NSW recorded 239 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours to 8:00pm yesterday. It’s the highest daily number of new infections ever recorded in NSW since the pandemic began.
Nearly 111,000 tests were completed in the reporting period.
There was also a new COVID-19 death recorded. A man in his 80s from south west Sydney died yesterday afternoon at Royal North Shore Hospital.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she feared “things are likely to get worse before they get better,” given the high number of new infections.
The Premier has introduced new restrictions in eight local government areas (LGAs) where the spread of COVID-19 is most pronounced.
From 12:01am tomorrow, residents in Georges River, Parramatta, Blacktown, Cumberland, Canterbury-Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool and Campbelltown must:
Wear a mask whenever they leave their homes, regardless of proximity to others
Not travel more than 5km from home for shopping, unless the goods are not available in their local area
Not travel more than 5km from their home to exercise or take part in a “singles bubble”
The new rules are due to a continuing rate of transmission in workplaces, homes and health care settings, the Premier said.
Police Commissioner Mick Fuller sought extra powers for police to ensure compliance in the eight LGA’s, and says thousands of extra police will be out to enforce the new rules.
Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.
“We know that the numbers are too high today. We all want to come out of lockdown. These new powers, the additional police into these areas, is about getting us out of lockdown sooner,” he said.
Chief health officer Kerry Chant issued a dire warning, as the situation in NSW deteriorates.
“At this level of cases, we are going to continue to see further deaths. And, sadly, too many elderly people in our communities are not protected,” she said.
Australia’s peak multicultural organisation, the Federation of Ethnic Communities’ Council of Australia (FECCA), welcomes Federal Government proposed legislation that will increase protections for migrant workers.
The Bill penalises and bans employers for a period if they are found to have violated the rights of migrant workers.
FECCA Chairperson, Mary Patetsos, said the Migration Amendment (Protecting Migrant Workers) Bill 2021 would reduce the probability of workers entering into work arrangements against their will or under exploitative conditions.
Wage theft and other coercive practices committed by employers who prey on one of the most vulnerable groups in Australia must be stopped and perpetrators penalised accordingly, as outlined by the Minister for Immigration the Hon. Alex Hawke MP.
Alex Hawke MP announced the proposed legislation on Tuesday.
“Circumstance pushes many migrant workers into jobs where they are underpaid and often at the mercy of the employer,” Ms Patetsos said.
“Employers will now have a duty of care towards workers from overseas – something woefully absent today in many businesses.”
Ms Patetsos said the Bill restores the dignity of employees from overseas and recognises their huge contribution to keeping key sectors of the Australian economy vibrant.
Mary Patetsos.
“It’s also important to acknowledge that most businesses are doing the right thing by their workers, and these proposed changes will give them confidence and will restore the reputation of those sectors who heavily rely on hard working migrant workers,” she said.
Ms Patetsos expressed her hopes that the Bill will be accompanied by an effective engagement and communications strategy and protections for affected workers.
“Many migrant workers are not aware of the Fair Work Ombudsman and its role. It’s critical that newly arrived migrant workers are made aware of their rights and that they will not lose their place in Australia if they stand up for these rights.” she said.
“FECCA will work with the Government toward ensuring the safety of all migrant workers.”
King Abdullah II of Jordan was meeting on Wednesday in Athens with the leaders of Greece and Cyprus as part of regular high-level contacts launched between the three Mediterranean countries in 2018.
Greece is seeking to expand its economic and military cooperation with countries in the region, wary of ongoing rivalry with neighboring Turkey over mineral rights in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
“Today’s summit reflects our countries’ commitment to promoting peace, stability and prosperity in the wider region. It will give us the opportunity to pave the way for a faster coordination of our actions for the benefit of our peoples and for the benefit of the wider region,” Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said in his introductory speech at the tripartite summit at the Zappeion Mansion.
Had the pleasure to meet with H.M. @KingAbdullahII, who is in Athens to participate in today’s Trilateral Summit between Greece, Cyprus and Jordan. We had the opportunity to discuss regional developments as well as the many opportunities for enhancing our bilateral relations. pic.twitter.com/hujWI7MD2A
— Prime Minister GR (@PrimeministerGR) July 28, 2021
The Prime Minister noted that progress has been made since the first summit in 2018 as the three countries have expanded and deepened their cooperation in a wide range of areas. He stressed that the three countries are determined to expand their partnership, strengthen their cooperation and further promote their coordination on political and economic issues, but also in the field of security.
“Our partnership has never lost its momentum, not even during the Covid pandemic. We managed to maintain our cooperation active and to create a series of working groups,” he underlined.
“In light of the unprecedented challenges and the enormous impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the social, economic and health systems, we firmly believe that we need to further accelerate our coordination and promote even more synergies in areas of common interest in order to maintain the dynamics and to strengthen this very successful cooperation.”
Mitsotakis and Greek Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, at the summit.
Mitsotakis added that they will discuss a number of issues, including EU-Jordan relations, but also how Greece and Cyprus can contribute to their further strengthening.
“We will also have the opportunity to discuss extensively regional issues of common interest, such as the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya and Syria, the Middle East in general,” he added.
“As far as the Cyprus issue is concerned, we will have the opportunity to discuss the recent unacceptable developments which are contrary to the Security Council resolutions, and in the light of the very important Presidential Statement of the Security Council of 23 July.”
King Abdullah II of Jordan at the summit.
King Abdullah, in opening remarks ahead of the talks Mitsotakis and President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus, said: “We look forward to seeing how we as three countries could tap into many opportunities, whether it’s trade, food security, tourism, energy, agriculture, water, the environment, health care and investment.”
In his opening remarks, President Anastasiades said: “I have no doubt that we will once again generate our joint commitment to work together in order to achieve our common goals of promoting peace, stability, security and prosperity in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East. As we also share the same commitment to counter the common threats of terrorism and violent extremism, we all agree in enhancing our cooperation, including through the key platform, the Aqaba Process, that Your Majesty established.”
Wednesday’s meeting was delayed by 15 months due to the pandemic.
Villages in the northeastern Peloponnese have been evacuated following the fire that broke out in the area early on Wednesday.
The fire continued to rage by early evening.
The Fire Service ordered the evacuation of the villages of Drosia and Pteri, both in Achea, as a precautionary measure.
Fires are burning on the outskirts of Patras.
Residents in two other settlements, Trivoga and Christopouleika, have been told to be ready to evacuate their homes if necessary.
Thirty-fire engines with a 95-member crew, three ground teams, six firefighting aircraft, including a Beriev-200, and two water-dropping helicopters are attending the blaze.
In the same prefecture, firefighters have also ordered the evacuation of the Souli and Ryaki settlements near the village of Elekistra, on the outskirts of Patras.
The Elekistra blaze, which is in a commercial forest, is being attended by 35 firefighters in 16 tenders as well as four aircraft and five helicopters.
A Roma camp in Riganokampos has also been evacuated, while police have closed the Patras ring road.
Greek tennis stars, Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas, will advance to the mixed doubles quarterfinals at the Tokyo Olympics after a win against the Canadian duo, Gabriella Dabrowski and Felix Auger Aliassime, on Wednesday.
On paper, the Canadians kept pace with the Greeks throughout the match. Both teams made 14 unforced errors while the Canadians never double-faulted, had two service winners, and had the edge on first serve.
But ultimately the Greek pair came out on top with a score of 6-3 6-4.
Συγχαρητήρια στον Στέφανο Τσιτσιπά και τη Μαρία Σάκκαρη που νίκησαν 2-0 τον Καναδά και πέρασαν από τον πρώτο γύρο στο μικτό διπλό.Ειδική αναφορά πρέπει να γίνει στον Στέφανο ο οποίος λίγο νωρίτερα είχε αγωνιστεί και στο μονό δίνοντας σκληρό αγώνα κάτω από αφόρητη ζέστη #Tokyo2020pic.twitter.com/xitUN1IZSD
— Ηellenic Olympic Committee (@HellenicOlympic) July 28, 2021
The win was a proud moment for both Sakkari and Tsitsipas, after both were knocked out of their singles competition.
Tsitsipas had just lost a singles match to Ugo Humbert of France earlier in the day, where he sustained an ankle injury.
The high-profile Greek pair will now play the Australian mixed doubles pair, Ashleigh Barty and long-time friend, John Peers, who won their match against Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska and Horacio Zeballos last night 6-1, 7-6 (7-3).
‘I’ve always thought of life as being one long learning curve,” Gillian Bouras shares with me.
“Migration is a two-edged sword: loss and gain, so much more and so much less than we expect.”
Gillian Bouras is the award-winning Australian writer of eight books and several internationally-published articles who has called the Peloponnese ‘home’ for over 40 years. She is of Irish, Scottish, and English descent and was born in Melbourne in 1945.
There’s one word to encapsulate Bouras’ body of accomplished books. It happens to be the first, blaring word that pops up when you search her name: ‘expatriate’.
Gillian Bouras unexpectedly moved to the earthquake-prone coastal city of Kalamata with her husband George and two sons in 1980. The pair married in 1969 but an intended six-week holiday to Greece six years later marked the beginning and end for Bouras.
“Life became divided into before and after,” she says.
She left her life as an English school teacher after her husband George found a job while on the holiday.
George lived in Melbourne for 15 years prior but was “always homesick for Greece”, Bouras tells me.
“I can’t believe he was ever [in Melbourne],” she says.
Gillian admits she moved to Kalamata with “every advantage” but describes it as a “very gruelling experience.”
“I had not travelled anywhere outside of Australia at that point, and I was immediately struck by the poverty I saw,” she says.
She says she was confronted the “modest” lifestyles of the locals, disapproving attitudes towards women, widespread illiteracy, and the issue of the power of the church.
“There have been so many changes since then, of course,” she says.
Gillian published these early findings of life in a foreign country in A Foreign Wife in 1986.
It marked her literary debut, which Bouras counts among many of her regrets.
“…[I’ve] since been at a disadvantage in being separated from my Australian readership: I’m not in the country to give talks, put myself about, and so on,” she says.
Bouras goes on to say that “the tyranny of distance” between her and her eldest son, who returned to Melbourne twenty years ago, has also led to regret.
Bouras’ family is integral to her body of work.
Bouras’ matriarchal mother-in-law Aphrodite became the subject of her 1994 book Aphrodite and the Others. The book won the New South Wales Premier’s Award the same year and was shortlisted for the United Kingdom’s Fawcett Book Prize the year after.
“[Greek women like Aphrodite] taught that life can be lived well, no matter on what scale and in what circumstances,” Bouras writes in a Madonna Magazine article.
“She was a Greek village woman, illiterate, and irrevocably attached to her tradition way of life,” Bouras writes in The Courage of Fatih.
Gillian went on to explore the trauma over the suicide of her sister in the 2006 book No Time for Dances: A Memoir of my Sister.
On her experience writing No Time for Dances, Gillian says: “There may not be blood, but there [was] plenty of toil, sweat and tears. It [was] painful, and there [needed] to be an awareness of the staying power that will be needed.”
“Some people wished me well with No Time for Dances, but said they would never read it. But most writers who tackle sensitive issues are driven to do so: I certainly was.”
The book was shortlisted for the State Library of New South Wales’ National Biography Award in 2007.
Gillian Bouras has committed her literary career to capturing her experiences as an Australian migrant in Greece and, through these experiences, the essence of Greek family, life and culture. It prompted the National Library of Australia (NLA) to preserve an archive of Bouras’ work.
“This development [from the NLA] was a kind of affirmation, an acknowledgement that at least some people thought my writing was worth saving,” she says.
Through and through, Bouras is a Philhellene caught between two worlds.
“An expat always retains an attachment to their native land.”
She marked a departure from her non-fiction works with two children’s books in the early noughties, Saving Christmas in 2000 and Aphrodite Alexandra in 2007, but Bouras confesses that “fiction-writing is just about the hardest indoor sport”.
Today, Gillian Bouras contributes to Eureka Street, writes blogs on her website gillianbouras.com, frequently comments on Australian politics and society on her Twitter account @GillianBouras, and watches her five grandchildren grow up.
Food truck owners Angeliki Paxinos and Gabriel Kontelos were on a roll selling souvlaki and meat packs at Peakhurst Food Markets the day NSW fell under a two-week lockdown in June.
Gabriel Kontelos co-owns Nisos Food Truck with his wife Angeliki in Glenfield and says it took him about a year to make the 2.4m x 1.8m trailer “from scratch” before they began attending markets less than two months ago.
“About a year ago, I decided maybe I should get a trailer and start doing the same thing I started to do in Darwin,” he says.
Kontelos says Nisos Food Truck is an extension of his parents’ former restaurant in Darwin.
Fofis Greek Kitchen, named after his mother Fofis, operated for about three years before the Kontelos family decided to move back “home” to Greece in 2018.
“[Mum and dad] are the spinal cord of this business. Mum does the deserts and dad does the food.”
Less than a year later, the family moved back and set the food truck in motion but today find themselves confined to their driveway.
“In the beginning, I did feel a little bit uncomfortable … but it’s just the driveway. Plus, there was no other choice … Due to coronavirus, we can’t operate anywhere else,” he says.
Mrs. Paxinos told A Current Affair that they’ve had a lot of support from the community.
“Since we can’t travel very far, they’ve got take away food at their doorstep,” she said.
“We’ve got souvlaki, meat packs, tzatziki and pita bread, chips, and a lot of pre-ordered food.”
“When we got the approval from the council they did tell us since COVID they’ve allowed people to be trading from home.”
Mr. Kontelos echoes a similar sentiment.
“We didn’t expect the first day to have that many people … The first day we started was massive,” he says.
He says the truck will benefit from a recent A Current Affair appearance and social media advertising.
Greek tennis player, Stefanos Tsitsipas, has been defeated in the third round of the Tokyo Olympics by Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-2 6-7 2-6.
The Greek, who has been making his Olympic debut, quickly claimed the first set 6-2 in just over 30 minutes.
Humbert came out determined to equalise the score for the second set and that parity would be maintained during the entire round.
Photo: Reuters / Edgar Su.
The Frenchman served first in the second set and defended his serve for 1-0. Tsitsipas immediately equalised at 1-1 but the Frenchman had a flawless love service game and again took the lead 2-1.
This back-and-forth went on for the entire set, with Tsitsipas eventually losing the tiebreak 7-4 and the set 7-6.
Stefanos Tsitsipas au sol après la deuxième manche de son match contre Ugo Humbert. Il doit affronter FAA et Dabrowski en mixte plus tard… #tokyo2020pic.twitter.com/6sDHoQEXN8
The Greek suffered a serious-looking ankle injury before the third set, forcing him to get a medical time out.
But Tsitsipas didn’t let that stop him. He came back fighting in the final set and whilst it wasn’t enough to claim the victory, he still made Greeks proud everywhere.
The company at the center of an alleged $400 million fraud against Westpac is looking for new customers and spruiking its services following an emergency sale to Bill Papas’ cousin Eric Constantinidis.
The Sydney-based Forum Group company has sent six emails to prospective clients over the past two weeks to drum up business.
The emails were sent while the company was going through mass layoffs and staff say they were stressed and owed large sums of money.
The most recent email was sent last Friday and has been obtained by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald.
“I’d love to have one of our office solution experts come out to see you and talk about the challenges your business is facing and the ways in which Forum can help make your business better,” the email says.
“Do you have a spare 30 minutes in the next week or so to have a chat about upgrading your office? Look forward to hearing from you.”
Earlier emails include now-removed blog articles published on the Forum Group website and a glowing customer review from Aston Advantage managing director Chantel Haskett.
Ms Haskett did not respond to the Sydney Morning Herald’s request for comment.
This is while other companies, such as a Sydney concrete company, try to distance themselves from the allegedly fraudulent company by removing their customer reviews.
The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald has revealed Mr. Papas’ extensive international and domestic assets, including Audi racecars and Greek seaside properties. Mr. Papas, who was supposed to return to Australia to face the courts earlier this month, remains in Greece after his lawyer told the Federal Court he had contracted COVID-19.
Meanwhile, a report filed by liquidators at McGrathNicol have managed to conduct brief interviews with Mr Papas and his business partner Mr. Tesoriero since being appointed as liquidators to the group.
Around 11 million doses of the COVID 19 vaccine have now been administered.
We are now tracking at around 1 million doses a week.
Sure, we’ve had our problems. Not all the calls we have made have turned out like we had hoped.
In a pandemic no country gets everything right. But having saved more than 30,000 lives, having supported over 3 million Australians through Jobkeeper and getting 1 million Australians back into work, we’ve also got a lot right.
After a difficult start, over recent months we have been turning the vaccination programme around. We’re definitely making up lost ground. Lieutenant General Frewen and his team in the Department of Health are doing a great job getting us back on track.
This daily infographic provides the total number of vaccine doses administered in Australia as of 26 July 2021. Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccine information here: https://t.co/vqZuOLzB2Ppic.twitter.com/wnOm0w6WpE
— Australian Government Department of Health (@healthgovau) July 27, 2021
The program is accelerating even more with the new additional supply we have secured – around one million Pfizer doses now arriving every week.
As more and more Australians get vaccinated, we rob the virus of its potency and power to disrupt our lives.
Getting vaccinated protects you, your family and your community.
Though we are currently responding to the threat of the COVID Delta variant in many parts of Australia, we can be confident that we will emerge from this pandemic successfully as we have done before.
Our record in saving lives and livelihoods is world’s best. We see it clearly from the health and economic data. More than 30,000 lives saved and 1 million jobs restored. Very few countries can claim these results.
However, I understand Australians facing lockdowns are asking immediate questions about their incomes and about the weeks ahead, as well as the pathway back to normal life.
For Australians facing lockdowns, we are directly delivering financial support to individuals and businesses impacted by the lockdowns through Services Australia. And we are sharing costs with state governments delivering much needed support to small and medium sized businesses.
People who have lost more than 20 hours of work in the previous week can claim $600. People who have lost between 8 hours or a full day of work to 20 hours, can claim $375. This is the same level of support we provided with Jobkeeper last year.
For more information about accessing these payments in Greek visit www.servicesaustralia.gov.au or call the multilingual phone service on 131 202.This is in addition to other help like Medicare telehealth, mental health and child care gap fee relief to help respond to outbreaks when and where they occur.
Importantly, we are also setting out a pathway back to normal life. It is built on a clear premise: if you get vaccinated, we can make lockdowns, border closures and restrictions a thing of the past.
The National Cabinet has agreed to set out a four stage path. Moving from one stage to the next will depend on achieving vaccination targets of the population informed by the best health and economic advice and scientific modelling.
National Cabinet noted the extension of the COVID-19 Disaster Payment for Greater Sydney & VIC. It also agreed that in NSW State Clinics, second dose Pfizer apptments will be extended to up to 6 weeks between doses (within the recommended TGA timeframe).https://t.co/ERdV9H2onNpic.twitter.com/ejGsSvBigT
The plan recognises that Australians who get vaccinated pose less of a health risk to themselves and others than people who are not vaccinated, and should therefore face fewer or no restrictions as vaccination rates increase. It’s only fair.
I will be recommending these vaccination targets to Premiers and Chief Ministers in coming weeks so we all know what we are aiming for.
Stage 1 is where we are at now – suppressing the virus and offering every Australian an opportunity to be vaccinated, while we trial new ways to ease restrictions, like home quarantine.
Stage 2 is where have enough confidence in the vaccine take-up to shift our current focus on COVID case numbers to the numbers of people with serious illnesses, hospitalisations and fatalities.
This change means we will be able to ease restrictions for vaccinated residents.
In this stage, lockdowns will only be in extreme circumstances to prevent escalating hospitalisations and fatalities, not a few cases.
In Stage 3 we will be managing COVID-19 consistent with public health management of other infectious diseases, like the flu.
In this stage, we will see the complete end of lock downs and a continued easing of the border controls that have protected us for so long, so Australians can travel overseas again and we can lift restrictions at our airports.
Stage 4 is the final phase, the return of normal life.
In this stage, there will still be modest, but prudent controls at our borders, because the virus will never be eliminated. But for the most part COVID will be managed just like any other infectious disease.
Over the past 18 months, I have asked a great deal of Australians, and there is still a way to go – and we can all play our part in the weeks and months ahead.
During the COVID Pandemic we have not got everything right. But we have done better than almost every country in the world.
We now have to finish the job of getting our country vaccinated.
What we all have to do is clear: follow the public health advice; maintain social distancing; be COVID safe; and if you haven’t already done so, make your appointment to get vaccinated.
