Queensland to reopen border to ACT | Australia news

That’s it for our live coverage of the coronavirus and other big developments for today. Thanks for being with us.

Our live coverage of the global pandemic is available if you haven’t had enough. The UK could be facing a second national lockdown. Global cases have gone above 30 million.

Here’s what happened in Australia today:

• Victoria reported another five Covid-19 deaths, all linked to aged care. There were 45 new cases reported, with the 14-day rolling average at 42.7 new cases in Melbourne.
• NSW reported six new cases, but five were returning travellers. The one locally acquired case was linked to a cluster at Liverpool Hospital.
• Queensland’s border will reopen to people from the ACT from 25 September. Queensland had no new cases today.
• NSW deputy premier John Barilaro is taking four weeks leave to look after his mental health after a tumultuous 10 days.
• NSW, Queensland and WA will let more people into hotel quarantine to boost the national cap on arrivals from 4,000 to 6,000 a week. Labor Senator Penny Wong said the move didn’t go far enough. There are 24,000 Australians stuck overseas.
• Prime minister Scott Morrison said Australia was looking again at a trans-Tasman travel bubble, where New Zealanders could come into Australia without quarantine.
• Also out of today’s national cabinet, Morrison said the federal government wanted to connect all state and territory contact tracing, creating one system.

Stay safe all. Graham Readfearn signing off. Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she has offered her support to deputy premier John Barilaro, who told his colleagues this afternoon he was taking time off to look after his mental health.

Berejiklian has said in a statement:

This afternoon deputy premier John Barilaro advised me he would take four weeks of personal leave. I have offered him any support he may need. I wish John and his family all the best during this time.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning that parts of northwestern regional Victoria could be hit by severe thunderstorms and potential flash flooding tomorrow.

Remembering people in regional Victoria are enjoying their first weekend of eased coronavirus restrictions, they might have to head indoors in some places.

The bureau has issued a severe weather warning for Saturday over the Grampians and central ranges, with wind gusts of up to 100km/h possible.

Locations which may be affected include Stawell, Ararat, Kyneton, Ballarat and Daylesford, Victoria’s state emergency services said.

The SES is asking people to be ready for the heavy rain and large hail that could hit tomorrow.

Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young says they have retested sewage at a Hervey Bay wastewater treatment plant for covid-19, and the test has come back negative.

Queensland Health, the University of Queensland and CSIRO have a pilot research project to test sewage for traces of covid-19.

The project had previously detected covid-19 at the Hervey Bay plant. The new result didn’t mean the previous one was wrong, she said.

While the fragments indicate someone was shedding the virus, this can occur for several weeks after the person is no longer infectious and the fragments themselves are not infectious.

Melbourne’s “ring of steel” is causing long lines of cars.

AAP reports traffic delays on the road to Geelong, where police and ADF are checking Melburnians don’t try to take advantage of an easing of coronavirus restrictions in regional Victoria.

Footage from a TV network helicopter at the Little River checkpoint shows a line 20 kilometres long.

On Thursday, assistant commissioner Rick Nugent said police would try to keep delays at checkpoints to 30 minutes.

Melburnians risk a fine of almost $5,000 if they try to travel to regional Victoria without a valid reason.

Senator Penny Wong, Labor’s foreign affairs spokesperson, is talking to the ABC and she’s not interested in giving the prime minister, Scott Morrison, any credit for raising the caps on international arrivals.

She’s saying Morrison was “dragged” to the agreement with the states because of bad publicity driven by people stranded overseas.

Morrison and the government had been “pretty focused on having a go at state governments” and the extra 1,500 arrivals to be staged over the coming weeks was not enough.

Wong said it wasn’t right that the caps should be shared responsibility, and that it was the government, and not states, who were responsible for borders and quarantine. She said:

He was always very keen to tell us how he’d stop the boats.

Wong also wanted to see all aircraft options “on the table”, including government jets and charter flights, to get stranded Australians back in the country.

Queensland’s deputy premier, Steven Miles, didn’t miss the chance to sell the state as a tourism destination to Canberrans after lifting the border closure to the ACT.

Time to head to Queensland for a holiday and maybe visit the reef, he said.

It’s been a national cabinet day which means it’s been a busy day of announcements on Covid-19. Here’s what’s happened so far:

• Victoria reported another five Covid-19 deaths, all linked to aged care. There were 45 new cases reported, with the 14-day rolling average at 42.7 new cases in Melbourne.
• NSW reported six new cases but five were returning travellers. The one locally-acquired case was linked to a cluster at Liverpool hospital.
• Queensland’s border will re-open to people from the ACT from 25 September. Queensland had no new cases today.
• Prime minister Scott Morrison announced that caps on overseas arrivals would be raised, but the increases of 1,500 per week would be staged over the coming weeks across the NSW, Queensland and WA. There were 24,000 Australians stuck overseas.
• Morrison said Australia was looking again at a trans-Tasman travel bubble, where New Zealanders could come into Australia without quarantine.
• Also out of national cabinet, Morrison said the federal government wanted to connect all state and territory contact tracing, creating one system.

Afternoon all and thanks to Naaman Zhou. We’ll recap the day shortly as there’s been plenty going on.

But before that, a little more from WA premier Mark McGowan’s press conference from a few minutes ago.

McGowan said a third of the jobs created across the country in August had been in his state and he wanted to “continue on this trajectory” and keep the state’s economy moving.

But he said he had asked Neville Power, the chairman of the national Covid-19 commission board, to talk to some national companies that he said were still asking their WA staff to work from home.

This is where institutions have national policies for conditions in Sydney and Melbourne that are not applicable here.

I’ll be handing the blog over to Graham Readfearn now, who will take you through the rest of the day.

McGowan is now addressing the lifting of arrivals caps, announced earlier today.

He says that the federal government initially wanted the state to double its intake of returned Australians by 28 September, which he refused.

He said that lifting the cap “overnight” would have been “reckless”.

WA has now agreed to a staggered system where they will gradually increase the number of arrivals, starting with 200 on 28 September, rising to 500 on 12 October.

“We have been asking for federal government support, given quarantine is a federal government responsibility under the constitution. However, the federal government is of the view that states need to continue to manage quarantine.”

McGowan says that WA may also need to delay some elective surgery across the state, as more medical staff are deployed to hotel quarantine.

“I’m glad the federal government agreed to provide more Australian Defence Force support and adjust the earlier decision.”

He adds that WA has received 4031 international passengers so far, which he says is the second highest number of overseas arrivals of any state.

The WA premier, Mark McGowan, is speaking now.

He says that under eased restrictions, outdoor events and music festivals could go ahead, if they have approved safety plans.

“Events like the Wave Rock festival, Spring in the Valley, and suburban and regional shows can now go ahead with Covid safety plans”.

Also in sport, Melbourne Storm player Christian Welch has said he is “incredibly remorseful” for a Covid-19 rule breach.

Welch is in isolation and is awaiting the results of a Covid-19 test after he invited an unregistered guest to his room overnight on the Sunshine Coast, AAP reports. The prop will now miss the Storm’s Saturday night match against the Wests Tigers.

From midnight, Melbourne players and staff were free of strict quarantine “bubble” conditions, given it had been two weeks since they’d played a team from NSW.

However it’s believed the woman, who was stopped by police as she departed, had arrived before that deadline while she wasn’t on registered guest list.

“I’m incredibly remorseful and sorry for my actions,” Welch said in a statement. “I love this game and everything it has given me and I’m shattered that I have let everyone down.

“Calling my parents to let them know about this was the worst phone call I’ve ever made. I know it’s a privilege to play in the NRL and I want to apologise to all for any damage I have caused.”

The Storm briefed the NRL Integrity Unit and Queensland government early on Friday once notified of the breach, which is their first since relocating from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast in July.

Chief executive Dave Donaghy said he spoke to Queensland’s chief health officer Dr Jeannette Young on Friday who assured him there was very low risk of Covid-19 transmission among the community.

The club expects the results of Welch’s test in 24 hours.

“We’re confident the test won’t come back anything other than negative but it has to go through a process,” Donaghy said.

Storm and Welch will now await the findings of the NRL Integrity Unit, with the 26-year-old facing a potential fine.