TESTING, TESTING, 1, 2, 3

Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia yesterday widened testing criteria to members of hotspot areas and vulnerable people, The Australian ($) reports, with criticisms emerging of the still-limited national criteria which translates — as Crikey unpacked yesterday — to per capita testing rates of just 1.1%.

However, new state measures vary significantly:

• Queensland will test symptomatic people in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Cairns, following 32 untraced cases in these regions;
• Victoria, conversely, will only expand state eligibility to those aged 65 and over, teachers, childcare workers, firefighters, and emergency medical experts;
• As The Sydney Morning Herald explains, NSW will expand testing to anyone with symptoms across Lake Macquarie, Manning, Woollahra, Waverley, Ryde, Macquarie Park, Dee Why, Manly, Nowra, South Nowra, the Byron Bay area, Port Macquarie, Broken Hill and — via a drive-through car park-turned-testing clinic — Bondi Beach; and
• Western Australia announced a new clinic will open at Broome Hospital on Wednesday, to be accessible to anyone in the Kimberley with either a fever of or above 38 degrees or an acute respiratory infection.

CASUAL WORKERS AT RISK

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Industrial Relations Minister Christian Porter has reached an in-principle agreement with the ACTU to temporarily expand employer flexibility under the Fair Work Act — apparently required to pay the minimum $1,500 JobKeeper subsidy without breaching current awards or EBAs — while ensuring unions can seek arbitration at the Fair Work Commission if a business weakens employee rights.

However, as The New Daily reports, the ACTU appears set to lose out on expanding JobKeeper to the roughly one million casual workers who do not meet the 12-month service rule, with Porter refusing to budge and Labor supporting the expansion but unwilling to vote against the entire package if it is not included.

FOES UNITED: The news follows daily crisis meetings between Porter and Secretary Sally McManus, with the two even uniting against the mining industry’s call to slash awards($) and wow, yeah, I guess this kind of is the end of the world?

ARE WE NEARLY THERE YET?

While modelling or advice cannot be taken as entirely predictive, The Guardian ($) reports that new data from the Centre for Complex Systems at Sydney University finds that if 90% of Australians maintain social distancing rules, coronavirus cases could peak in mid-April and reduce to almost zero new cases by July.

This would still require widespread asymptomatic testing and up to four weeks of social distancing after the last known person had recovered, lest the curve ramp back up again. Either way — as national cabinet prepares to release modelling behind policy decisions today — we should prepare to settle in. NSW’s restriction of movement laws, to take the worst-hit state as an example, will last until June 30.

WHAT OF THE OTHER AUSTR-IA? Over in Austria, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced last night that the country will likely loosen three week lockdown measures on small shops as soon as next Tuesday 14 April, with Reuters reporting that social distancing measures would remain and a country-wide mask requirements expanded.

BORIS JOHNSON IN ICU WITH COVID-19

Early this morning, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved to an intensive care unit after his condition worsened over the course of Monday.

According to The Guardian’s live-blog, Johnson is conscious and has been moved as a precaution in case he needs ventilation.

SPAIN GETS A UBI

According to Bloomberg, Spain’s Economy Minister Nadia Calvino has announced the country will not only look to roll out a Universal Basic Income as soon as possible but that the government plans for the UBI to become an instrument “that stays forever”.

The rollout of a UBI — which is distinct from other welfare measures in that all citizens would receive a flat living wage regardless of employment, income, or assets — would be historic, as Wired explains, with parties in the US, UK, and Italy all proposing and failing to implement something similar amid the crisis.

FUN FACT: While Wired claims Spain would be the first country to implement a nation-wide UBI, Iran, as Business Insider explains, introduced a scheme in 2010. Further, no one stopped working because of it?

PELL FINDING AT 10AM

Finally, as ABC reports, the High Court ruling on George Pell’s appeal against child sex abuse convictions will be handed down today in a virtual vacuum, with the four possible outcomes being:

• Special leave to appeal is rejected, leaving Pell in prison;
• Special leave to appeal is granted but the appeal dismissed and Pell remains in prison;
• Special leave to appeal is granted and the appeal allowed, resulting in Pell’s immediate release; or
• Special leave to appeal is granted and the appeal is remitted back to the Court of Appeal to be re-examined by three new judges, allowing Pell to apply for bail.