Tasmania has reported 11 new cases of the coronavirus this evening, bringing its total to 122.
Eight of these new cases are health care workers. Two of them are patients at North West Regional Hospital.
Coronavirus Australia live updates: NSW minister Don Harwin resigns after breaking rules
The NSW government minister who was fined $1000 by police after breaking the coronavirus rules has quit - but without apologising.
Don Harwin, the NSW government minister who was fined $1000 by police after breaking the coronavirus rules, has quit.
Mr Harwin released an unapologetic statement this evening, merely saying he did not want to become a "distraction" for Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
"Today I've offered my resignation to the Premier as a minister in her government," he said.
"There is nothing more important than the work of the government in fighting the coronavirus crisis. I will not allow my circumstances to be a distraction from that work, and I very much regret that my residential arrangements have become an issue during this time.
"At all times I have sought to act in accordance with public health orders, and I sought advice that my living arrangements complied with those orders.
"I remain confident that I have acted in accordance with those orders. I know however that perception is just as important during these times."
RELATED: Follow more coronavirus news
There are more than 6200 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia with 2822 in New South Wales, 1241 in Victoria, 965 in Queensland, 428 in South Australia, 506 in Western Australia, 122 in Tasmania, 103 in the Australian Capital Territory and 28 in the Northern Territory .
The death toll now stands at 54.
Follow our live, rolling coverage below.
Updates
11 new cases in Tasmania
Child of Qantas crew member infected
The asthmatic child of a Qantas cabin crew member has tested positive for the coronavirus after contracting it from their mother, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Three other family members and flatmates of Qantas staff have been infected. The staff in question were exempt from the 14-day mandatory quarantine rules that applied to most people returning from overseas.
Under changes announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week, crew in that situation are now required to self-isolate for a fortnight.
“This is exactly what the workers were fearful of, and now the tragic consequence of these is that they've had members of the family infected,” said Michele O’Neil, President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions.
Another cruise ship stuff-up?
Channel 7 reports another cruise ship, Ovation of the Seas, was allowed to dock in Sydney despite advising federal authorities it had 13 sick passengers on board.
Passengers from the ship disembarked without health checks. Since then, 98 passengers have tested positive for the coronavirus and one of them, a 72-year-old man, has died.
The ship docked on March 18. Two days earlier, crew members made this announcement.
“In conference with ABF, or the Australian Border Force today, we have the confirmation that none of our guests will be required to self-isolate or anything of that sort," passengers were told.
“We have a full clean bill of health so to speak.
“Whether you are international or going back home in Australia, you will walk off and go home at your leisure.”
Watch this space.
Rapid testing for regional NSW
Regional NSW towns will soon have access to rapid coronavirus testing, meaning samples won’t have to be sent to Sydney for analysis.
Broken Hill health workers will over Easter repurpose a machine used to rapidly test flu samples so it can detect the novel coronavirus.
It should be operational by Monday and more regional areas will follow as specific hardware is imported.
“That is really important, particularly for the more distant sites,” NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said on Friday.
“Having that point-of-care testing, or testing that comes back in about an hour, is very useful because it gives us more rapid identification of cases.”
St Vincent’s Hospital is already using its repurposed GeneXpert machine in its emergency department and will also begin trialling another molecular test in the coming days.
Of the 137,000 people tested for coronavirus in NSW since January, 70 per cent have been in Sydney or on the Central Coast.
Just 322 people in far western NSW have been tested while northern NSW and the Murrumbidgee are the two regions were there have been fewer than one test per 1000 residents.
Those three regions account for 100 positive cases.
Dr Chant defended the current turnaround time for testing – which can see results for Sydney-based cases returned within 24 hours.
“The issue for rural and remote areas is the time it takes for specimens to come down to Sydney,” she said.
“As we get more (coronavirus) cartridges for our GeneXperts, we will be looking at deploying this test across various sites.
“We’ll have a mind to supporting rural and regional communities so we can give them access to the testing that is much more prompt in the metropolitan area.”
– AAP
Cruise ship passengers released
Hundreds of cruise ship passengers in Western Australia have just been released from quarantine.
About 200 West Australian passengers from the Vasco da Gama have been in quarantine on Rottnest Island.
There are also about 600 interstate passengers, some of whom will have to spend another fortnight in self-isolation once they return to their home states.
Rescue flight lands in Brisbane
A Virgin Australia flight from Los Angeles landed in Brisbane just after 6pm this evening, carrying more than 50 Australians.
It was one of the services the government has spoken about in recent days, which are aimed at repatriating as many stranded Australians as possible.
The passengers will of course be going into their 14-day quarantine period. We'll see how the accommodation agrees with them.
Premier welcomes Harwin's resignation
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has just reacted to the resignation of her Arts Minister, Don Harwin.
"During this health crisis, my government has asked the community to make greater sacrifices than all of us have ever had to make before," Ms Berejiklian said.
"These sacrifices are saving lives, and I am proud of the people of NSW for continuing to uphold the law in the interest of public health.
"Late last night I was advised minister Don Harwin had been fined $1000 for breaching a public health order.
"The police, who have been tasked by my government with enforcing these health orders, came to the conclusion that minister Harwin breached the order.
"Whilst minister Harwin has served the people of NSW well, and he continues to assure me that he did not break the rules, the orders in place apply equally to everybody.
"Accordingly, minister Harwin has appropriately resigned from Cabinet."
Rule-breaking minister resigns
Don Harwin, the New South Wales government minister who was busted violating the coronavirus ban on non-essential travel, has resigned.
This week we learned Mr Harwin had been splitting his time between Sydney and his Central Coast holiday home.
"Today I've offered my resignation to the Premier as a minister in her government," Mr Harwin said in a statement this evening.
"There is nothing more important than the work of the government in fighting the coronavirus crisis. I will not allow my circumstances to be a distraction from that work, and I very much regret that my residential arrangements have become an issue during this time.
"At all times I have sought to act in accordance with public health orders, and I sought advice that my living arrangements complied with those orders.
"I remain confident that I have acted in accordance with those orders. I know however that perception is just as important during these times.
"The Premier and her team are doing an outstanding job during the biggest crisis our state and nation have faced during our lifetimes.
"It is absolutely vital that they be able to focus entirely on the health and economic issues facing our community."
That is quite the non-apology.
NSW Police served Mr Harwin with a $1000 Penalty Infringement Notice last night after concluding his movements did indeed breach the public health orders.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian has not commented on Mr Harwin today. Earlier this week, she said she was "deeply disappointed" in the Arts Minister when news of his travel broke – though it must be said, she actually knew about it before then.
“I was advised a few days ago that he decided to make that his principal place to live some three weeks ago,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“Obviously given what we have asked the rest of the Sydney community to do I think it’s entirely appropriate he come back to Sydney.”
SA in 'opening rounds' of the fight
Hello, I'm here to guide you through the evening hours.
Let's start with an important warning from South Australia's deputy chief public health officer, Mike Cusack.
This afternoon Dr Cusack stressed the state was still in the "opening rounds" of its fight against the virus, despite some encouraging figures.
"The key when we see a low number of cases is not that we think we're through this in any way," he said.
"I think we're in the opening rounds of coronavirus and there is some distance yet to travel."
He said it was hard to predict when the peak of cases might hit, even though the curve does appear to be flattening.
11 new cases in Western Australia
Western Australia has recorded 11 new coronavirus cases, with four of those from the Artania cruise ship.
This brings the state's virus total to 506.
Health Minister Roger Cook said the new patients were aged between 25 and 78.
Nine of the new cases are linked to cruise ships.
"As with all cases, contact processing under way to make sure all contacts have been notified or are self isolating," Mr Cook said.
"There are currently 34 confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals and of those 17 are in ICU.
"To date, 20,638 Western Australians have been tested negative and 4221 are from regional WA and there are now 203 COVID-19 recovered cases in the state."
Join the conversation
Woman’s alleged horror act towards baby
Police are investigating a high-profile woman after it was claimed she was drugging her infant daughter while documenting the girl’s declining health on social media.
Read more
‘Censor:’ Senator defiant over abortion bill
A Nationals senator has accused the Greens of trying to “censor and silence debate” following its calls to pull his controversial abortion bill.
Read more
Urgent safety warning for kids’ medicine
Australia’s medicines watchdog says parents should immediately stop giving a popular medicine to kids under the age of six, warning of potential ‘psychiatric’ side effects.
Read more