Australia now has 100 cases of coronavirus as the infection continues to spread across the country.
Schools are being forced to close and thousands of people are self-isolating.
There are 55 confirmed cases in NSW where two people have died. Authorities are investigating 476 cases, and almost 8000 people have been tested and cleared of infection in NSW.
In Victoria there has been 15 confirmed cases and WA has had six.
Government to spend $30m on informing Aussies about virus
A $30 million campaign will be launched to inform Australians about the coronavirus.
The Federal Government package will be aimed at the general public, health and aged care industries.
It will outline how to prevent the spread of the virus, what to do if symptoms develop and where to seek help.
The campaign comes after complaints from medical professionals about a lack of detailed and consistent information around the virus.
It's understood the campaign will include a mixture of TV, radio and print advertisements, as well as posters at bus stops
Three new coronavirus cases in Queensland
Three new cases of coronavirus have emerged in Queensland, bringing the total number of cases in the state to 18.
A 42-year-old woman from the Sunshine Coast has been confirmed as having the virus and is in isolation in a stable condition at the Sunshine Coast University Hospital.
She is the partner of a 38-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 on March 8 after travelling from London through Dubai.
A 46-year-old Brisbane woman has contracted the disease after recently travelling to Austria and France.
She is in isolation in a stable condition at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
The third case is a 22-year-old man who recently returned to Brisbane after travelling to Spain, Italy and France.
He is in isolation in a stable condition in The Prince Charles Hospital.
"Contact tracing is underway for these three new cases, in addition to the previously confirmed cases. We will notify the community if any other public health alerts are required," Queensland Health said in a statement.
"Our contact tracing methods are tried and tested. Only those who have had face-to-face contact with a confirmed case for a period over 15 minutes, or those who have shared an enclosed space with a confirmed case for a prolonged period of more than two hours, are considered as a close contact."
Aussies warned of what will happen in pandemic
Victorians have been told all their schools may be closed and entire sectors forced to work from home when the coronavirus reaches a pandemic phase.
Premier Daniel Andrews has warned the measures are laid out in the state’s COVID-19 pandemic plan, released on Tuesday.
Another three cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Victoria on Tuesday, including the first locally transmitted.
They bring the total number of coronavirus cases to 18.
Mr Andrews says it is a matter of “when, not if” Victoria will move into a pandemic phase with rapid transmission of the virus.
Picture: David Crosling/AAP
“We will need to ask Victorians to do things we have never asked them to do before,” he told reporters.
The plan includes the “inevitability” all schools will close for some time and entire sectors or workforces will have to work from home, he said. Big events will also have to be called off.
“Now’s not the time for those things but that time will come and it’s appropriate, just like fire – to be frank with people.
“Some of these potential measures are serious and go beyond anything we have experienced in Victoria,” Mr Andrews said.
“But when it comes to protecting those most at risk, we need to be ready
This comes after the state confirmed its first case of local transmission, with Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos saying more cases are expected.
AAP
First big winners of stimulus plan revealed
The aged care sector and small businesses are expected to be the big winners in the Morrison Government’s coronavirus stimulus package, as the final details of the multi-billion dollar plan are finalised.
Health and aged care will receive hundreds of millions in extra funding under the stimulus package, according to Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell.
“The package will include hundreds of millions for health and aged care, I can reveal. Nursing homes are helped out in terms of dealing with the crisis; GPs are helped in terms of them dealing with the crisis, in terms of screening and in terms of care in the community,” Mr Clennell said.
“We have already seen a commitment for a billion dollars for health and now we see this extra of hundreds of millions for the aged and care and health sector.”
He claimed the government’s plan will also see export costs temporarily axed and that small businesses will receive cash payments.
“There will certainly be cash payments, I am told, to small businesses,” Mr Clennell said.
“As I understand it the committee was told there is an expectation of this crisis lasting around six months before a bounce back. That is what the government is planning for at the moment.”
Australia’s first drive-through coronavirus testing station has been set up at an Adelaide hospital.
It is one of two formal clinics of its kind that exists globally, although a Melbourne doctor runs a solo operation with a similar structure in the car park outside his practice.
Patients will drive through the site at the Repatriation Hospital, wind down their windows and be tested directly out of the car window by SA Pathology nurses.
Those tested will have a swab taken from the back of their throat and nose from the comfort of their driver’s seat.
The service is only offered for people referred by their general practitioner. The station will be open up to nine hours a day, testing patients once every 20 minutes.
WATCH: Australia's first drive-through coronavirus testing clinic is opening in South Australia.
Patients must be referred by a GP and more sites could be set up if it’s successful. Full details at 6.00pm in #9Newspic.twitter.com/wst0xq1MfD
SA Pathology’s clinical services director Dr Tom Dodd says the number could be escalated depending on the demand over time.
“A number of GPs, for a variety of reasons, are not able to easily collect specimens so this will be a useful alternative to send patients for specimen collection,” Dr Dodd said.
“We believe this will be effective in supporting isolation and barriers for patients with respiratory infections.”
The drive-through clinic comes after three dedicated COVID-19 clinics opened in the state within a week.
AAP
Chance of being infected twice 'highly unlikely'
Health Minister Greg Hunt has said the advise the government has received from medical experts is that it is "highly unlikely" people can be reinfected after recovering from the coronavirus.
"What this does is it gives people a very clear hope that the disease has a certain course, and then it begins to reside," he said.
"And that advice, received from both the Deputy Chief Medical Officer and the Doherty Institute over the weekend, is an extremely important development."
Picture: Dean Lewins/AAP
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said research showed the coronavirus isn't like influenza, which mutates rapidly meaning people are susceptible to reinfection.
"These types of virus, which is related to the SARS and MERS virus, tend not to have the same sort of mutation," he said.
"But we still aren't absolutely sure, as the Minister said, but we think it's unlikely that someone who's cleared an infection would be susceptible to reinfection."
Dr Murphy also said the 14 day isolation period that is being recommended to the public is also "constantly under review".
"But as the data emerges around the incubation period, it does seem to be more in the 5-day to 7-day period, and the 14 days does have a margin for error," he said.
"It would help significantly if we could consider a reduction in the quarantine time.
"At the moment, we are basing our advice from our expert committee, Communicable Disease Network Australia, and international consensus – but that is under very active review. But no recommendation to change has been made at the moment."
Three new virus cases in Victoria
Victorian health authorities have confirmed three new coronavirus cases have emerged, including what is believed to be the state's first human-to-human transmission.
One of the cases is a man in his 70s who arrived in Melbourne on flight EK404 from Singapore on March 6.
“The flight manifest of EK404 is being obtained to begin contact tracing of passengers in the same and adjacent rows. He had earlier travelled to Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Singapore," Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said.
A woman who also tested positive for the virus is a household contact of a Victorian person who was confirmed as having the COVID-19 virus after returning from the US on February 28.
Dr Sutton said this is believed to be Victoria's first confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission.
The third case is a man in his 70s who arrived in Melbourne on March 8 on flight VA24 from Los Angeles.
Authorities are working to contact people who were in close proximity to the patients on the two flights.
These new cases bring the states total number of coronavirus patients to 18.
Not everyone who is sick needs to be tested
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has told the public that not everyone needs to be tested for the coronavirus, even if they are displaying "acute respiratory symptoms".
Dr Murphy sought to clear up the confusion over who should undergo to COVID-19 test after there was a surge of people requesting the test who didn't need it.
"Our focus at the moment is testing people who are returned travellers, who have acute respiratory symptoms – cough, sore throat and the like. And contacts of confirmed cases," he said.
"The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee will be making a recommendation about whether healthcare workers should also be tested in some circumstances, but that recommendation is still to come.
"But at the moment we are not recommending that general members of the community with acute respiratory symptoms – colds, flu, and the like – be tested."
Picture: Gary Ramage
He said if more cases of transmission within the community come to light then that advise may change but for now only returned travellers and those that have been in contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient should be tested.
In order to help with the confusion around coronavirus testing those working for the national coronavirus hotline and GPs have been given clear information about who should be tested and where they will go to get the test.
"I think everything was going very well until we had a big run on tests on the weekend, and that's caused a little bit of confusion," Dr Murphy said.
"But we will make sure that that information is well out there in the hotline, well out there in the minds of GPs, and make sure that those private pathology labs who are now gearing up to take on the testing, which was initially done just by the public health labs, have identified those collection centres where they are going to do them, and that information will be made readily available within days to all health professionals."
Travel warnings for Italy being reviewed
Health Minister Greg Hunt and Prime Minister Scott Morrison have requested a review of the travel advisories for Italy, due to the growth of coronavirus cases in the country.
"We have done that obviously on the basis of the growth in cases over the last 48 hours in particular, and with regards to Italy's own decisions," Mr Hunt told reporters in Sydney this afternoon.
"That advice will be forthcoming over the course of the next 24 hours."
Australia currently has a travel ban on people arriving from mainland China, Iran and South Korea. The screening process for travellers arriving from Italy has recently been ramped up due to the outbreak of cases there.
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said there has been a "substantial increase" in cases of COVID-19 in Italy.
"But also a very substantial increase in deaths, unfortunately, which would suggest that there is a very large outbreak in Italy," he said.
"And that's prompted the Italian authorities to take some fairly significant measures.
"As you know, they've extended their controls beyond just the northern outbreak region and they've taken a lot of measures – the sort of measures that a country should take to try and contain and delay further spread."
Dr Murphy said the largest outbreak Australia has seen is still in Sydney, with NSW Health continually working to track and control the spread of the virus.
Miley Cyrus cancels bushfire relief concert
Miley Cyrus has cancelled her trip to Australia for a bushfire benefit concert due to coronavirus fears.
The 27-year-old singer was set to perform at the event in Melbourne on March 13 alongside The Veronicas, Lil Nas X and DJ Seb Fontaine.
However, she announced on Twitter that the growing coronavirus crisis meant she could not travel to Australia at this time.
I am so disappointed to not be there, but I have to do what is right to protect the health and safety of my band and crew. I will still be making a donation to help the victims of the Australian bush fire. I’m sorry to miss everyone in Australia, but I will be back soon.
