LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
* A childcare centre is closed and up to 100 people are self-isolating after a girl connected to a cluster in Melbourne’s northern suburbs tested positive to COVID-19. The young girl is among three new cases recorded in Victoria on Thursday.
* Modelling released by the Victorian Department for Health and Human Services claims stage three restrictions, introduced in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire in early July, prevented between 9000 and 37,000 additional cases of coronavirus that same month.
* NSW recorded three new locally acquired cases of COVID-19, and one in hotel quarantine.
* NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian won’t guarantee the state’s border with Victoria will open before Christmas, saying she will wait for at least two weeks to see how Victoria deals with the inevitable outbreaks as restrictions ease.
* Queensland’s border reopening with NSW could be in jeopardy after the southern state recorded another mystery COVID-19 case and traces of the virus were found in sewage near Brisbane. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she’ll take advice on Friday from chief health officer Jeannette Young.
* South Australia has reported one new COVID-19 case in a recently returned traveller, while four new COVID-19 cases were recorded in the NT after returned overseas travellers tested positive while quarantining near Darwin.
* October 30 – Announcement on Queensland border due.
* November 2 – Regional Victorian residents allowed to travel to the Northern Territory if case numbers remain low.
* November 6 – Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry report due. Tasmania plans to open its border to NSW residents without quarantine.
* November 8 – From 11:59pm, the 25km travel rule scrapped and the Metropolitan Melbourne-regional Victoria border will end, reuniting the state. Gyms and fitness studios can reopen subject to density quotas, while patron limits for hospitality will increase.
AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS
* There were 12 new cases in Australia, including four in NSW, three in Victoria, one in South Australian and four in the Northern Territory.
* The national death toll is 907: Victoria 819, NSW 55, 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 44,775,000
* Deaths: at least 1,179,000
* Recovered: at least 32,728,000
Data current as of 1630 AEDT October 29, taking in federal and state/territory government updates, Worldometer and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.
Australian Associated Press