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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
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Michael McGowan and Josh Taylor

Morrison says public gatherings must be two people only in new Covid-19 restrictions – as it happened

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Today's key developments

I’ll leave you tonight with political editor Katharine Murphy’s report from Scott Morrison’s post-national cabinet press conference, and a wrap of everything we’ve learned today:

  • Only two people should now gather in public spaces and “other areas of gathering”, but it will be up to states to enforce that limit.
  • A moratorium on evictions from rental properties for the next six months on the basis of “financial stress”.
  • People who are over 70, people with chronic illness over 60 and Indigenous people over 50 are strongly advised to stay home.
  • Some new public areas – public playgrounds, outside gyms and skateparks – will be closed from tomorrow, and group boot camps will no longer be allowed. One-on-one personal training sessions are still permitted.
  • New “strong advice” for individuals is that people should stay home unless shopping for essentials; for medical care or compassionate needs; to exercise in compliance with the new two-person rules; to go to “work and education if you cannot work or learn remotely”.
  • 1,600 Australians arriving home from overseas have gone into mandatory quarantine in hotels today.
  • Earlier today Morrison announced a $1.1bn package for health and family violence services, including $669m to expand Medicare-subsidised telehealth.
  • Morrison also flagged a wage guarantee, which will include people who have already lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, but has yet to announce details of the policy.
  • Two states recorded coronavirus-related deaths overnight. A 75-year-old woman died at Caboolture hospital after returning to Queensland from the Ruby Princess cruise ship. A man in his 80s also died in Victoria. It brings Australia’s death toll from the virus to 16.
  • New Zealand suffered its first coronavirus-related death, a woman in her 70s on the west coast of South Island.

Thanks as always for reading. We’ll be back tomorrow. You can also follow our international live blog here. Here’s Katharine Murphy’s wrap-up after this afternoon’s national cabinet:

Updated

Now to some important news: the heads of both the National Rugby League and Rugby Australia will meet on Monday to work out a way forward through the Covid-19 crisis.

Like the rest of the world, Australia’s major sporting codes have gone into hibernation and with no broadcast revenue or a firm timeline on a return, many clubs are staring down potentially devastating financial consequences.

At Rugby Australia’s annual general meeting tomorrow, potential large player wage cuts and staff layoffs will be discussed, while AAP reports that the Australian Rugby League Commission chairman, Peter V’landys, will tell clubs and the players he is still hopeful the season can resume by 1 July.

AAP reports that player representatives from all 16 clubs also spoke with V’landys and the NRL chief, Todd Greenberg, on Sunday, along with the South Sydney CEO, Blake Solly, and Brisbane counterpart Paul White.

It’s expected the players’ pay cut for the remainder of the year will sit around 75%, after they have already been paid the first five months of their annual salary in full.

Updated

There are still some questions coming out of that (much briefer than usual) press conference with Scott Morrison.

Although he’s been clear on the reasons we should stay home, there seem to be some inconsistencies. Hairdressers and barbers, for example, appear to still be able to operate. And if people should only leave their homes for essential reasons, but can still meet in groups of two, can people who live alone still visit one another?

Morrison made clear it would be up to the various states to enforce these rules, and no doubt we’ll hear more from state premiers on it tomorrow. Expect the states with the largest outbreaks – New South Wales and Victoria – to take the hardest line.

Updated

What we learned from Scott Morrison's press conference

Here’s the key points that have come out of today’s national cabinet press conference:

  • Only two people should now gather in public spaces and “other areas of gathering”, but it will be up to states to enforce that limit. The prime minister, Scott Morrison, said households could still gather together, but individual people can only meet with one other person.
  • National cabinet resolved there should be a moratorium on evictions from rental properties for the next six months on the basis of “financial stress”. Morrison encouraged tenants and landlords, “particularly” in commercial properties, to work out arrangements in cases of financial stress.
  • Some new public areas – public playgrounds, outside gyms and skateparks – will be closed from tomorrow, and group boot camps will no longer be allowed. One-on-one personal training sessions are still permitted.
  • New “strong advice” for individuals is that people should stay home unless shopping for essentials; for medical care or compassionate needs; to exercise in compliance with the new two person rules; to go to “work and education if you cannot work or learn remotely”.
  • People who are over 70, people with chronic illness over 60 and Indigenous people over 50 are strongly advised to stay home.
  • Morrison says vulnerable or elderly people who need help with shopping or other needs should try to access “support through their community or others and I’m sure they could even ring their local MP”.
  • The chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, suggested the rate of infection in Australia was lower than predicted and there was “evidence that the public health measures that we are putting in place and the social distancing measures are likely to be having some early effect”.
Scott Morrison and chief medical officer Brendan Murphy at a press conference in the Blue Room of Parliament House in Canberra
Scott Morrison and chief medical officer Brendan Murphy at a press conference in the Blue Room of Parliament House in Canberra. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Updated

Morrison continues and flags possible future closures of retail outlets:

When you are going out for shopping, you should be going for just stuff you need and do it and get home. It is not a time for browsing. It is not a time for catching up with friends or bumping into people and having a long conversation.

No, you can’t do that any more. That is what we have to stop doing. That is why we are trying to keep as much of these sorts of things open for people as possible so they can get what they need. But as time goes on the national cabinet will continue to look at a lot of these businesses and may have to make further decisions in these areas and in some cases that may not be too far from now.

Updated

Asked why shopping centres remain open, Morrison says people should only shop for things “that you actually need”. He uses the example of jigsaw puzzles.

I will give you an example. Our kids are at home now, as are most kids, and Jenny went out yesterday and bought them a whole bunch of jigsaw puzzles. I can assure you over the next few months we will consider those jigsaw puzzles absolutely essential.

It is important that parents and families and households can get the things that they need to completely change the way they are going to live for the next six months at least, and so what we have done is sought to be practical about these issues. I mean, people are buying sporting equipment at the moment – gym mats and things like that – so they can exercise at home. These are things they are going to need.

Updated

Asked how people over 70 can access essentials such as groceries if the advice is for them to stay home, Morrison says it “is not a strict rule”. He also suggests they could ring their local MP for support if necessary.

It is there for their own protection and so what we are encouraging elderly residents to do is to stay home as much as is practicable. Should they need support then I’m sure they can get support through their community or others and I’m sure they could even ring their local MP and I’m sure their local MP would want to help them in any way they could at either a state or federal level, because I have seen that already happening through many of our electorate offices, but I’m sure they could get support through our community.

Updated

On gatherings, Morrison said a “household” can be together inside the home or outside.

Otherwise, you can be “with one other person maximum”.

He says previous announcements about the number of people allowed at weddings and funerals will remain in place.

Brendan Murphy continues:

It is very simple. We need to all stay home unless we are going out to shop, to do personal exercise, to go to medical appointments, or to go to work or study if you can’t work from home. So anyone who doesn’t need to be out of their home should be in the home. This is radical. The vast majority of Australians have done the right thing in the last week. We have seen huge evidence of that but we have also seen some very silly behaviour of people who haven’t complied with that, particularly outdoors and sometimes indoors.

The chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, is now speaking. He says Australia’s rate of infection is “much less than some people might have predicted some time ago without mitigation”.

So there is evidence that the public health measures that we are putting in place and the social distancing measures are likely to be having some early effect. I should say at the outset that we are not Italy, we are not the United States, we are not Spain. We have one of the highest rates of testing per head of population in the world and one of the lowest positive test rates, so we think, unlike countries unfortunately like Italy, Iran and even the US, that when they detected significant outbreaks they probably had much, much larger outbreaks in the community that were undetected.

We feel reasonably confident that we are detecting a significant majority of the cases in Australia. That means that we can get on top of cases when they are detected.

Updated

Morrison announces six-month moratorium on rental evictions

The prime minister says following national cabinet that there will be a moratorium on evictions for the next six months on the basis of “financial stress”.

If they are unable to meet their commitments and so there would be a moratorium on evictions for the next six months under those rental arrangements. Now there is a lot more work to be done here and my message to tenants, particularly commercial tenants, and commercial landlords, is a very straightforward one – we need you to sit down, talk to each other and work this out, about looking at the businesses which have been closed, businesses that may have had a significant reduction in their revenues, and we need landlords and tenants to sit down and come up with arrangements that enable them to get through this crisis.

Updated

People aged over 70 advised to stay at home

Morrison says the “strong advice” of national cabinet is for people aged over 70 to stay at home.

“This is not a compulsion, this is strong advice – that people aged 70 and over should stay at home and self-isolate for their own protection. To the maximum extent practical.

“These arrangements should also apply to those with chronic illness, over 60 and Indigenous persons over the age of 50.”

Updated

For individuals, Morrison says “the strong advice” is people should stay home unless:

  • shopping for essentials
  • for medical care or compassionate needs
  • to exercise “in compliance with the public gathering rules that I have already outlined”
  • And “for work and education if you cannot work or learn remotely”

Further bans on outside gatherings:

In addition, public areas – public playgrounds, outside gyms and skateparks – will be closed as from tomorrow and boot camps will be reduced to two, which doesn’t really make it a boot camp, that makes it a private session with your trainer for those who are accessing those services.

Updated

Only two-people gatherings in public spaces

Morrison says only two people should gather in public spaces and “other areas of gathering” but it will be up to states to enforce that limit.

Updated

The government’s new Covid-19 coronavirus app has 482,000 downloads, he says.

I want to encourage every Australian, if you have a phone, you need the app. Go on there and make sure you download that app and go on the internet browser and get access to that WhatsApp service so you can get the messages you need to support the decisions for you and your family.

Updated

1,600 Australians in mandatory quarantine in hotels

Morrison says 1,600 people have gone into mandatory quarantine today.

“I know this is a terrible inconvenience for you but it is necessary to save lives and we thank you for your cooperation this evening,” he says.

Updated

Morrison begins the press conference by acknowledging that it has been a “hard week” for Australians, but says that the rate of increase has been falling.

Towards this time last week the daily rate of increase was up around 30% and today’s increase is around 9%.

There are no guarantees about how that goes forward. We need to continue to do the things that we have committed ourselves to do to save lives and save livelihoods and I want to thank Australians for their strong support and growing support for the measures that are necessary to do just that.

Updated

Scott Morrison is speaking now.

My colleague Matilda Boseley has the latest on the more than 200 Australian cruise ship passengers currently stranded in Italy. They have been told they will be flown to Perth on Sunday evening, but those who test positive to Covid-19 will not be allowed on the plane.

The Australian Public Service commissioner has updated work guidelines for public servants. They’re now told working from home “is a priority, wherever this is practicable”.

Public servants had previously expressed concern that they were still being asked to work from offices, despite the government urging as many people as possible to work from home to help slow the Covid-19 outbreak.

Private hospital nurses in Perth are threatening industrial action if forced to treat suspected coronavirus patients from a German cruise ship, AAP reports.

Up to 55 people feared to be infected on board the Artania liner in Fremantle are set to be transferred to private hospitals in Perth for treatment. Hollywood, Bethesda, Mount and Waikiki hospitals are all understood to have been called upon.

The premier, Mark McGowan, negotiated the plan with the federal government to reduce the impact on the state’s public health system. But doctors and nurses have slammed the arrangement, saying coronavirus patients should be kept in public hospitals.

The Australian Nursing Federation on Sunday said nurses felt they lacked the training, equipment or confidence to treat the patients.

“The ANF will back nurses completely with the full force of all existing occupational safety and health laws if they are confronted with an unsafe working environment,” the ANF WA state secretary, Mark Olsen, said in a statement.

“We don’t care what deals the state or federal governments make, we will not allow nurses, doctors or their patients to be put in harm’s way.”

But Bethesda hospital said it would not be part of the initial passenger intake.

“Bethesda at this stage is not taking any passengers from the Artania,” a spokesperson told AAP.

Updated

Remember Naomi Wolf? The US author who got involved in a protracted stoush with Australia’s energy minister, Angus Taylor, over ... honestly I don’t even remember what over.

Anyway, she’s decided to weigh in on Australian politics again, this time suggesting the decision to suspend parliament until August constitutes a “coup”.

A lot of people are spending a lot of time replying to her on this, including the ABC election analyst Antony Green who, it has to be said, has not explicitly stated that it is not a coup.

Updated

Scott Morrison to hold press conference this evening

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, will hold a press conference at 6.30pm.

Updated

A group of medical professionals who the New South Wales health minister, Brad Hazzard, slammed this morning for not going into mandatory quarantine after they arrived back in Australia in the early hours of this morning have told the Sydney Morning Herald they “followed lawful direction at every point”.

The 33 medical professionals were among a group of 77 medical professionals who were returning from a health convention on board a cruise that was unable to berth in South America.

Hazzard said this morning he was “bitterly disappointed” they had not followed instructions to enter mandatory quarantine in a hotel.

But some of the doctors have told the Herald it was due to “confusion and misunderstanding” between health officials and police.

Updated

NSW Health has deployed more than 350 physiotherapists with previous experience in intensive care to help cope with the rising number of cases in the state.

NSW’s chief allied health officer, Andrew Davison, said the physiotherapists have been “upskilled” over the weekend via virtual training. They will help wean patients off much-needed ventilators, and improve patient positioning to “optimise oxygenation and patient outcomes”.

“Physiotherapists, and all allied health clinicians, are an essential part of the multidisciplinary team and the collaborative response to treat and support patients with Covid-19,” Davison said in a statement issued this afternoon.

The NSW government previously announced a $2.3bn stimulus package, including $700m for the state’s health department, to increase capacity in public hospitals, particularly within ICUs and emergency departments.

Updated

While we have a bit of time before national cabinet breaks up, have a read of this piece by my colleague Amy Remeikis on a refugee who was denied the right to board a flight from Indonesia to Australia because of his visa status.

Amir, a young Iranian refugee on an Australian safe haven visa, has been sent back to Turkey amid the coronavirus crisis, despite being granted permission to leave Australia to visit his mother in early February.

Updated

A shot of the care pack issued to new arrivals before their mandatory quarantine. People are still being fed, of course.

Spurrier says she is “thrilled” South Australia only recorded 12 new cases of the virus overnight.

She cautions that it is only one day’s worth of data, but is “certainly better than being told it was another 30 or 40”.

We have really put in place in South Australia measures that we have never seen before in the state. We have basically closed borders and we are now requesting anybody who is coming in internationally to be quarantined in hotels and that is being policed. [We are also] feeling the pain, closing a large number of all businesses, particularly restaurants and hotels and the like. We have even stopped AFL matches.

Updated

Barossa Valley schools close as cluster of cases identified

South Australia has announced school closures in a number of towns in the wine growing region of the Barossa Valley after what the state’s chief public health officer, Nicola Spurrier, called a “cluster” of positive cases in the region.

Spurrier is speaking now, and has reported 12 new cases of Covid-19 in the state, bringing the total in South Australia to 299. There are six cases in ICU, four of which are critical.

Spurrier has asked people living in a number of towns in that area not to leave if they can, and said other people in the state should “rethink” travel to the Barossa Valley if they can.

“We want to basically reduce as much travel in and out while my team is able to get on top of this cluster,” she said.

She said school closures in the area would not be permanent.

“As many people know, I’m an advocate of keeping schools open where we don’t have evidence of transmission but this is a different circumstance and I think it is an indication that when we do need to recommend school closures, we will recommend them,” she said.

Updated

The head of the Australian Medical Association, Tony Bartone, has welcomed the government’s commitment to expanding Medicare-covered health care, saying it will ease the burden on Australia’s already stretched supplies of personal protective equipment.

It’s an important announcement because what it does is three things. Not only does it allow the usual access to care, to continual care, especially for those patients with chronic and complex disease, that have chronic managements plans, that need that access, but all the other members of the community that, for one reason or another, are not able to access the general practice or the other consulting rooms during this time because they’re in self-isolation, or because indeed they are in a vulnerable group and fear being exposed to the risk of contracting Covid-19.

But the third, most important reason for this is that it will significantly reduce the demands on personal protective equipment – PPE. We know PPE is in very much short supply. It’s very scarce. And by allowing the ability to consult a number of patients in the comfort of their own room, in their own home, in their own isolation, will allow a significant reduction in the amount of PPE required by doctors, nurses and all other frontline healthcare workers that will be taking part in telehealth.

Updated

In the past 24 hours Victorian police say they have conducted 1,430 checks that people are complying with quarantine rules.

That included 139 checks on returned travellers. Of those, 11 were not at home.

Police say they’ve also checked 614 businesses, 210 “populous places” and 467 “non-essential services and businesses”.

“At this time, no one has been charged with refusing or failing to comply with the direction however a number of warnings were given to people found at populous gatherings,” Victorian police say.

Updated

As I mentioned, about 3,000 people are expected to arrive in Sydney today. That’s not counting the rest of the country, of course.

Those people will be put up in hotels for an enforced 14-day quarantine. A few people are tweeting about what that process has been like so far, including Dr Sharon Schembri who has just returned from the US.

There’s been reports around of long wait times, but Schembri writes that overall the process was handled well.

Took a while to load those busses and geographically we travelled towards the city. Took hours for each bus to be unloaded one at a time. Finally, we arrived, five star quarantine! Again police (uniformed and not uniformed) along with army personnel facilitated the process

Instead of checking into the hotel, a police officer took our name, flight, contact details. Another officer ushered us to the elevators, sending us to our allocated 25th floor, where we were met me with another two officers who opted to give myself and my son connecting rooms

First meal has now been delivered and we have been informed that healthcare professionals will be monitoring us for symptoms. Multiple times we have been informed we are not to leave the room for any reason otherwise we will be penalised. So here we are for 14 days.

I wonder how you’d feel if you returned home a little earlier and had shelled out money for an Airbnb to quarantine in? (I don’t wonder. I know a bunch of people who are filthy that they’ve missed out on a fortnight stay in a five-star hotel.)

Updated

Sunday, so far

Good afternoon. This is Michael McGowan, taking over from Josh Taylor for the evening shift. There’s been no shortage of coronavirus-related news today, and with national cabinet meeting this afternoon we could have a busy night ahead.

To recap, today we’ve heard:

Thanks for keeping me company as we head into the evening.

Updated

Atlassian gave Australian government tech help for no charge

So I’m told Atlassian helped the government build its WhatsApp information sharing capability alongside Facebook because the company was keen to get information out as quickly as possible.

One of the company’s founders, Mike Cannon-Brookes, has said the company will not be paid any money for any of the work that went into it.

Updated

Here’s a chart on the age range of people who tested positive for coronavirus in NSW and the likely source of the transmission.

Just a clarification on the Ruby Princess numbers, NSW Health sent out a correction that there are 189 confirmed coronavirus cases in New South Wales from the cruise ship. They accidentally included the 26 cases from people outside of the state who were on that cruise ship but then went home before testing positive.

That means it is still correct to say there are 215 cases from that cruise ship in total.

Australians stranded in Peru plead for help

Some of the more than 400 Australians stranded in Peru have pleaded with the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to help them escape on government-sponsored repatriation flights.

Some are expected to leave on a commercial charter in the next 24 hours – although this is not certain – and it may be months before others are able to leave a country under a military-enforced lockdown.

The oldest Australian stranded in Peru is 96, the youngest six months. One is pregnant, another is in hospital with a deteriorating medical condition. Another is living in an abandoned building with little food.

An open letter written by Gus Higgins on behalf of the group has pleaded with the Australian government to launch government-sponsored repatriation flights, as other countries, such as Germany, Israel, Canada, Ireland and the US have done.

“We have watched other governments act. We see foreigners leave each day through the repatriation efforts of their respective governments. Despite being told we are a ‘top priority’, honestly, honourable prime minister, we certainly do not feel so.

“We request immediate repatriation that is accessible for all Australians stranded in Peru.”

The borders are shut in Peru until at least 12 April. Most commercial airlines now no longer operating, with the country in lockdown under military law.

A commercial charter, organised by Chimu Adventures with Australian government assistance, will fly about 260 Australians out of Peru, likely on Sunday. The over-subscribed flight will retrieve passengers from Cusco and Lima.

However, many Australians stuck in Peru could not afford the $5,000 being asked for an economy class seat on the flight or missed out on booking, while others are in remote parts of the locked-down country where all internal movement has been banned, putting airports out of reach.

Updated

ABC is reporting that people arriving at Sydney airport are waiting between two and three hours on buses to be ferried from the airport to one of two hotels – the Ibis and the Novotel – where they’ll be forced to quarantine for 14 days.

This is the first day of the new regime, and it’s expected around 3,000 people will be sent to hotels from Sydney airport today.

Updated

Ahh, Richmond.

And another update on the state and territory totals we have for confirmed coronavirus cases so far today:

New South Wales: 1,791 (+174)

Victoria: 769 (+84)

Queensland: 656 (+31)

ACT: 77 (+6)

WA: 312 (+33)

There are 16 deaths from people who tested positive for coronavirus reported so far.

Updated

Western Australia up to 312 confirmed cases of coronavirus

Western Australia has reported 33 confirmed new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to 312 in the state.

The WA government is also going to bring in new legislation next week to fine people $1,000 (and $5,000 for business) for not complying with self-isolation and gathering directives.

Updated

NSW Health has advised there are now 215 cases of coronavirus from passengers on the Ruby Princess, up from 172.

There are now 59 confirmed cases in NSW from the Ovation of the Seas, and 23 cases from the second cruise of the Voyager of the Seas.

Updated

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has welcomed the announced funding for telehealth.

“The reason we have been pushing so hard for the telehealth expansion is because GPs on the frontline battling Covid-19 know that it will make a real difference in limiting the spread of the virus,” president Dr Harry Nespolon said.

Nespolon said telehealth doesn’t mean doctors have to use Skype or Zoom or other video conferencing for their consultations, and the Medicare Benefits Scheme item covers phone calls, too.

“We need to be technologically agnostic and not have the public or GPs think that this item is limited to video consultations; an old-fashioned phone will do just fine.”

A quick update on international developments:

  • More than 30,000 people have died after contracting Covid-19, from more than 660,700 confirmed cases.
  • The coronavirus death toll in France has passed the grim milestone of 2,000 deaths, with more than 38,000 cases, and the US has reported more than 120,000 cases. New Zealand reported its first death on Sunday. Spain, Northern Ireland and Timor-Leste are among countries to introduce new waves of restrictions.
  • The US president, Donald Trump, earlier proposed an enforced regional quarantine on the state of New York and parts of New Jersey and Connecticut, prompting an angry rebuke from the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo. Trump later said quarantine would not be necessary and he had asked the CDC to instead issue a serious travel warning for the areas.
  • The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, who was diagnosed with Covid-19 yesterday, has warned British households that the virus epidemic will get worse before it gets better.
  • The Zandam cruise ship, which has hundreds of passengers on board including at least 130 with flu-like symptoms, has been granted passage through the Panama Canal. Four people on the ship have died and two of those with symptoms have been diagnosed with Covid-19.
  • And Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, the wife of the Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, said she has recovered from Covid-19. Her husband and their three children have been in isolation and haven’t shown symptoms.

Updated

NSW Health says a a staff member at Long Bay hospital has been diagnosed with Covid-19.

Contact tracing is being undertaken with staff and patients, and those identified as close contacts are being placed in isolation and will undergo testing.

Additionally, 245 passengers from the Roald Amundsen and Scenic Eclipse cruises who arrived on Friday night were screened for Covid-19 at the airport and were required to isolate for 14 days.

This was before the new hotel isolation orders for every single arrival came into effect, but Nine newspapers reported 33 of those ordered into hotel quarantine by NSW Police attempted to depart on domestic flights. A total of 27 of those are believed to have left on those flights.

There are three confirmed cases at Normanhurst West public school – two teachers and a student. Close contacts have been isolated and the school has been reopened.

Updated

I’ll hand back to my colleague Josh Taylor now but will be back with you later this afternoon.

Following Scott Morrison’s announcement of a $1bn boost to health and family violence services this morning, advocates say the package falls short of what’s needed.

As part of the package Morrison announced $150m for domestic violence services, but Renee Carr, the executive director of campaign group Fair Agenda, says more is needed.

Critically, this package also doesn’t reverse the dangerous cuts to vital work like WESNET’s Safe Phones program or the work of the National FVPLS Forum – which means critical functions currently in place for women’s safety will be ended in coming months; when their work will be absolutely vital in dealing with this escalating emergency. These cuts are unconscionable and must be immediately reversed.

We already know that demand for service has jumped even in the early days of this pandemic. The risks facing women experiencing abuse and violence will be an escalating emergency during this crisis. It’s vital that services are resourced to support everyone who needs them during this time.

Updated

The mayors of Sydney’s beachside suburbs are carefully monitoring crowds in their council areas today, in the hope that people will stay away and they will not be forced to shut down parks and public gardens as well as the beaches.

Beaches in Randwick, Waverley and Woollahra, including the iconic Bondi Beach, have been shut indefinitely after large crowds gathered and ignored social distancing rules. Police have also had to break up parties in the beachside suburb, which is a magnet to backpackers and young people.

The Waverley mayor, Paula Masselos, said she was hoping it would not be necessary to shut parks and public gardens as well, but it would depend on whether people respected the social distancing rules today.

“We want to keep them open as much as possible for the sake of mental health of people, but if people are not doing the right thing we may need to close them,” she said.

Masselos said it was not feasible to try to control numbers on beaches as some councillors had suggested.

“I asked the general manager to look at options for keeping them open, including having a corridor to access the beaches, but it’s just not possible,” Masselos said.

The Liberal councillor and former mayor Sally Betts has suggested using witches hats to divide the beach into areas and regulate numbers. Waverley was forced to shut the tiny Mackenzies beach after crowds gathered there, following the shutdowns of other beaches.

Randwick has been forced to shut all of its beaches as well and Woollahra has shut the harbour beaches. Northern Beaches council closed the northside beaches last weekend but is endeavouring to keep them open where possible.

The Inner west mayor, Darcy Byrne, has also urged people to follow social distancing in parks, saying crowded parks may need to be closed.

Updated

This Twitter thread from Shiraz Maher, an expert on Islamic radicalisation from the UK, on his experience with the Covid-19 virus as an otherwise healthy 38-year-old is quite harrowing.

Updated

Australians stranded on cruise ship overseas prepare to evacuate

Australians stranded on board the Costa Victoria cruise ship, docked in Civitavecchia, Italy, have been told to pack their bags and prepare for a chartered flight home.

Passengers have posted on social media that they received a call to their cabin in the middle of the night, asking them to be packed and ready to go by 6am Italian time (3pm AEDT).

Others have been told a flight has been arranged by Costa Cruises to deliver them from Rome to Perth.

“We got woken up with a call to have our bags packed and out the door by 6am and we’ll be departing by 9. When we asked ‘where are we going’ they said to the airport for a late afternoon flight. Why wouldn’t the Australian ambassador know of this plan and communicate it to us?” one passenger posted on Facebook.

There are more than 300 Australians on board the ship.

Without official confirmation from the Australian embassy in Rome or Dfat, passengers are unsure what to expect.

Some Australians from the Costa Luminosa, which docked in Savona last week, said there were plenty of rumours of a charter flight. Instead, passengers were placed on buses and driven to Rome to self-isolate for two weeks in a hotel.

For days, those on board the Costa Victoria have feared they will face the same fate, forced to spend more time in the country worst hit by the virus.

Both the Costa Victoria and Luminosa have had confirmed cases of Covid-19 on board. Victoria passengers have been in strict lockdown for days and confirmed to their cabins.

Guardian Australia has contacted Dfat.

Updated

The shadow minister for industrial relations, Tony Burke, says any wage subsidy announced by the government should be conditional on keeping people in work, and large enough “to give a real incentive to employers to keep people in their jobs”.

“We want people to keep their relationship with their employer,” he says.

Updated

The federal opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, is speaking in Sydney now.

He’s calling for the government to go ahead with changes to income support including lowering the threshold at which couples can receive income support if one person loses their job.

We’re expecting to hear more on this from the government in the coming days, but Labor wants the government to “urgently” implement a wage subsidy.

Updated

More state updates, this time from Victoria.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Victoria is now 769, the state’s health department has confirmed.

That’s an increase of 84 from yesterday. Victoria has now recorded four deaths related to the virus.

Like Queensland, the state also recorded another death overnight – a man in his 80s died in a Melbourne hospital.

The total number of cases includes 419 men and 346 women, with people aged from 3 to 88.

There are 21 confirmed cases that may have been acquired through community transmission and more than 39,000 Victorians have been tested.

Currently 26 people are in hospital, including four patients in intensive care, and 193 people have recovered.

Updated

Thank you to the Tasmanians patiently explaining what their premier meant when he asked people not to travel between their home and shack earlier. It is apparently a reference to holiday homes dotted all over the state.

“Ultimate permanent campsites, essentially, to the point that they are generational,” reader Dean Sparkes tells me.

So there you are.

The Australian tennis star John Millman may have dodged the coronavirus, but he’s still resigned to not playing again this year.

Millman fears the global nature of his sport will leave it almost impossible for the respective men’s and women’s tours to reset again in 2020.

“We’re going to have to be pretty unified in terms of our recovery process before the tour can resume,” Millman told AAP.

“Maybe the tournament location has got the Covid-19 situation under wraps and then manage to contain it, but if someone’s flying in from South America, say, and their country hasn’t got a hold of it, then the tournament can’t exist.

“You can’t have the tournament going when only certain players can get there. I think that’s where the problems lie.

“It’s almost like we have to have a vaccine or the virus has to run its course before there’ll be any let-up there.”

Updated

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, has updated media on the number of new Covid-19 cases in that state. She says there were 31 new cases overnight, bringing the total in Queensland to 656.

She also confirms that a 75-year-old woman died overnight at Caboolture hospital. The woman was a passenger on the Ruby Princess cruise ship.

Once again, I my extend condolences to her family members and as I said the other day, we know that we will continue to see these incidents that are happening and I think everyone needs to realise that this person has a family and friends and loved ones and it is indeed a tragedy.

Updated

The Waverley councillor responsible for Bondi Beach in Sydney’s east, John Wakefield, has called on the NSW government to do more to deal with hotspots of Covid-19 associated with backpacker facilities.

Waverley council area has the largest number of Covid-19 cases in NSW – 132 cases on Friday – and most have been among backpackers who have arrived from overseas and people who have come in contact with them.

“Backpacker facilities need to be locked down and every person there tested,” Wakefield said.

He said there were two clusters of 20-plus cases that were largely associated with two large backpacker premises.

“We need to put a ring around these and then test everyone,” Wakefield said.

“It would probably only involve about 500 people. Maybe we should consider putting them into quarantine, rather than having them in dormitories where social distancing is difficult.”

He said many backpackers were living in dorms with four or more beds per room.

Wakefield said it was wrong to expect council to bear the brunt of policing social distancing and that more help was needed from the state government.

Randwick mayor Danny Said warned a similar situation could occur in Coogee, which also has several big backpacker hostels.

“We’re having a close look at it. Some of these places have 6-10 people to a room, so social distancing is very difficult,” he said.

Said called on the state government “help us out” and to cisider whether its possible to provide testing and quarantine facilities for backpackers.

Updated

Now to Tasmania, where the premier, Peter Gutwein, has confirmed the number of positive coronavirus cases in the state is now at 62.

The state has taken a hard line on travellers entering the state. All non-essential travellers who arrive in Tasmania after midnight on Sunday will be placed into quarantine in a government facility.

Tasmania will not be immune from the impacts. There will be, at some stage, community transmission. That is going to occur. I expect also, unfortunately, that there will be deaths. Let’s be clear. People will die, unfortunately, as a result of this, and we need to ready ourselves for that.

Gutwein also says the government does not want “to see people traversing between their home and their shack”. Which, I don’t know, might need a Tasmanian to explain that one.

Updated

We also heard quite a strong response earlier from the NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, to reports that 33 medical professionals who returned to Australia last night did not go into the mandatory hotel quarantine announced by the government on Friday.

They were among a group of 77 medical professionals who were returning from a health convention on board a cruise that was unable to berth in South America.

The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, said he understood the mandatory hotel quarantine hadn’t been served on those medical professionals and they’re unlikely to face fines.

But that didn’t stop Hazzard giving them a strong serve.

I actually don’t know what to say about those doctors. They should know better ... It was bitterly disappointing that they chose to ignore what is a safety measure for themselves and for others. They are the people you would expect to know better than anyone else. Yes, bitterly disappointing.

Updated

Stephen-Smith says there are six people in hospital with Covid-19 in the ACT, including two in ICU. There are two cases of possible community transition which are currently under investigation.

“It is too early to say whether either of those is an early indication of community transmission in our community,” she says.

Updated

Good afternoon everyone.

The ACT health minister, Rachel Stephen-Smith, is giving an update on the number of cases in the nation’s capital. We’ve already heard there are six new cases, which brings the total in the territory to 77.

The new cases include four males and two females aged between 19 and 82. Three of the new cases are linked to overseas travel and two are linked to other confirmed cases.

It is still unknown how the sixth case was contracted, but Stephen-Smith says there is still “no clear evidence of community transmission”.

“But we have been saying for some time we expect this to change,” she said. “In fact it is inevitable this will change.”

Updated

I’m heading on a break for a bit, but my colleague Michael McGowan will take you through the next hour.

ACT has six more cases

The ACT government has announced six more Covid-19 cases, three of which are from overseas travel and one a close contact of a confirmed case.

That brings the territory up to 77 in total. A total of 4,230 tests have been conducted.

Updated

The people being isolated after arriving back in Australia are currently being put in five-star hotels, Fuller says. They’re provided food and drink and health support. They won’t have any physical contact with hotel workers, who have PPE.

There are also extra precautions being put in place, such as disinfecting the buses they are brought to the hotel in, and having only 12 people at a time on the buses.

Updated

Police have handed out 11 tickets so far to people flouting the new rules, Fuller says.

He has also urged local governments to plan to shut beaches and parks well ahead of time if it’s going to be a hot day and people may be tempted to congregate there.

“Local governments have an important role. You manage the beaches and the parks. If there is a 30C day coming, you need to close the beach three or four days out. You need to prepare, you need to plan for these things. It is no longer worth waiting for the day.”

Updated

The NSW police commissioner, Mick Fuller, says around 3,300 Australians are expected to return via Sydney airport today who will go into isolation in hotels for 14 days, after being processed by border force officers and seen by health officials.

So far 1,000 people have returned since the new isolation rules came into force, and 30 of those have gone into high-level isolation either due to feeling unwell or having symptoms that could potentially be coronavirus.

Updated

Just a quick update on the state totals which we have been provided over the past hour:

New South Wales: 1,791 (+174)

Victoria: 769 (+84)

Queensland: 656 (+31)

Victoria and Queensland both reported deaths overnight, bringing the national total to 16.

Updated

Hazzard urges people to be decent to each other, saying there had been reports of vital equipment being stolen from hospitals.

“I am mortified to hear that in some of our hospitals people are actually stealing hand cleaner and other items that will keep our frontline staff safe. I’ve even heard reports of hand cleaner containers being ripped off the wall in hospitals.”

NSW up to 1,791 confirmed cases

The NSW health minister, Brad Hazzard, says there are now 1,791 confirmed cases in NSW, up 174 in the past 24 hours.

This is slightly down on yesterday’s figures.

There have now been over 91,000 tests in the state.

There are 24 cases in intensive care units in NSW.

Updated

More information on the Queensland numbers for today, from the premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk.

There were 31 new cases overnight, for a total of 656 in the state.

As we said before, a 75-year-old woman who had been on the Ruby Princess cruise ship has died in Caboolture after testing positive for coronavirus.

The premier’s press conference is being held in the Royal International Convention Centre at the RNA showgrounds, which had been used during the Spanish flu epidemic a century ago. Palaszczuk said this and a number of other venues in Brisbane could be used for overflow from hospitals arising from coronavirus.

Updated

Morrison says national cabinet is meeting this afternoon, and he indicates that if further measures are agreed upon, there will be a press conference in the early evening.

Updated

Will authorities in Australia be able to access phone data to contact-trace like the UK? Morrison says there are no plans for that.

“What I want to be clear about is the policies and measures that we will put in place for Australia will be right for Australia,” he says.

“We’re not going to go and cut and paste measures from other places, which have completely different societies.”

It is worth mentioning, the South Australian police have already said they have used metadata for contact-tracing earlier this year. The other states we have asked have said they have no plans to use phone data for contact-tracing at this stage.

Updated

Is it a break from national cabinet if NSW and Victoria go further in closing down schools and retail in the next few days?

Morrison says no.

“It has been very clear that some states may have to take further measures sooner than other states. That is not a breakaway from the national cabinet. That is actually the national cabinet working,” he says.

“That is a demonstration of the way the states can work together and so as much as some states can find themselves in a position to do a few more things, it should not be the view that these states who are not doing those things are not doing enough.”

Updated

Morrison is again asked whether he will release the government’s modelling of the amount of cases and deaths they are projecting we may see in Australia.

There is a long answer about how we can’t compare our situation with the UK and other parts of the world (including that we are testing more and our positive result rate is lower), but he again doesn’t say whether the government will release the modelling.

Updated

Morrison is asked who the income support will apply to. He says it hasn’t been finalised, so he won’t go into the details because it isn’t fair on Australians.

“These are not simple things to do when you are talking about rolling out income support to millions of people.”

He says the principle is that the package will support people who have lost their job through recent closures that have already happened (so retrospectively), but further detail on the starting point will come out when it is announced later in the week.

“We want to be sure that when we do it, we have covered the majority of the ground that needs to be covered to enable the program to be successfully implemented in partnership with the businesses, which will extend beyond what has been the level of coverage we have had to date.”

Updated

Scott Morrison says the income support package will be bigger than the previous two packages:

“The next stage, which will be given bigger than anything you have so far seen, will go broader than that and ensure that we are working together with companies to keep people connected to companies. This is part of the hibernation strategy of ensuring we keep people connected with their businesses and with their jobs so that on the other side of this, Australia can bounce back stronger.”

Updated

Queensland reports another coronavirus-related death

A 75-year-old woman has reportedly died at Caboolture hospital, after returning to Queensland from the Ruby Princess. The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the state has risen by 31 to 656.

There are three press conferences going on at the moment – federal, Queensland and Victoria.

We will bring you all the relevant information from the state ones when we can.

Updated

New Zealand records its first coronavirus-related death

Via AAP:

New Zealand has suffered its first coronavirus-related death, a woman in her 70s on the west coast of South Island.

The woman, who had underlying health conditions, was mis-diagnosed with influenza on admittance to hospital.

New Zealand health officials confirmed 63 new cases on Sunday, a promising drop from the increase of the previous two days, leaving the country’s overall tally of coronavirus cases at 514.

Updated

Victoria records fourth death

The ABC is reporting a Melbourne man in his 80s has died in hospital, bringing the number of deaths in Victoria to four and the national total to 15.

Updated

The health minister, Greg Hunt, says there will be universal telehealth from tomorrow.

Those who are self-isolating will be able to call their GP, nurse, mental health practitioner or allied health professional.

Updated

Morrison also flagged that, as has been widely reported, the government will bring in income support.

“We will also be moving to provide further income support, the treasurer and I have been working together with Treasury and other officials night and day over recent days to ensure we can provide further boosted income support across the Australian economy,” he says.

As the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, said earlier, they are trying to make it sound different to the UK model, which they had ruled out two days ago.

“We are being very careful to ensure that income support can be delivered in a way that gets it to people as quickly as possible using the existing systems we have.

“When we do these things it is not a matter of just cutting and pasting ideas from other places. We need to have solutions that will work in Australia.”

Updated

$1.1bn health services announced by Morrison

This is the summary of the announcement from the prime minister today:

  • $669m for telehealth so people can get support from GPs and health advice from home
  • $74m for mental health support
  • $150m for domestic violence services, including 1800 RESPECT and Mensline
  • $200m for emergency relief support including Foodbank, Salvation Army, St Vincent de Paul, Anglicare and other charities

Updated

Morrison says thanks to Atlassian and Facebook, Australians can now go to WhatsApp to find information on coronavirus from the government.

A new iOS app has also been launched today for Apple iPhones.

My cursory glance at the app suggests it is a replica of the health department website, and it looks OK. I’ll have a deeper look when this press conference is over.

Updated

Morrison details $1.1bn health and domestic violence package

The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is making the announcement around the $1.1bn support for health, mental health and domestic violence services that we flagged earlier.

Morrison says the rate of increase in cases has gone from around 25% to 30% per day a week ago to around 13% to 15% today.

Updated

In Australia, we can be thankful that the mild disputes between the federal government and the states over the best response to coronavirus are nothing compared to what’s happening in the US at the moment.

In addition to the fights between the states and the Trump administration over PPE, Trump’s suggestion that New York could be quarantined for two weeks has been met with anger from the state’s governor, Andrew Cuomo.

“It would be chaos and mayhem. If we start walling off areas all across the country it would just be totally bizarre, counterproductive, anti-American, anti-social,” Cuomo said.

For the most part in Australia, it is the states (NSW and Victoria) pushing for a stronger lock down.

The Australian government is working on getting hundreds of Australians stranded in Nepal back to Australia on a commercial flight that will cost nearly $3,000 per person.

An email sent to Australians in Nepal from the embassy, seen by Guardian Australia, has revealed the Kathmandu to Sydney direct flight is currently being negotiated with an air carrier and will likely depart on April 1.

The cost of the flight will be $US1800 (AU$2919) for economy and US$2300 (AU$3730) for business class.

So far 175 passengers have registered, and 100 seats remain. Next Saturday, New Zealand nationals will also be offered access to this flight.

People on the Australians stranded in Nepal Facebook page say they fear they will be trapped in the country because they cannot afford a ticket, or reach Kathmandu in time for the flight.

Michael Bonner, an Australian aid worker with Three Angels Nepal, a non-government organisation, said between 80 and 100 people turned up at the embassy at 9am Saturday local time hoping to organise a ticket home. He said many more were stranded in the Himalayas and other parts of the country and unable to reach Kathmandu in time because roads were closed.

“There’s going to be a couple of hundred people who will make this flight and another couple of hundred stranded as the situation in the country deteriorates,” he said.

He called on the government to delay the flight to give more Australians time to reach the capital.

In response to concerns expressed on the Facebook page, the Australian ambassador to Nepal, Pete Budd, said he understood people were frustrated, and the embassy had tried to achieve economies of scale by securing the largest possible aircraft.

“Many Australians have been stretched financially having paid for bookings that were subsequently cancelled. The disinclination of insurers to cover cancellations due to Covid-19 or reluctance of airlines to offer refunds in a timely manner is not helping,” Budd wrote.

“The reality is that aircraft entering Nepal are not permitted to carry passengers. In all likelihood, once arrived in Sydney, the aircraft will also have to return to Doha empty. This adds to the cost. In the event there are future flights, if there are future flights, they are only likely to be more expensive.

“For those Australians disinclined to pay the airfare, or those who are too financially stretched despite their best efforts to seek support from friends and family in Australia, my only advice at this point would be to find a safe place to settle. This may have to be for an extended period.”

An infant who tested positive for coronavirus in Chicago has died, the New York Times is reporting.

Cormann's 'touch of unreality': analysis

Finance minister Mathias Cormann’s remarks on Insiders that the government is “not going to start shutting down businesses because we are under political pressure” have more than a touch of unreality about them.

When it comes to doing what is needed to make sure we have an economy that can spring back into action once the coronavirus crisis has passed, the government has consistently been too slow to take action, and the actions have been too small and too narrowly focused.

Its inability to deal with the twin wages and rents crisis is a key problem.

Businesses are already shutting down. Hospitality and entertainment businesses went dark a fortnight ago and retail slammed down the shutters last week. Hundreds of thousands of people have applied for unemployment benefits in a matter of days.

And many of those businesses that haven’t already closed are screaming for government action to shut them down because staying open with no customers is rapidly sending them broke.

Soon, the fact that so much consumer spending has been ripped out of the economy will ripple through to other sectors such as the finance industry, which employs a large number of people, causing yet more job losses.

People who have been stood down do not have money to pay the rent or bills.
Businesses that have closed their doors do not have money to pay their landlords.
A wage subsidy could help solve the first problem.

After ruling out the idea, Cormann has now shifted ground somewhat. But what he actually promised was not a direct subsidy but “significantly enhanced income support through business”.

And, pressed by host David Speers on whether this would be dependent on “a requirement to keep staff employed”, the best Cormann could manage was that “that would be the intention”.

From Cormann’s answers, it appears the government is intent on trying to shove more money through the funnel of the business tax system, in the hope that some of it reaches the pockets of workers.

This obsession with using the business tax system to push money into the economy was visible from the government’s very first stimulus package, unveiled less than three weeks ago but long since rendered irrelevant by events.

It’s a very indirect way of getting money into people’s pockets, and it’s entirely unclear how it can help those who’ve already been laid off. Let’s hope it works.

Cormann dodged the question of what to do about preventing people from being evicted because they can’t pay the rent – a question that has repeatedly been considered by the “national cabinet” of state and federal leaders without anything being done.

On commercial rents, Cormann’s evasions continued when asked whether billionaire retailer Solomon Lew was doing the right thing by refusing to pay his landlords. Unfortunately, Speers didn’t follow up by pointing out that many other retailers and hospitality businesses are doing exactly the same as Lew.

And arguing about whether or not businesses should pay their rent is ultimately pointless. If they don’t have the cash – and many don’t – they won’t because they can’t.

Yes, these are hard problems to solve. But calling them “complicated”, which seems to be the Canberra consensus, won’t make them any less urgent.

Updated

Here’s more on the announcement we are expecting from the prime minister in under an hour.

This is what people returning to Australia now face: being put on a bus with supplies and ferried off to a hotel for 14 days of quarantine.

Updated

On public servants still being forced to go to work, Cormann, says he is “not going to provide a directive” on working from home on Insiders, but says if they can work from home they should.

“But there is a lot of work that needs to be done right now by the federal public service to support the government’s efforts in relation to protecting people’s health.”

Should more businesses be closed to stop the spread, as NSW and Victoria are considering?

Cormann says “we’re not going to start shutting down businesses because we are under the political pressure. In the end, it is a war on two fronts, and shutting the economy down when there is no advice to do so would also have health consequences as well as social, and obvious economic consequences. So we’ve got to continue to make sensible decisions here.”

He suggests it is not as simple as shutting down the whole economy and stopping coronavirus. It could start up again once the economy re-opens.

On rental assistance for households, Cormann says it is mainly a state and territory issue that is being worked through national cabinet, but he says they want something fair and equitable to ensure sustainability for six months, at least.

So not really sure what that would entail, yet.

Cormann says the idea of Australia going into hibernation to get through the coronvirus pandemic is about “spreading the pain”.

“We’re focused on helping bring down the costs, helping defer costs where that is appropriate. Working with the banks, working with state and territory governments around some of the things that we can do ourselves in our capacity as landlords for businesses in some of the properties that are owned by government.

“The idea here is to spread the pain as fairly and as equitably as possible to as many business as possible to be there on the other side when we expect a very strong recovery.”

Cormann won’t say if it will be 70% or 80% of wages.

He says it will be fair and equitable, but won’t say what it means for the hundreds of thousands already put out of work.

“We are working as fast as we can,” he says.

He confirms the government will ease partner income restrictions for people seeking welfare that currently mean if your partner earns $48K per year you can’t get welfare, but he won’t say what level it will be raised to.

Updated

Mathias Cormann speaking on Insiders

Mathias Cormann is asked whether he is still ruling out a UK-style wage subsidy system that he said “wouldn’t work” in Australia just two days ago.

Cormann says it will be done “in an Australian way” and in a way “that actually is going to be able to be delivered, using our existing systems and our existing architecture”.

When asked whether employee wages will be subsidised if employers keep staff on, Cormann says it will be “income support through business”, through the tax and welfare systems. He says the government is still working through it.

Updated

Insiders has produced this very useful segment on how Australia is tracking so far.

Finance minister Mathias Cormann is about to be on ABC’s Insiders program. I’ll bring you updates from that interview, depending on what he says.

Greg Jericho on whether we can expect the economy to bounce back quickly after the pandemic:

In this instance we need to consider the virus and the response of governments around the world. The global economy is only as strong as the weakest link. And right now the US, led by Donald Trump, is in a pitiful state.

NSW planning and public spaces minister Rob Stokes has told Nine newspapers that he is prepared to shut parks and other public spaces in the state if people are flouting the rules regarding social distancing.

The Botanic Gardens in Melbourne have been closed already, and Stokes is now considering following his Victorian counterpart.

A warm day in Melbourne yesterday saw people flock to beaches in St Kilda, which the Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton described as “really crap”.

Good morning, and welcome to Sunday’s live coverage of Australian news related to the coronavirus pandemic, I’m Josh Taylor.

As of 8.30am Sunday, there are over 3,600 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia, and over 640,000 cases globally.

There have been 14 deaths of people confirmed to have coronavirus in Australia, and almost 30,000 deaths globally.

At 11am AEDT this morning we are expecting an announcement from the prime minister Scott Morrison, for $1bn in funding for support services including Medicare-subsidised telehealth services, domestic violence support, and mental health services as well as a boost for charities.

A third stimulus package is not tipped to be announced until mid-week, but there are reports that the government is now considering a wage subsidy similar to the UK in order for companies affected by the pandemic to keep workers on.

My colleague Katharine Murphy reports this morning that the third stimulus announcement is likely to be sequenced with further restrictions to enforce social distancing.

Overnight in the US, president Donald Trump hinted New York could be quarantined for two weeks. You can find out more of what happened overnight here.

Updated

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