Live breaking news: James Merlino addresses the media after three new cases confirmed

After spending hours pleading for more vaccinations this week, this golden slip-up couldn't have been better timed.

Welcome to Rush Hour, news.com.au's live breaking news blog.

Victoria has announced three new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the state’s cluster to 63.

The state is continuing with its record number of tests. More than 57,000 test results were received in a 24 hour period. More than 23, 000 Covid-19 vaccine doses were also administered in the same period.

Updates

4:32 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

NZ extends travel bubble pause with Vic

New Zealand has extended its travel bubble pause with Victoria after the state government decided to continue the Covid lockdown.

New Zealand Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the travel pause with Victoria would be extended a further six days.

“I acknowledge this extension will cause further inconvenience to those who have already had their travel plans disrupted,” Mr Hipkins told reporters today.

The trans-Tasman travel bubble has paused with Victoria while it deals with a Covid outbreak. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

“I also acknowledge that having been prevented from returning for almost two weeks, New Zealanders will be wanting some certainty around when they can start to plan to come home.”

New Zealand officials have assessed the risk as medium for Melbourne but decreasing for the greater Melbourne area.

Its government announced plans for the “carefully managed” return of travellers from Melbourne to New Zealand, from 11.59pm next Tuesday.

– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire

4:08 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

NSW extends alert Victoria border rules

Stay-at-home restrictions have been extended for an extra week in NSW for anyone in the state who has been to Victoria since 4pm on Thursday, May 27.

In a statement this afternoon, NSW Health said the measures are in line with Victoria's restrictions and will be reviewed by authorities on June 10.

"Anyone in NSW who has been in Victoria, including regional Victoria, after 4pm on Thursday 27 May must continue to follow stay-at-home directions for 14 days, or until the order is lifted," the department said.

"For NSW residents living along the Victorian border, the stay-at-home requirement will only apply to people who have been outside the defined border region in Victoria since 4pm on Thursday 27 May."

3:36 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

Shock pic from inside hotel quarantine

A shocking image has surfaced from inside a Sydney quarantine hotel, prompting a police investigation.

The image obtained by NCA NewsWire shows just how close members of the public could come to returned travellers checking in to the Sofitel Wentworth in Phillip St.

The person who snapped the image was travelling down an escalator when they noticed a small group of people lining up to check in.

Another member of the public was also travelling down at the same time while a man dressed in army gear was moving upwards.

NSW Police are investigating a possible breach. Picture: NCA NewsWire

A worker, wearing a mask and gloves, stood at the bottom of the escalator in front of a pile of suitcases. A small rope separated him and the returned travellers from community members.

In the far right corner of the image, one of the returned travellers is spotted holding a bag.

The woman who snapped the alarming image told NCA NewsWire army personnel were guarding the door and "they were ferrying regular people" toward the escalators.

– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire

2:59 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

Toddler with Covid-19 transferred back to hotel

A two-year-old boy who was being treated for Covid-19 at Adelaide Women's and Children's Hospital after arriving from overseas has been transferred back to his medi-hotel.

SA Health said the child is doing well and is back with his family at the Tom's Court medi-hotel.

They have all tested negative to the virus so far.

2:56 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

Police probe KFC link to shooting

A KFC parking lot outside Canberra has become the focus of a police investigation as detectives probe whether there are any links between a shooting and a knife incident.

NSW Police launched a strike force today after a 39-year-old man went to Queanbeyan Hospital to seek medical treatment for a gunshot wound to his lower torso.

The KFC in Queanbeyan where the knife incident happened. Picture: Google Maps

Police suspect the man’s injury could have links to an earlier incident in a KFC parking lot on Waniassa Road in Queanbeyan East involving two men aged 32 and 60 who said they were threatened by a man with a knife.

Detectives were told the two men were sitting in a Kia Cerato parked at the chicken restaurant around 6.15am when an unknown man got into the car and threatened them.

The man then fled the scene with another man and a woman in a blue Ford Focus with the NSW licence plate CZ72NM.

– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire

2:29 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

How to get your $500 lockdown payment

Melburnians will have to prove they have less than $10,000 in liquid assets and have “insufficient” leave entitlements to receive a new $500 Covid-lockdown emergency payment.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison today confirmed people in hot spots would be eligible for weekly emergency payments to help them through the crisis.

People living in hot spots aged over 17 who ordinarily worked 20 hours a week will receive $500 a week, while those who worked less 20 hours would receive $325.

Melburnians will have to prove they have less than $10,000 in liquid assets and have “insufficient” leave entitlements. Picture: iStock

“They will be able to do this from Tuesday in making an application online with Services Australia, and they will also be a number they can contact. There will be further information provided about that,” Mr Morrison said.

To be eligible, applicants must declare would have worked were it not from the lockdown, and have lost income as result.

They must report less than $10,000 in liquid assets, and have “insufficient” leave entitlements, including special pandemic and sick leave.

They will not be required to use annual leave.

– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire

2:12 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

Labor's swipe at PM over Victoria scheme

Labor has said the Prime Minister had to be "dragged kicking and screaming" to approve a support payment for Victorians affected by the state's Covid-19 situation.

Off the back of Scott Morrison announcing the $500 scheme, Deputy Opposition Leader Richard Marles told reporters the PM is "always about the politics and as a result, events constantly lead the Prime Minister and not the other way around".

"And of course, none of this would be happening in Victoria right now but for the failure of Scott Morrison and his government to take responsibility for and put in place fit-for-purpose quarantine in this country," Mr Marles said.

"And the danger associated with the painfully slow rollout of the vaccine in this country has been put into sharp relief by what is occurring in Victoria now.

"The moment that the Prime Minister said that this wasn't a race was the moment Australia started losing."

Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that Mr Morrison's "first instinct all throughout this week has been to try and duck responsibility for what is going on in Victoria and to try to duck and shove responsibility to everyone else to assist Victorians for a really difficult period".

"This Prime Minister always wants to blame somebody else, he wants to avoid responsibility, and we have seen that for much of the week."

1:47 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

All the new virus rules in Victoria tonight

Victoria will yet again be divided by two different sets of Covid-19 restrictions with the following new changes to the rules taking effect in Melbourne from 11.59pm tonight:

• There are still only five reasons to leave home: Shopping for supplies, authorised work and study, care and care giving, exercise and getting vaccinated.
• People will be able to travel a little bit further for exercise and shopping with an expanded 10km radius.
• Students in years 11 and 12 will return to face-to-face learning, and that includes students in other year levels who are undertaking a Unit 3/4VCE subject.
• Outdoor jobs will be added to the authorised list for approved work – landscaping, painting, installing solar panels or letterboxing.
• Mask-wearing rules remain in place.

There has also been a raft of changes announced for those living in regional Victoria:

• The five reasons to leave home are removed.
• No limit on the distance you can travel from home.
• You can only travel to Melbourne for a permitted reason and you must follow Melbourne restrictions once you are there.
• Outdoor gathering limits can occur with up to 10 people – infants under 12 months are not included in that cap.
• Food and hospitality will be open for seated service only, with a cap of 50 people per venue, subject to density requirements of one per 4 square metres.
• Retail can open and personal services such as beauty and tattooing can resume for services where masks can remain on.
• Religious gatherings and ceremonies are permitted for 50 people plus one faith leader indoors or outdoors.
• Gathering limits for weddings will be 10 people and for funerals, 50 mourners.
• Junior outdoor community sport will return and adults will be able to resume training outdoors.
• Outdoor pools, including swimming classes, can operate with a limit of 50 people with a density quota of one per 4 square metres.
• Libraries and toy libraries can open with a cap of 50 people subject to density requirements.
• Outdoor entertainment venues – seated and unseated – will have a patron cap of 50 people or 50 per cent of the venue's seating capacity (whichever is lower).

– Additional reporting NCA NewsWire

1:38 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

$500 cash bonus for Victorians

Scott Morrison has announced a disaster payment of $500 for eligible workers stood down without pay in Victoria but it comes with strings attached.

The hotspot funding will apply across Australia for any lockdowns longer than seven days to “avoid any unnecessary hardship for Australians”.

The payment will be $500, made on a week-by-week basis, for people normally working 20 hours a week or more, or $325 for those working less than 20 hours.

Scott Morrison has announced a one-off disaster payment for eligible workers stood down without pay in Victoria but it comes with strings attached. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Only workers aged 17 or older and employed before lockdown will be eligible, and they must be unable to work due to the restrictions in place in their home or place of business.

Workers will not be eligible if they are already claiming other special pandemic leave and they must self-declare they have liquid assets of less than $10,000.

“We are talking about somebody getting through the next week,” Mr Morrison said.

“Who would normally be in an economic situation where every dollar counts. Where those have independent means of supporting themselves for a week then I think they would agree that reaching out for Commonwealth taxpayer-funded assistance is not something they would consider reasonable for such a short period of time.”

– Samantha Maiden

1:18 pm June 3, 2021 Highlight

'That will run tonight': Merlino's sheepish slip

Whether you support his lockdown measures or you're flat-out sick of seeing him on TV this week, you've got to hand it to James Merlino.

The Acting Premier, filling the shoes of the recovering Dan Andrews, has spent hours in front of cameras since the re-emergence of Covid-19 in Victoria. It was only a matter of time before a Freudian slip worthy of a headline passed his lips.

Today, Mr Merlino addressed the media, informing regional Victoria it would be escaping lockdown at 11:59. He then went on to call for increased vaccination rates, claiming it was "the only way out of the pandemic". His next line, however, sent a chuckle through the press conference.

"The vaccine is our enemy!" he said, before instantly backtracking and predicting the slew of headlines to follow.

"Sorry, I will start again. Here we go, that will run tonight. The virus, the virus is our enemy and the virus doesn't sleep. The virus mutates, the virus thinks that this is a race.

"The only way out of this pandemic is the successful rollout of the vaccine.

"I said yesterday that only 2% of our population is fully vaccinated. Only 2%. Only two out of 10 people have received their first vaccine. There are countries around the world where they have got fully vaccinated populations well over 50%."