LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
* Australia has recorded 399 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, 384 in Victoria, 14 in NSW and one in quarantine in South Australia.
* Another six Victorians aged in their 70s to 90s have died, including four aged care residents. Their deaths take the state’s toll to 83 and the national figure to 167.
* Premier Daniel Andrews drew the ire of federal ministers when he told reporters he wouldn’t let his mum be put in some of Victoria’s private aged care facilities as he didn’t have the confidence staff and management could provide appropriate care.
* All non-urgent, category two elective surgery will be suspended in Melbourne hospitals to free up space for at-risk aged care residents being transferred out of the worst virus-affected facilities. As of Tuesday, 260 people are in hospital with COVID-19 while 45 are in intensive care.
* NSW Police arrested the organiser of a Black Lives Matter protest in Sydney after the Supreme Court agreed they were allowed to ban the rally over infection concerns.
ECONOMICS
* Rents across Australia fell by 0.5 per cent in the June quarter, the biggest drop since September 2018. Hobart and Sydney fell 2.3 and 1.3 per cent respectively.
* Victoria’s renewed lockdown is taking a further toll with the state shedding 7.3 per cent of payroll jobs between mid-March and mid-July while wages dropped 4.8 per cent.
* Nationwide, job numbers were trending upwards from late-May to late-June until the resurge in infections, with six times as many job losses among women as in men.
SPORT
* The Australian Open golf championship has been postponed to sometime between January and March 2021.
* Cricket Australia is negotiating with state authorities over the 14-day mandatory quarantine to allow players to practice in the nets while isolating in hotels.
KEY DATES
* July 28 – From midnight, South Australians will not be allowed to return home from Victoria while caps will be re-imposed on family gatherings, funerals and weddings.
* August 7 – Tasmania will allow travellers from South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory. A decision will also be made on including NSW, Queensland and ACT.
* August 15 – Tentative date for WA to lift all remaining restrictions, except border closures and access to remote Aboriginal communities.
* August 19 – The date flagged for Victoria’s six-week lockdown to end at 11.59pm.
AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS
* Australia’s total number of cases is now 15,304 with 5826 active and 9431 recovered.
* The national death toll as of Tuesday is 167: NSW 49, Victoria 83, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 6, SA 4, ACT 3. (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).
GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS
* Cases: at least 16,652,435
* Deaths: at least 656,678
* Recovered: at least 10,242,657
Data current as of 1730 AEST July 28, taking in federal government and state/territory government updates, Worldometer and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.