medical officer, professor Brendan Murphy, on the policy of not-testing for coronavirus people who are a) not symptomatic and b) haven’t recently returned from overseas or been in contact with a confirmed or suspected case.

Murphy said:

We’re not testing people without symptoms at the moment. There is no value in testing people without symptoms. Currently, our approach is testing — and that’s the international approach — is testing people who have respiratory symptoms and who have been a returned traveller or who are a contact.

Murphy said the focus in Australia was building testing capacity so there can be a same-day turnaround on testing results.

He said the reason there is “no value” in testing people who are asymptomatic is that a negative test result does not mean that a person is not incubating the virus. So before a person is symptomatic the test can return, essentially, a false negative.

The Australian government is expected to announce a stimulus package on Thursday to bolster an economy that has taken a battering over the coronavirus. It’s expected to include details of financial support for casual and low-paid workers who may not have good sick leave provisions, to support people who are asked to go into self isolation.

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, was asked about comments from the NSW business council suggesting employers should not pay sick leave unless their employees are actually sick — so not if they are asked to go into precautionary isolation.

Morrison said he would encourage workers to be “flexible”.

Where people are in a position where they have to isolate, either have an obligation to or otherwise, I’d be encouraging employees to take a flexibility and forward-leaning approach in supporting their employees during this process....

Businesses, particularly large businesses, you know, they will be watched closely, I think, through the months ahead. You know, businesses spend a lot of time talking about the value and integrity of their brands. Well, their brands will be defined in these months ahead.

He said the stimulus package to be announced tomorrow would be “well-balanced,” and that the crisis would have “a finite impact on the economy.” So there is a need for the response to be “proportionate”. Interpret that as you will.

The Australian health minister, Greg Hunt, acknowledged that some comments he made on Sunday — reported without context — sparked confusion about the need for everyone in Australia with cold and/or flu like symptoms to get tested for coronavirus.

Hunt:

So it’s a message to all of us to make sure that we’re reporting carefully and fully, but equally for us, we’ve already begun our communications in terms of what we’re providing online and the advice.

Hunt said more than 20,000 people have been tested in Australia so far.

So to recap on the substance of that funding announcement in Australia this morning:

• $615m for primary care health networks, to cover costs of treatment, diagnosis and testing
• A new Medicare telehealth item, so people in home isolation can be treated via telehealth. Health minister Greg Hunt said that will also mean that particularly vulnerable groups, like people with compromised immunity, do not have to come into hospital or a GP.
• $200m to establish 100 respiratory clinics across the country.
• $100m for workforce support for aged care.
• $30m for research into vaccines, anti-virals, immunotherapy, or respiratory treatments
• $1m in funding for the national medical stockpiling and national coordination.

More details on that package from Guardian Australia’s chief political correspondent Sarah Martin, here:

That’s all from me for now. My colleague, Calla Wahlquist, is now taking over the live blog.

• A health minister in the UK government was confirmed as having been infected with the virus, the Department of Health and Social Care said. Nadine Dorries,. who has interacted with the prime minister and other members of the executive and legislature in recent days, reportedly started feeling ill while working on Whitehall’s response to the virus’s threat.
• A further nine cases were confirmed in Wales, taking the number there to 15. The announcement from the chief medical officer for Wales, Dr Frank Atherton, meant that the total number of UK cases jumped to 382 people.
• A multi-billion Euro funding package in the fight against the virus was announced by the EU. The bloc pledged money to fund researchers seeking a vaccine, as well as to allow member states greater flexibility on providing subsidies to companies and invest €25bn (£21.5bn) in parts of the European economy worst hit by the epidemic, among other measures.
• Coachella and Stagecoach festivals were postponed. Organisers said the former would now take place on the weekends commencing 9 and 16 October, while the latter would go ahead the following weekend.

You can read a summary of the day’s earlier events here.

Australia’s chief medical officer, professor Brendan Murphy, is urging people who have not recently been overseas not to seek testing for coronavirus, saying they are putting “a burden on the system.”

Murphy says:

We have seen over recent days a number of people seeking testing who don’t need it. It’s clear that there is some anxiety in the community with over 100 cases, but I say — as I have said on many occasions — a couple of things: Most of these cases are related to imports from overseas. There is only one element of significant community transmission and that’s small and controlled in Sydney.

There is no point being tested at the moment if you have not travelled or if you’ve not been in contact - even if you have flu-like illnesses. We are not saying to people who get acute respiratory symptoms, a cold or a flu, to go and get tested for COVID-19. We are saying that if you’ve come back from overseas, if you’re a returned traveller or you’ve been in contact with someone who has been a confirmed case, then you should be tested.

But other Australians do not need testing and all they’re doing is putting an unnecessary burden on the testing.

The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has told reporters in Canberra that Australia has extended its travel ban to Italy, placing it under the same restrictions that remain in place against travellers from China, Iran, and South Korea. Those travel restrictions mean that citizens or permanent residents returning from those countries have to self-isolate for 14 days, and non-citizens or permanent residents can’t enter Australia unless they’ve been somewere

Morrison also announced $2.4bn in additional health funding to respond to the coronavirus.

Health minister Greg Hunt says the funding includes a $615m for primary care systems, which is focused on “expanding the capacity of people to have treatment, diagnosis and testing.”

The Australian government is also standing up a telehealth service to support coronavirus patients who are under home isolation, and $200m to stand up specialist respiratory clinics.

10 Mar 202019.30 EDT

Ben Butler

Australian market slumps

Australia’s market has fallen on open, defying the lead set by a rally on US markets inspired by president Donald Trump’s promise of significant economic stimulus to combat the coronavirus crisis.

The benchmark ASX200 index fell 0.59% shortly after trade opened on Wednesday morning.

Overnight, Australian time, US markets were up around 5% but the London exchange’s FTSE index recorded a small fall of 0.1%.

Australians are now waiting for details of a local stimulus package, which prime minister Scott Morrison is expected to reveal on Thursday.

Earlier on Wednesday morning, Australia’s biggest bank, the Commonwealth Bank, announced it would be cutting small business loan rates by 0.25 percentage points, matching rivals Westpac and NAB.

The cut is part of a series of measures designed to help customers hit by the outbreak that also including waiving fees for small businesses and allowing them to put off loan repayments for three months.

It said it would also try to pay more of its small and medium-sized suppliers immediately. The bank says currently two-thirds of suppliers get paid straight away and it wants to move the rest to immediate payment terms when practical.

Two major music festivals in the US have been postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak, organisers have said.

Coachella had been set to take place over two weekends in the California desert next month, with Rage Against The Machine, Travis Scott and Frank Ocean headlining.

However, its organiser Goldenvoice has now confirmed the festival’s postponement until October; citing advice from local health authorities. Stagecoach, the country music festival from the same organisers as Coachella, has also been pushed back from April to October.

My colleague, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, has all the details:

10 Mar 202019.25 EDT

Calla Wahlquist

In Australia, Victoria stands up disaster response centre

In Australia, Victoria has stood up the state control centre — most recently used during the devastating bushfires — to manage its coronavirus response.

The number of people who have tested positive to the virus in Victoria has risen to 21 and in New South Wales it has risen by six to 61. The number of cases in Australia topped 100 yesterday.

In a statement, the premier Daniel Andrews said: “The likely COVID-19 pandemic will have significant impacts across our economy and across our state, including schools, businesses, and places of mass gatherings, such as sporting and cultural events.”

The state control centre will be used to coordinate the response between state and federal health authorities, and manage the output of public information.

Victoria has also set up seven screening clinics for people who believe they may have coronavirus: Royal Melbourne Hospital, Alfred Hospital, Austin Hospital, Box Hill Hospital, Monash Clayton, Northern Hospital and Sunshine Hospital.

Those clinics screened 1,039 people on Tuesday and the state coronavirus hotline fielded 14,500 calls. The number of confirmed cases in Victoria jumped by three overnight to 21. Two schools — Carey Baptist Grammar School and Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah College, both in Melbourne — have been closed after teachers tested positive.

Authorities are trying to trace 45 people who came into contact with a teacher at Yeshivah-Beth Rivkah College, anyone who may have been on a flight from San Francisco to Melbourne on which another woman later tested positive to Covid-19.

They are also trying to trace people who may have come into contact with the third person to test positive overnight. That man went to a jazz festival in the South Melbourne markets on 7 March and a rugby union on the same day.

Here’s a little more reaction from Nadine Dorries to the news of her diagnosis:

In the USA, recommendations aimed at stopping the virus’s spread are due to be unveiled in the four hardest-hit states soon, the vice president Mike Pence has promised. He’s told reporters:

In the next 24 hours, we will be working with not only Washington state, but California, with New York and Florida and unveiling our recommendations.

Here’s some more detail on the Dorries news from one of the journalists who broke the story:

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has tweeted this response to the news:

And here, via the Daily Mirror, is a statement from Dorries:

10 Mar 202018.41 EDT

UK government minister tests positive

Peter Walker

The Department of Health and Social Care has now confirmed that Nadine Dorries, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire and a junior health minister, has contracted coronavirus. A spokeswoman confirmed reports, first made in the Times, that Dorries was being treated for the illness and said a fuller statement would be released out soon.

In the UK, a health minister is reportedly in isolation after testing positive for coronavirus.

According to the Times, Nadine Dorries, a parliamentary under secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Care, fell ill last Friday and her diagnosis was confirmed on Tuesday.

The paper’s reporting that Dorries has “met hundreds of people in parliament in the past week and attended a reception at No 10 with Boris Johnson”. She is said to be recovering. This is the first case of an MP testing positive and the news comes amid discussions over whether parliament should be temporarily shut down.

Turkey has confirmed its first case, its health minister Fahrettin Koca has said. According to Reuters, he said the patient has been isolated and their relatives are under observation.

Google is recommending that all of its North American staff work from home, according to Business Insider, which reports:

On Tuesday, the Silicon Valley-based search giant sent out a memo to its workforce informing that it was now changing its policies to recommend all workers who are able to work remotely do so until at least 10 April, sources familiar with the matter said. A Google spokesperson confirmed the order via email.