Victoria is "throwing everything at it," NSW is making you pay for it, and Scott Morrison is giving it the razor, as the coronavirus pandemic refuses to yield.
In Victoria Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton warns the pandemic is far from its peak as residents of one of Melbourne's public housing towers are returned to hard lockdown after a spate of new infections.
Victoria has recorded 273 new cases today and another death.
The Victorian spike is straining its relationship with its neighbours, with a Melbourne man testing positive in NSW and South Australia deploying the military to help guard its border.
Most Victorian students are set to return to online learning as part of efforts to slow the spread.
Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed prep to year 10 students in locked-down metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will learn from home from July 20 until at least August 19.
How's this for a welcome home? NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is giving returning overseas travellers a "glad to see you" bill for up to $3000 for quarantine. The Premier said the cost of coughing up for hotel quarantine had cost the taxpayer $65 million, so from Saturday it's user pays.
The federal government is also sending the bill in the mail, turning off childcare fee support for families in most parts of the country from Monday.
In response to potential political persecutions in Hong Kong after China's imposition of new national security laws, some 10,000 Hong Kong passport-holders in Australia will have the opportunity to apply for permanent residency.
In the US President Donald Trump has performed what we can safely call an "about face", finally following his own government's medical advice and wearing a mask in public while visiting a hospital in Washington yesterday. The presidential "cover-up" came as the pandemic continues to spin out of control in the US, with 66,600 cases being recorded on Saturday.
More than 60 US marines based on Japan's island of Okinawa have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in recent days.
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