Coronavirus latest: Australia’s Victoria imposes US$3,559 curfew fines; eighth death in Vietnam

Australia’s second-most populous state Victoria said on Tuesday military personnel will be deployed to enforce Covid-19 isolation orders, with anyone caught in breach of those rules facing tough new fines.

Victoria earlier this week imposed a night curfew, tightened restrictions on people’s daily movements and ordered large parts of the local economy to close to slow the spread of coronavirus.

But nearly a third of those who had contracted Covid-19 were not home isolating when checked on by officials, requiring tough new penalties, Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday.

Andrews said 500 military personnel will this week deploy to Victoria to bolster enforcement of self-isolation orders, with fines of nearly A$5,000 (US$3,559) for breaching stay at home orders. The only exemption will be for urgent medical care. Repeat offenders face a fine of up to A$20,000.

“There is literally no reason for you to leave your home and if you were to leave your home and not be found there, you will have a very difficult time convincing Victoria police that you have a lawful reason,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

The latest military deployment will join about 1,500 troops already in Victoria and engaged in contact tracing, testing and assisting police at check points. Australia has deployed almost 3,000 troops to help in virus logistical operations.

Victoria on Tuesday reported 439 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours. Andrews said 11 people had died from the virus since Monday. In total, Australia has recorded nearly 19,000 infections and 232 fatalities, far few than many other developed nations.

Victoria state officials said the latest wave of Covid-19 infections has been driven by residents refusing to adhere to restrictions on their movements.

“There are a number of people who have knowingly breached the curfew – so somebody who decided they were bored and they were going to go out for a drive, somebody who decided that they needed to buy a car after 8pm last night,” Victoria Minister for Police Lisa Neville told reporters in Melbourne.

Meanwhile, Victoria’s spiralling Covid-19 outbreak and the closure of large tracts of the southeastern state’s economy is likely to prolong Australia’s first recession in almost three decades.

A curfew in Melbourne and tight limits on construction for six weeks are set to result in another quarterly contraction in gross domestic product, said Terry Rawnsley at consultancy SGS Economics & Planning.

The economy contracted 0.3 per cent in the first quarter, likely declined about 7 per cent in the second and probably 4-5 per cent in the third, said Rawnsley, one of the foremost economists on Australia’s regions. “This has sort of confirmed that we’re going to have three consecutive quarters of decline in GDP,” he said. “It’s a pretty grim run of economic news.”

State of disaster and curfew declared in Australia’s virus-hit Victoria

The outbreak in Victoria, which accounts for almost a quarter of Australia’s GDP, threatens to overwhelm a recovery in other parts of the country. The effective isolation of the state and sporadic outbreaks in neighbouring New South Wales are likely to start eroding confidence in the rest of Australia, which had been in the vanguard of nations enjoying early success in flattening the curve of new infections.

Capital Economics reckons Victoria’s new measures will cut Australia’s third-quarter GDP by about 1.5 per cent, or double the Treasury’s 0.75 percentage point reduction forecast in the economic and fiscal update released just under two weeks ago.

“Output could fall even further if the surge in cases in Victoria isn’t brought under control by the end of the third quarter or if other states experience a similar spike in cases and need to reimpose restrictions on activity,” said Marcel Thieliant, senior economist for Australia at Capital Economics. On his current estimates, the national economy will expand “a measly 0.5 per cent” in the third quarter.

Indigenous residents forced the closure of Australia’s famed Uluru national park on Tuesday, after blocking tourists from accessing the sacred site amid fears over the spread of coronavirus.

About 30 members of the local community physically blocked dozens of tourists arriving from virus-hit eastern Australia from accessing the park entrance, said Glenn Irvine, manager of Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation, which handles local community issues.

Elsewhere, Vietnam confirmed its eighth coronavirus death, according to the health ministry.

The 65-year-old man died from Covid-19, kidney failure and other health problems. The patient, who had been released from Da Nang Hospital on July 24 after five months of treatment for kidney disease, tested positive for coronavirus on July 28.

Earlier, a 62-year-old woman died from Covid-19 and kidney failure. The patient was being treated at Da Nang Hospital from July 18 to July 27 and tested positive for the coronavirus on July 26 before being transferred to a hospital in Hue city.

A number of other virus patients are at high risk of death due to existing health problems, advanced age, health ministry’s publication Suc Khoe Doi Song cited deputy health minister Nguyen Truong Son.

Virus-free for 99 days, Vietnam’s fresh outbreak stirs fear and anxiety

Vietnamese authorities also issued a stay-at-home order for Bien Hoa, the capital city of Dong Nai province bordering the nation’s commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City, the nation’s fourth municipality to undergo such a home lockdown.

The restrictions do not apply to local businesses and production facilities, the provincial government said on its website.

People caught not wearing a face mask in public in Ho Chi Minh City will be subject to fines from Wednesday, state media reported. Police officers will be responsible for carrying out patrols and handing out fines of up to the equivalent of US$13. Vietnam has had 652 coronavirus infections, including 271 cases under treatment. The capital Hanoi said on Tuesday it was running short of the rapid testing kits being used to keep a new outbreak at bay.

In the Philippines, more than 27 million people on the main island of Luzon, including the capital Manila, went back into a partial lockdown for weeks from Tuesday.

People have been told to stay home unless they need to go out to buy essential goods, for exercise or for work after the number of recorded infections surged past 100,000.

With only 24 hours’ notice of the shutdown, many found themselves stranded in Manila and unable to get back to their home towns after public transport and domestic flights were halted.

“We’ve run out of money. We can’t leave the airport because we don’t have any relatives here,” said Ruel Damaso, a 36-year-old construction worker trying to return to the southern city of Zamboanga.

“We will have to stay here for two weeks until we get our flights back.”

The Philippines saw another record spike in new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday to take its total to 112,593 cases, closing in on Indonesia which currently has the largest known virus outbreak in Southeast Asia.

Manila reported 6,352 new infections nationwide to take the total just behind Indonesia’s 113,134 cases as of Monday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Philippine government said on Tuesday that it had begun clinical trials for Japanese anti-flu drug Avigan to see whether it would be effective in treating Covid-19.

Amit Shah has Covid-19 – and little sympathy from social media

Also on Tuesday, India’s daily confirmed coronavirus infections topped 50,000 for a seventh straight day.

The 52,050 new positive cases recorded in the past 24 hours took the national total to 1,855,745, according to the Health Ministry database. The ministry also reported 803 new deaths, taking total fatalities up to 38,938.

Several political leaders have either tested positive for the coronavirus or gone into quarantine over the last few days.

Since Sunday, India’s powerful home minister Amit Shah and the chiefs of two big states have been hospitalised with Covid-19. On Monday, Tripura state’s chief minister and India’s law and justice minister also went into isolation.

South Korea recorded 34 additional cases, as the number of local infections bounced back above 10. The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said 13 of the new cases were people infected domestically while the other 21 came from overseas. Health authorities have said imported cases are less threatening as they enforce two-week quarantines on all people arriving from abroad. The additional figures announced on Tuesday brought the national tally to 14,423 cases with 301 deaths.

Additional reporting by Bloomberg, Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, Kyodo