Australian Labor leader Anthony Albanese is holding a press conference this morning. He says labour market deregulation is not the solution to getting out of the economic crisis, and points to insecure work actually worsening the pandemic. The fact is that insecure work is not just a problem for the economy, we’ve seen during this crisis, that insecure work is an issue with the spread of this virus. The fact that many people feel that they have no alternative but to turn up to work, or in order to feed their kids, or to simply miss out on that income they need. We’ve also seen the casual employment with people without proper training being employed at the party of the spread of the virus. He says there needs to be a “fair analysis” of Jobkeeper to ensure that businesses are given the support they need. We are waiting for the daily press conferences for New South Wales and Victoria. No timing on that yet, but we will let you know as soon as we do. Two people trying to get past a coronavirus checkpoint in Melbourne were caught with a stash of drugs, AAP reports. The man and woman were nabbed attempting to evade the checkpoint at Lang Lang, south-east of Melbourne on Friday, Victoria police said. The pair were pulled over and the female driver allegedly tested positive to an oral drug test. A large quantity of ice, heroin, cocaine and prescription drugs was allegedly found in the car. Her male passenger was also drug affected, police said. The couple were charged with drug and trafficking offences, and for breaching the chief health officers directions. The AP is reporting that two months after the US government awarded $21m to a study into whether a common heartburn drug was effective against Covid-19, government health officials have raised serious concerns about patient safety and scientific integrity: The US Department of Health and Human Services outlined a long list of concerns in a June 8 letter, concluding there was “a high probability” that the companies doing the research would fail to honor the terms of the deal to assess famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid, as a coronavirus treatment. Alchem Laboratories and its subcontractor, Northwell Health in New York, was the subject of ridicule by some government scientists who did not think the Pepcid study merited millions of federal research dollars. A federal whistleblower, Dr Rick Bright, cited the contract as a key example of what he called unethical conduct by agency leadership in deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars to combat the coronavirus. Despite the problems, the HHS office spearheading the federal response to the coronavirus crisis has not canceled the contract. Northwell, the state’s largest health care provider, told AP earlier this week that the famotidine trial has been paused indefinitely because of a shortage of new COVID-19 patients in New York. In the four-page “cure notice,” HHS raised a litany of red flags about the Pepcid trial, which delivers a large dose of famotidine intravenously to patients in the study. Among them: a “lack of adequate documentation of good clinical practices related to ensuring patient safety.” HHS’s letter also said the researchers failed to implement a system to track harm to patients, lacked an independent data monitor to ensure the integrity of the trial’s findings and failed to provide government scientists overseeing the contract with proper Food and Drug Administration documentation. More schools in NSW have shut due to students testing positive for coronavirus. Via AAP: NSW Health said on Friday three schools in Sydney’s west have been closed and cleaning is under way after four students tested positive to Covid-19. Two of the students attend Cerdon College in Merrylands, one goes to Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary School in Bossley Park and another is from Freeman Catholic College at Bonnyrigg Heights. All the cases are associated with the Thai Rock restaurant cluster, with two also linked to Our Lady of Lebanon church. New South Wales is boosting the number of inspectors at venues across the state to ensure compliance with Covid-19 requirements. There will now be over 250 inspectors, with the addition of SafeWork and fair trading staff doing inspections over the weekend, NSW customer service minister Victor Dominello said. If venues don’t have a Covid-19 safety plan, and have not registered as a Covid-safe business, they face fines of up to $5,000 and risk closure. The inspectors include: 40 NSW Food Authority inspectors; 45 Liquor & Gaming NSW inspectors; 50 Public Health Officers; 68 NSW Fair Trading inspectors; 143 SafeWork NSW inspectors; 483 Local Government Environmental Health Officers; and NSW Police Officers. Good morning, and welcome to the live blog for coronavirus news. I’m Josh Taylor and I will be taking you through the coverage until Saturday afternoon, Melbourne time. In Australia, the focus will again mostly be on Victoria, after the state recorded 300 new cases of coronavirus on Friday, and reported seven deaths. New South Wales will also be of some attention, but on Friday reported cases in the single digits. Here’s a summary of the latest global developments: The WHO reported the greatest single-day increase in global cases yet seen, with the total rising by 284,196 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. Spain have warned that a “second wave” of coronavirus may already be happening in the country. The health ministry is tracking more than 280 active outbreaks across the country. On Friday, it logged 922 new Covid-19 cases – slightly down from 971 over the previous 24 hours. María José Sierra, the deputy head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said: “It could already be a second wave”. France is advising citizens not to travel to Catalonia amid rising coronavirus cases. Jean Castex, the French prime minister, also said the government would strengthen controls at the country’s borders to better control the pandemic. Nearly half of the 16,410 cases detected in Spain in the past fortnight were diagnosed in the north-eastern region. Norway will reimpose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving on Spain. As part of the new measures, effective from tomorrow, the government will also ease restrictions on people entering the country from Sweden. Schools in South Africa have been closed for a month in a bid to curb the spread of the virus. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement came a day after researchers revealed that excess mortality data suggested South Africa’s Covid outbreak had contributed to substantially more deaths over a 10-week period from early May than official figures suggested. A 103-year-old man has recovered from Covid-19 in a makeshift hospital in Pakistan. Aziz Abdul Alim, a resident of a village in the mountainous northern district of Chitral, was released last week from an emergency response centre after testing positive in early July. Portugal has said the UK’s decision to persist with a quarantine regime for travellers from the country is not “backed by the facts”. Augusto Santos Silva, the foreign minister, made the comments after it was left off an updated list of countries exempt from the measures by the UK foreign office on Friday. Let’s get into it.