We’re going to wrap up the blog for the night. Thanks for sticking with us through the day, we’ll see you again tomorrow. Here’s a recap of what made news today.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has extended the lockdown for Greater Sydney until the end of September after NSW recorded 642 new local cases and four deaths on Friday. The Premier said the lockdown extension with a suite of new restrictions - including mandatory outdoor masks across NSW unless exercising and a curfew in Sydney’s west and south-west - was based on a sudden escalation in cases and police feedback.
Victoria is bracing for a statewide lockdown after 12 new COVID-19 cases were uncovered in the regional city of Shepparton. The government’s most senior ministers met on Friday evening to discuss additional restrictions including the closure of childcare centres and the construction industry, a further tightening of the one-hour exercise limit and the reimposition of a regional lockdown
Prime Minister Scott Morrison is pushing state leaders to stick by the national reopening plan, telling them they made a deal with Australians on coronavirus vaccination targets and have to keep up their end of the bargain.
Sixty more Australians and Afghan nationals have been evacuated from Kabul on an Australian military plane as desperate locals say the already perilous journey to the city’s airport through Taliban checkpoints is becoming more dangerous.