This is good to see.

Here’s some more information on today’s cases in Victoria via the daily health department press release.

By LGA:

• 7 cases in Banyule
• 20 cases in Brimbank
• 4 cases in Casey
• 20 cases in Darebin
• 2 cases in Frankston
• 6 cases in Greater Dandenong
• 4 cases in Greater Geelong
• 16 cases in Hobsons Bay
• 166 cases in Hume
• 2 cases in Manningham
• 2 cases in Maribyrnong
• 6 cases in Melbourne
• 7 cases in Melton
• 9 cases in Moonee Valley
• 88 cases in Moreland
• 3 cases in Port Phillip
• 3 cases in Whitehorse
• 41 cases in Whittlesea
• 25 cases in Wyndham
• 6 cases in Yarra

More than 65% of yesterday’s cases in Victoria are in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. There continues to be a steady growth in the number of cases in the northern suburbs.

There were 10 cases reported yesterday in regional Victoria. Four were in Greater Geelong, one in Cohuna, one in Daylesford, one in Healesville, one in Shepparton, one in Bacchus Marsh and one in Beveridge.

And the breakdown of active cases in those under 40:

• 407 are aged between 0 and 9
• 449 are aged between 10 and 19
• 697 are aged between 20 and 29
• 485 are aged between 30 and 39

The Australian federal police and border force are claiming another win as part of the “Operation Ironside” investigation that saw criminals using a compromised encrypted phone platform to communicate that police were able to see all messages on.

The Labor senator Kristina Keneally has responded to the earlier criticism about her intention to run in the western Sydney seat of Fowler at the next election, despite currently living over 40km away in the northern beaches, AAP reports.

Speaking outside the Vietnamese Community Cultural Centre in Bonnyrigg on Saturday, Keneally said she was disappointed in some reactions to her move:

This is a community I will live in, I will love and I will represent.

I know how to fight for communities like this.

It’s why I’ve gone into politics and that is why, come the next election, I want to go into the House of Representatives, as the voice of every family, every small business, every faith community in Fowler.

The former NSW premier also defended the party’s record on multiculturalism, flanked by two representatives of the local community.

“If you look across south-western Sydney you’ve got MPs Ed Husic, Michelle Rowland (and) Mike Freelander,” she said.

“I’m proud to be part of a party that supports gender diversity and that supports multicultural diversity.”

Looks like the only South Australian exposure sites associated with the mine worker are the airport and the plane he was on.

That’s it from me. Josh Taylor is here to keep you up to date this afternoon. Go well.

It is a little tense in Queensland, but health authorities are confident the state will be able to contain a cluster of five cases in the one household. AAP reports:

Queensland has recorded five new local Covid-19 cases but will avoid locking down for now, the state’s premier says.

The new cases of the Delta variant are all members of the same family who live across two households, including a 13-year-old schoolgirl from Sunnybank.

“There is no lockdown today,” premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Saturday. “We are very hopeful that we have been able to identify the source and get on top of this very, very quickly.

But the government may have to take “very quick, fast action” if it saw seeding outside the family in the next 24 to 48 hours, she said.

Aged care and disability care facilities, hospitals, and prisons in south Brisbane now have visitor restrictions and anyone with symptoms is being urged to get tested, as authorities work to make sure they are on top of the outbreak.

The most likely source of the virus is believed to be a visitor from NSW who stayed overnight at the home of the girl’s father last Sunday.

The children were exposed to the visitor when they saw their father on Father’s Day, then returned to their mother’s home.

The man has since returned to NSW and has not yet been tested for the virus.

Queensland chief health officer Jeannette Young thanked the children’s mother for getting her daughter tested when she complained of a headache.

“This mum took her daughter to get tested simply on a headache,” Dr Young said.

“That’s what we want to see no matter how mild your symptoms, if you are unwell in any way whatsoever, don’t hesitate.”

The mother works at Griffith University and attended the Nathan campus on Wednesday, but saw “very few people”, Dr Young said.

The girl’s school, St Thomas More College at Sunnybank, was abruptly closed on Friday.

The exposure has sent about 1000 students, workers and families into home quarantine.

The new cluster emerged after a NSW truck driver tested positive, though the cases are not linked.

The truckie was infectious in the community at nearby Mount Gravatt and Archerfield on Sunday and Monday. He also visited Westfield Garden City shopping centre.

Other close contact exposure sites include a 7-Eleven in East Brisbane, a BP petrol station in Salisbury and an Acacia Ridge cafe.

There were 11,828 tests conducted and 23,631 vaccines administered in the past 24 hours, Palaszczuk said.

There has been another departure from Victoria’s shadow cabinet, only a few days after Matthew Guy ousted Michael O’Brien as Liberal leader. Brad Rowswell has announced he is departing, joining Ed O’Donohue (who plans to leave parliament entirely).

Here is the full rundown of the NSW press conference from earlier today, the second last daily Covid-19 briefing:

Interesting data on rate of first dose uptake across Australia.

In a bit of Victorian politics news, the former minister in the Baillieu/Napthine governments and shadow attorney general, Ed O’Donohue, has announced he will be leaving parliament.

He said he made the decision before this week’s Liberal leadership spill, but that he would leave earlier than expected.

I’m going to hand back over to Nino Bucci for a bit while I have a break.

Expect outdoor gathering shaming footage in the news tonight.

While the race to vaccinate speeds up, the federal government on Saturday announced it was also keen to accelerate research into ways to treat the virus, AAP reports.

It will contribute $5m to researchers at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne to find a new antibody treatment to fight the virus.

Antibody-based therapies – which are widely used to treat infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases and cancer – block the entry of the virus into cells and stop infection.

Two Covid-19 treatments – remdesivir and sotrovimab – had already been approved in Australia and were currently being used to treat patients across the country, but more were needed, the federal health minister, Greg Hunt, said.

“The considerable expertise of Australia’s world-class health and medical researchers is critical for ensuring preparedness and the safety of all Australians and the global community,” he said in a statement.

“We are backing our best and brightest researchers to drive innovation and contribute to global efforts to control the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Just circling back to Victoria briefly, one thing that came out of today’s press conference is that even though case numbers are now in the mid-hundreds daily, health officials still say they’re meeting the commonwealth benchmark for contact tracing, that is contacting people who tested positive for Covid-19 within 24 hours.

When one journalist suggested he had been told by one case connected to the Box Hill construction site outbreak that it was four days until he was interviewed, the health department deputy secretary, Kate Matson, said she was surprised and would look into that.

She said the health team was definitely feeling the pressure now, however.

Another interesting point is the exposure site list in Victoria now states it is not an exhaustive list. Matson said this was because they weren’t listing sites where transmission was less likely to occur. For example, if someone just picks up a coffee from a cafe, it is less likely to be listed. People who checked in at the same time will still get those notifications, however.

Labor senator Kristina Keneally’s bid to move to the lower house, usurping a promising local candidate by running in a safe, multicultural seat, has been branded “hypocrisy” by a colleague, AAP reports.

Keneally, a former NSW premier, is aiming to replace retiring MP Chris Hayes in Fowler at the next federal election, moving from her current home on Sydney’s northern beaches to Fowler in the city’s west.

However, Hayes had publicly backed local lawyer Tu Le to replace him in representing the multicultural electorate, which Labor holds with a 14% margin.

Labor MP Anne Aly – the first Muslim woman elected to the Australian parliament – says the move to parachute Keneally into the seat is a “huge failure for Labor on diversity”.

“Diversity, equality and multiculturalism can’t just be a trope that Labor pulls out and parades while wearing a sari and eating some kung pao chicken to make ourselves look good,” she told the ABC on Saturday.

“For the Labor party to be in a position where they are pushing aside a community representative from one of the most multicultural electorates is hypocrisy as far as I’m concerned.”

Read the story here:

The ACT chief health officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman, confirms that early on Saturday morning a detainee transferred into Canberra’s prison, the Alexander Maconochie Centre, returned a positive test for Covid-19.

She says that more information about that detainee, including the contact he had with other inmates and staff, will be available tomorrow.

The chief minister, Andrew Barr, is asked whether the opening up of NSW could impact the ACT health system. He says he is expecting there could be an impact on Canberra hospitals if people in southern NSW became seriously ill, but that the Berejiklian government had given assurances that it could be manageable.

He also says he was unaware Covid-19 had been detected in sewage in the NSW local government area of Yass, which borders the territory and has come out of lockdown this morning.

There are now 249 active cases associated with the ACT outbreak.

About 840 people have self-identified as close contacts of ACT outbreaks. There are more than 350 current exposure locations listed.

Barr expects the territory population could reach 80% double dosed a little earlier than expected.

He says he is not concerned that the pleasant weather in Canberra this weekend will result in an increase in cases; if anything because people can be outdoors, rather than in places like supermarkets, it could improve the situation.

There’s a focus on compliance from ACT police on mask wearing, and on the construction, hospitality and retail sectors.

Barr says he will reveal more detail about the ACT’s plan for returning to school, as part of a broader roadmap for coming out of lockdown, on Tuesday.

The ACT chief minister, Andrew Barr, has given an update on the 15 new cases recorded in the territory.

Of the new cases, 14 are linked to known cases, with the other under early investigation. Eleven of the cases are household contacts. Nine were in quarantine throughout their infectious period. The other six were in quarantine for part of their infectious period. There are 16 people in hospital, 13 of whom had not been vaccinated.

Barr says the territory is leading the country in vaccination: 95% of the population over 60 have had one dose, as have 50% of those aged 25-29, and 30% of those aged 16-19.

He says:

This gives us great confidence our vaccine program will well exceed the national targets ... what’s been holding the territory back is lack of vaccine supply.

Foley is asked about the vaccine passport pilot being prepared by Service Victoria and Service NSW.

He says the plan is to give the QR code check-in app access to the federal government immunisation register to be able to check vaccination status through the one app. He says he is confident it will progress, and be able to be trialled as soon as possible.

The Victorian health minister, Martin Foley, says a third of the cases in Victoria have a connection to the construction industry, and there will be talks to ensure worksites are complying with Covid rules:

What we have is a Delta issue in the construction industry. What we have is about approximately about a third of the cases at the moment seem to have some link to construction, and that’s because they’re mobile. Clearly there are issues that we want to talk with the sector itself want to talk to, they know it’s a big responsibility to be on the permitted worker list, and to make sure that your Covid-safe plans and your compliance plans have been dealt with. And they’re very strong in making sure that they want to stay open, but so too is the public health team, and certain other compliance.

He says construction companies could be hit with warnings or even shut down if they are not complying with rules such as 25% usual worker levels and the Covid-safe plans.

The Victorian department of health deputy secretary, Kate Matson, says 70% of today’s 450 cases are in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, including 166 in Hume, 41 in Whittlesea, while some in the western suburbs grow too, including 25 in Wyndham, 20 in Greenbank and 16 in Hobson Bay.

There was one additional case connected to the V/Line driver.

There were also three cases among staff working in hotel quarantine – all fully vaccinated. It is believed the three cases are from community transmission rather than a hotel quarantine breach. There was no PPE breach, but authorities are still checking CCTV regardless.

Martin Foley has noted there are cases in regional Victoria, which is no longer in lockdown.

Those include five in the city of greater Geelong – three of which were linked to different construction sites, one in northern Victoria, one in Daylesford, one in Hepburn shire and one in the Mitchell shire.

Foley says the majority of these regional cases link back to community interactions in metropolitan Melbourne.

Outbreaks at construction sites continue to grow, he says:

The cases that are related to construction continue to be investigated by our public health team, both regionally and in metropolitan Victoria. There is a bit of a crossover with some larger outbreaks in the construction sector, together with these regional cases as well. There is a Panorama Box Hill construction site in Box Hill, of course, which has had an outbreak that we have referred to a few times. It is now sitting at 116 cases associated across three related construction sites, and has been one of the most significant outbreaks in this particular outbreak event.

He says some of the 300 primary close contacts identified with these outbreaks are due for day 13 tests, so more cases are likely.

I am going to handpass the blog to Josh Taylor, who will take you through the afternoon. Happy Saturday!

Meanwhile, in Victoria:

Brad Hazzard is asked about whether the school reopening date could be brought forward, given the rate of vaccinations. The state government is planning a staggered return from 25 October:

As an ex- school teacher, I would love to get the kids back at school earlier, but I think the point the premier has made in answer to similar questions ... the education system is a very big system and to be able to give a certainty is probably the priority and that is why it has been set at that particular date and I do not believe that will be moved forward. But the one thing I have learned in a pandemic is never say never because if suddenly everybody got AstraZeneca and got vaccinated and we have time to look at the issue, hopefully we will be able to make some changes. But I do not believe that will happen in relation to schools.

Brad Hazzard goes on to say about the widely panned decision to end daily press conferences:

I think getting the balance right, making sure we get the information out [to the] community is critical but we were doing that before. Dr McAnulty and the others were doing videos. At the present time, while we are dealing with all these issues, we were having press conferences. They might not be absolutely every day. Have no fear, we will be here.

Brad Hazzard has also made multiple references to how this half an hour to an hour update he provides every day is stopping him from having enough time to work out other parts of the pandemic response.

He says:

Let me just explain this. What I just set about trying to get some clear air for the team to think about the things you are raising, if we do, say, four people or three people at one of these press conferences, you think it is just for one hour or whatever it is that you walk in here. But in fact there is the preparation for the morning, Dr McNulty is here very early getting ready, so is Dr Chant and the others.

There is a massive team of people getting ready, drawing in all the information ... probably three or four hours beforehand. That time is taken out from the time we need to do the things you want us to do.

I defy anyone to say they won’t miss Brad Hazzard talking about how he sympathises with “ladies’ hairdressers” when these daily press conferences end after tomorrow. He adds that:

I will just say, I have had a guy doing my own hair a few times and it has been a disaster.

Brad Hazzard on how infections are spreading (with a slight interruption when a phone went off):

The issue is that there are still places where it is occurring, the two major places are workplaces and homes, but homes, probably, I think are a major area of concern in south-western and Western Sydney.

Sorry, could I say, I was distracted by the journalist’s phone, but in south-western and western Sydney, and in other parts of the state as well, it is the families that are often the ones who, somebody introduces it to the household, and once it is in there it is very hard to stop it circulating.

But what I would say is that I constantly hear that a person in household or the people in household who do not get it: one is vaccinated. So again, a message to the broader community is, please go and get vaccinated. You are doing it for yourself, for your family and for the broader community.

There has been at least a dozen deaths at home during this outbreak:

Brad Hazzard is asked a question about why so many people are dying at home during this outbreak. He says:

There have been a number of people die at home who have never even come to the attention of NSW Health [and] will not even to a GP. And certainly in parts of Sydney, particularly in the south-west and west, I think, there is a lot of pressure.

This is a disease that is highlighting some of the, well, it is a virus that is highlighting some of the inequities in our community, and in some households it can be a very large household where only one or two people are working. And I think there is a reluctance, in many instances, for people to want to actually tell us that they are actually not well, because they want to go on earning income.

I say to those people, the federal government and the state government have put up economic [measures], there is also lots of other support for you, and the most important thing is to stay alive. Please do not hesitate to contact our health system for support ... please, please, please, do not run the risk of dying. Seek medical help.

Brad Hazzard is really rubbing in what we will miss when these daily updates end after tomorrow. He will not be drawn on whether it’s “not the Australian way” to report Covid-19 restriction breaches, and says he expects the media to take photos today of people gathering in the pleasant Sydney weather “as they tend to do that”, etc.

There have been sewage detections in places where there are no active cases, Jeremy McAnulty says, including: Byron Bay, Bangalow, Jindabyne, Yass and Young.

Hazzard says the vaccination numbers are now up to 77.3% of the adult population with one dose and 44.5% fully vaccinated.

Brad Hazzard says that none of the eight people who died yesterday were vaccinated. There were three people in their 80s, two in their 70s, one in their 50s, one in their 40s, and one in their 30s. All had underlying health conditions, he says.

Victorian health authorities will front the media at 11.30am. It appears there’s been another case detected in regional Victoria, this time in Cohuna, in the state’s north.

Premier Daniel Andrews has made clear that cases would pop up here and there, but that if an outbreak got out of hand in a regional area then a local lockdown – similar to that which has occurred in Shepparton – would be considered.

A few people have pointed out that there is absolutely no restriction on drinking cans of VB at home, but that people in Melbourne may very much like to go to a pub at some point.

We have an ACT update from AAP:

Greater outdoor freedoms could be on the cards as Canberra waits to see whether it will exit lockdown next Friday.

ACT chief minister Andrew Barr has indicated things such as golf, tennis and national park visits could be on the cards following September 17.

“This is not about the recommencement of organised sport, but it would be safe, managed, small gatherings,” he told reporters on Friday. “It’s on the agenda, it’s being considered.”

But gatherings at people’s homes will likely remain off limits.

The steps and timeline to ease restrictions following the scheduled end of lockdown will be revealed on Tuesday.

Canberra recorded 24 cases on Friday as it became the first jurisdiction in Australia to vaccinate half of its population aged 16 and over.

Of the new cases, 18 are linked and least six people weren’t in quarantine the entire time.

There are 15 cases in hospital, ranging from under the age of 12 to their 70s, with four in intensive care including one on a ventilator.

All but four are unvaccinated and three are confirmed to have received a single dose.

The majority of cases are in people younger than 45, reflecting the fact Pfizer eligibility was only recently opened to everyone down to the age of 12.

Here’s some data, wonks:

Here’s a bit of a wrap on the easing of lockdown restrictions in some parts of NSW’s regions, thanks to AAP:

Thousands of NSW residents in a handful of COVID-free regional areas have woken to their first day of freedom in four weeks.

Stay-at-home restrictions have lifted for much of the state’s north-east and south-west, including in the regional centres of Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga and Albury.

Masks will be mandatory at indoor public venues, but hospitality venues, shops, sporting facilities and beauty services have all been cleared to reopen with restrictions.

Up to to five people will be allowed in a home and up to 20 can gather outdoors.

Entertainment venues like cinemas and theatres can also open with conditions, and outdoor and stadium events can also resume, with limits on attendees.

Weddings and funerals will be limited to 50 people, with churches and places of worship to open subject to the four square metre rule and no singing.

But for the bulk of NSW residents, those freedoms remain weeks away, with lockdown to continue in Sydney, for the southern parts of the state, the southeast, the Illawarra, the Shoalhaven, Hunter, Central Coast, central west and parts of the far west.

There worse is yet to come in many of the locked-down areas, with cases expected to peak in the next week, putting significant strain on hospitals and ambulances.

NSW ambulances are already enduring a daily level of demand typical of New Year’s Eve as they transport hundreds of suspected COVID-19 patients each day.

Some 3,500 people diagnosed with or suspected of having the virus were transported by ambulances in NSW in the past two weeks, NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan told reporters on Friday.

The number of new locally acquired cases reported remains high too, with 1,542 testing positive to the virus in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday.

Nine people also died in the reporting period, including two who passed away at home.

There are 1,156 patients in NSW in hospital, with 207 in intensive care and 89 ventilated.

Almost certainly Melbourne fans (not a slight on their collective lawlessness, but a nod to their desperation, given how hopeless the Demons have been for so long...) AAP reports that:

Two Victorians have been sent back to locked down Melbourne after trying to get into Perth to watch AFL finals matches.

WA police said a 46-year-old woman arrived in Perth on a flight from Melbourne on Thursday with an approved pass to enter, but further investigation found she failed to meet the criteria for entry.

“The woman claimed her reason for travel was to watch the AFL finals and complete various business activities,” police said.

Also on Thursday, a 67-year-old man flew from Melbourne to WA claiming he had only been to South Australia in the 14 days prior.

“The man failed to declare he had been in Victoria and claimed his reason for travel to WA was to attend the AFL Grand Final after completing 14 days quarantine,” police said.

“Travel to attend the AFL Finals series as a spectator is not considered a category for approval to enter WA from restricted locations.”

The lovely town of Daylesford in central Victoria has recorded a Covid-19 case, AAP reports:

A small Victorian town is dealing with a coronavirus scare on the same day it was released from lockdown, as Melburnians face an anxious wait for a roadmap out of their restrictions.

A cafe and medical clinic in Daylesford, just over 100 kilometres northwest of Melbourne, have been forced to close their doors after people infected with COVID-19 visited their venues.

Cliffy’s Emporium on Raglan Street said a staff member, who worked on 7 September, had tested positive for the virus on Friday.

“We are working closely with DHS. However, as a precaution will be closed from tomorrow to allow our team to get tested,” the cafe said on Facebook.

Springs Medical Clinic on Hospital Street closed for deep cleaning on Friday after a CovidD-positive case visited on September 8, between 3:15pm and 4.30pm, with contact tracing underway.

Most of regional Victoria except Greater Shepparton emerged from lockdown on Friday, with retail and hospitality allowed to reopen under strict rules.

Shepparton is expected to be released from its lockdown next week, while people in Melbourne are awaiting the release of the state government’s roadmap.

Premier Daniel Andrews said the government is waiting for detailed modelling from the Burnett Institute before releasing its plans.

The numbers in Victoria are confronting, but an increase was forecast. This is how the daily numbers have trended in the state since premier Daniel Andrews announced the goal was no longer covid zero on 31 August:

76, 120, 176, 208, 190, 183, 246, 246, 221, 324, 334, 450.

I believe Victoria has recorded its higher ever dose number in state-run clinics, with 39,148 slightly higher than the amount recorded yesterday. Will expect some confirmation of this later today when Victorian health authorities provide an update.

Young makes clear they don’t have all the information yet on this outbreak, saying they have been doing interviews with the family “through the night”. It is hard to shake the image of Young and another health official playing good cop/bad cop during an interrogation in a small smoke-filled interview room.

As is often the case at Covid-19 press conferences around the country, the New South Wales outbreak is being repeatedly mentioned in this Queensland press conference as a warning as to what can happen when people don’t do the right thing.

Here’s the Queensland numbers, as mentioned earlier:

Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, is speaking now. She will be announcing some restrictions on aged care and hospital settings, while the state gets hold of this cluster.

Young says the theory on how five people contracted Covid is that the children visited their father on Father’s Day, when he also had a visitor at his house from New South Wales.

That visitor has not yet tested positive, but genomic sequencing shows the five cases are not linked to any other known Queensland outbreaks.

There’s three very clear messages here from Palaszczuk: do the right thing when you’re outside the house in terms of mask-wearing and checking in, get tested at the sign of any symptoms, and go and get a jab:

Now is the time, Queensland, to get vaccinated. We have 55.4% of eligible Queenslanders who have their first dose and 57.7% of eligible Queenslanders are fully vaccinated and if we get more supply, as I said, we’ll get more vaccines into people’s arms.

There is a sense of urgency here because we are seeing these clusters that pop up and we need to make sure we are protected as much as we possibly can. There are thousands and thousands of cases in New South Wales. It is just across our border and we’ve seen how easy it is for it to get across our border, whether it’s a freight driver or a visitor from NSW.

That’s why we have tough border measures in place but we can’t stop everything so we need Queenslanders to play their part and I know they absolutely will do that.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says:

There is no lockdown today but in the next 24 to 48 hours we’ll be closely monitoring the situation and, if we start seeing any seeding, then we may have to take very quick, fast action. But at the moment, it’s contained to the family.

We also have that young girl’s school community. They’ve gone into home quarantine about 1,000 people there, so we know people are doing the right thing but we absolutely need Queenslanders, if anyone has any symptoms whatsoever, to go and get tested. Now, this young girl had a headache and her mother took her to get tested.

We also believe that the source of this cluster could be a visitor who came to the father’s home from New South Wales. So we are doing further investigations there.

Before we descend into hours of Covid-related pandemonium, can I recommend taking a few moments to read this piece from Donna Lu on the manufacturing of fake meat?

One of the things we will be hearing less about from the NSW government is the state of the hospital system:

Speaking of press conferences, Katharine Murphy did not miss in her critique of NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian: “I haven’t seen a politician more disinclined to answer basic questions than Berejiklian. It takes a particular kind of arrogance to be as impervious to scrutiny as this New South Wales premier is”.

Murmurings that Queensland could be considering a lockdown, with premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to give a press conference at 9am.

If you are in one of those regional areas of NSW coming out of lockdown, spare a thought for those in the the community of Wilcannia. This is a great long read from Calla Wahlquist on the devastating situation unfolding in the town in the state’s west.

Good morning.

I’m Nino Bucci with your Covid news (and a side of non-Covid content) this Saturday.

It will be the second-last daily press conference of the pandemic in New South Wales, with premier Gladys Berejiklian announcing on Friday (along with a record 1,542 cases and nine deaths) that she would abandon the practice from Monday. Her decision was not well received.

Thousands of NSW residents in a handful of Covid-free regional areas have woken to their first day of freedom in four weeks.

Stay-at-home restrictions have lifted for much of NSW’s north-east and south-west, including in the regional centres of Coffs Harbour, Wagga Wagga and Albury.

Masks will be mandatory at indoor public venues, but hospitality venues, shops, sporting facilities and beauty services have all been cleared to reopen with restrictions. Up to to five people will be allowed in a home and up to 20 can gather outdoors.

Queensland will reinstate a border bubble with NSW on Monday. Late on Friday a Brisbane university worker, who is a relative of a Brisbane schoolgirl who has Covid-19, also tested positive for the virus.

Griffith University vice-chancellor Prof Carolyn Evans emailed staff telling them a staff member, who is a family relative of the 13-year-old Sunnybank girl who tested positive on Friday, also tested positive.

Authorities don’t yet know if there’s a link between the girl, her family member and a NSW truck driver who was also infectious in the community at nearby Mount Gravatt and Archerfield on Sunday and Monday.

Victoria is seeing case numbers climb as projected, with 324 cases in the state on Friday.

The vaccination rate is accelerating above forecasts, however, with Covid-19 commander Jeroen Weimar saying he expected the state would “smash” the original 23 September estimate by several days.

Most of regional Victoria except Greater Shepparton emerged from lockdown on Friday, with retail and hospitality allowed to reopen under strict rules.