Virgin Australia chief executive Paul Scurrah and one of the airline’s newly appointed administrators, Vaughan Strawbridge, will front the media at 10.30 this morning and hopefully answer some of the questions everybody has about the airline. While the airline’s announcement this morning made it clear it wants to keep operating on the other side of the coronavirus crisis, it was silent on several crucial issues. These include what will happen to the jobs and entitlements of around 10,000 workers, the future of poorly performing budget offshoot Tiger, which is a logical candidate to be shut down, what happens to around $1.2bn in flight bookings and the value of people’s frequent flyer points. The latter are held in a separate company that isn’t in administration, but it’s not clear what that means in terms of redeeming them for flights in the future. Strawbridge will also need to deal with banks and other financiers owed about $4.8bn. The airline’s fleet is heavily mortgaged and just in November, it issued around $700m in junk bonds. As voluntary administrators Strawbridge and his fellow Deloitte partners are in charge of navigating the process from here on in. Victoria has just released its overnight numbers for Covid-19 cases. They have reported an additional seven cases bringing the state total to 1,336. This number is made up of 641 men and 695 women, with people aged from babies to their early nineties. Yesterday the state reported only one new case. Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, said this fluctuation in the number of positive COVID-19 cases was due to an increase in the number of tests being completed and an increase in the number of travellers returning from overseas on repatriation flights. “The increases we are seeing are still small and this is encouraging. They prove that our physical distancing measures are working but this is not a time to relax our strong approach as this disease can get away from you very quickly as we have seen in cities overseas,” said Sutton in a statement. Australia’s peak union body has called for Virgin Australia to keep trading in administration and then come out of administration with new shareholders that include the federal government. The Australian Council of Trade Unions said it was not too late for the government to rescue the company by acquiring a stake in the airline and argued that a collapse would cost taxpayers dearly. In a statement, the ACTU said a failure to rescue Virgin Australia would leave the government with an $800m bill to pay out the entitlements of the workforce under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee Scheme and “open the door to a monopolistic takeover of our skies”. The ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, said it was a “do or die” moment for the Morrison government. “If the Morrison Government does not immediately intervene, they will be responsible for the biggest airline collapse in Australia’s history,” she said. “They can choose to save the jobs of 16,000 Virgin Australia workers, or they can choose to abandon all these workers and hand Qantas a monopoly.” In these extraordinary times, the Guardian’s editorial independence has never been more important. Because no one sets our agenda, or edits our editor, we can keep delivering quality, trustworthy, fact-checked journalism each and every day. Free from commercial or political bias, we can report fearlessly on world events and challenge those in power. Your support protects the Guardian’s independence. We believe every one of us deserves equal access to accurate news and calm explanation. No matter how unpredictable the future feels, we will remain with you, delivering high quality news so we can all make critical decisions about our lives, health and security – based on fact, not fiction. Support the Guardian from as little as $1 – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. A message from Virgin Australia this morning: Five new cases in Tasmania Tasmania has reported only five new cases of Covid-19 overnight. All of these are from the north-west of the state, where there is a significant outbreak. This brings the state total to 200. 74 of these people have now recovered. Ruby Princess crew repatriation begins today The repatriation of Ruby Princess’ international crew members has begun, NSW police say. More than one thousand crew members, many infected with Covid-19, have been trapped on the cruise ship for weeks, unable to disembark unless they require urgent medical attention. The Ruby Princess cruise ship is now the subject of a criminal investigation after around 2700 passengers were allowed to freely disembark in Sydney on 19 March despite worries that positive Covid-19 cases could be on board. The ship has now been connected to more than six hundred Covid-19 cases around Australia and at least 19 deaths. “The first contingent of Ruby Princess crew members will begin the process of repatriation to their home countries today,” NSW Police said in a statement today. 49 crew members will be taken off the ship today, one has tested positive for Covid-19. “The [infected] crew member will be taken to a NSW Health-managed hotel to undertake a strict 14-day quarantine period.” “The remaining 48 crew members have tested negative for COVID-19. They will be disembarked this morning, and arrangements are being made for flights to return them to their home countries.” NSW police say more crew members will be disembarked from the Ruby Princess over the coming days, and a significant number of crew members will remain on the Ruby Princess and return with the ship to its port of origin. Queensland reported only six new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the state total to total to 1,024. Queensland health minister Dr Steven Miles said the state was now only doubling its case numbers every 41 weeks. You’ll recall that that peaked at just under three days, doubling just under three days. It brings ourtotal for the week to 25 and you’ll recall that there was a period therewhere we were consistently seeing twice that number a day. We are nowseeing that number a week. Six is good, compared to those numbers, but it is not zero. Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin group tweeted this this morning: All Cairns residents with Covid-19 symptoms encouraged to get tested There are concerns for Cairns in far north Queensland a number of lab technicians test positive for Covid-19. Queensland chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, urged anyone in the area to get tested if they have any symptoms. Well, one month ago, a technician went up from Brisbane up to Cairns and then, when he returned back toBrisbane, was tested positive for COVID-19...Then last week, we had one of the lab workers, who’s worked in that lab, tested positive. And we are unsure where that lab worker actually contracted that infection. We now have confirmation that it was in the lab. So we’re now doing further work to make sure that there are no other unwell staff members or patients in the Cairns Hospital and it’s very important that across the whole community in Cairns, that anyone who is unwell with any respiratory symptoms - so cough, sore throat, or shortness of breath - that you immediately go and see your own GP or go to the fever clinic that’s there in Cairns, to be tested. Queensland announces plans for a quarantine friendly ANZAC day dawn service NSW Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has encouraged Queenslanders to stand at the end of their driveway on the morning of the 25th of April to commemorate the ANZAC soldiers. RSL President Tony Ferris gave details at a press conference this morning: I would just like to encourage Queenslanders this Anzac Day, 25 April, to step out onto their driveways, verandas or porches at 6:00am in the morning and commemorate those that have gone and served this country, those that are currently serving this country, and those that have come home with their injuries and are still suffering with those injuries. On the RSL Queensland website, we have a link, which will allow you to turn round and play the full service from start to finish. It’s fully timed and it will be beneficial if you turn round and play that. For me, this is hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck stuff. Virgin Australia has told the stock exchange it is in administration. It has appointed Vaughan Strawbridge, John Greig, Sal Algeri and Richard Hughes of Deloitte as voluntary administrators. “The decision comes as the group has continued to seek financial assistance from a number of parties, including State and Federal Governments, to help it through the unprecedented crisis, however is yet to secure the required support,” the company told the ASX. “Virgin Australia will continue to operate its scheduled international and domestic flights which are helping to transport essential workers, maintain important freight corridors, and return Australians home. “The administrators will be supported by the group’s current management team, led by Chief Executive Officer Paul Scurrah, and will work closely with team members, suppliers, and partners throughout the process.” Strawbridge said: “Our intention is to undertake a process to restructure and refinance the business and bring it out of administration as soon as possible.” “We are committed to working with Paul and the Virgin Australia team and are progressing well on some immediate steps. We have commenced a process of seeking interest from parties for participation in the recapitalisation of the business and its future, and there have been several expressions of interest so far.” Virgin Australia said that frequent flyer program Velocity “while owned by the Group, is a separate company and is not in administration”. We know that the Mayor of Waverley, the local council area taking in Bondi Beach, is in talks with the NSW Health minister’s office about opening a pathway on the sand to allow surfers and swimmer access to the water. Seven News’s Chris Reason is reporting this is what the pathway could look like.