Coronavirus: Everything that’s happened in past 24 hours

It has been another frantic day of coronavirus developments in Australia. Here’s everything you need to know about how it will affect you.

Australia’s coronavirus death toll has reached 50 and the number of confirmed cases has passed 6000 today.

A 62-year-old woman died at Royal Adelaide Hospital this morning, while Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews also announced today that another person had died overnight.

That comes after seven coronavirus deaths were announced yesterday in the deadliest day of the outbreak so far.

There are now 6015 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia, with 2734 in New South Wales, 1212 in Victoria, 943 in Queensland, 420 in South Australia, 481 in Western Australia, 98 in Tasmania, 99 in the Australian Capital Territory and 28 in the Northern Territory.

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A 62-year-old woman died from coronavirus at the Royal Adelaide Hospital this morning. Picture: David Mariuz/AAP

WHAT WE KNOW

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced today that rate of new case growth has slowed from more than 20 per cent to around 2 per cent a day.

He said while this was “very encouraging”, Australia still has a “long way to go”.

“Through the actions we have taken to date, we have bought Australia valuable time to chart a way out over the next six months,” the Prime Minister said.

“But there are no guarantees, and it could well take far longer. Our country will look different on the other side, but Australians will always be Australians.”

With the Easter long weekend coming up people have been told to stay home in a bid to restrict the spread of the virus.

Health Minister Greg Hunt warned abandoning social distancing rules over the long weekend would undo everything done to curtail the crisis.

“The virus doesn’t take a holiday,” Mr Hunt told the Ten Network.

The police are cracking down on people not following strict social distancing and quarantine rules, with authorities on the look out for people leaving the house without a reasonable excuse.

Police will be out in force over the Easter long weekend. Picture: John Grainger

NSW police will patrol caravan parks and use technology such as number plate recognition to ensure people are following social distancing rules over the Easter long weekend.

Commissioner Mick Fuller on Wednesday said police would use all of their powers and technology – including number plate recognition and road cameras – to identify people who shouldn’t be travelling under social distancing restrictions.

“The big focus will be on our country roads, those backstreets, our main highways, the caravan parks right across country NSW,” he told reporters.

“People will be given one opportunity to pack up, go back to your home state, go back home, otherwise we will unfortunately have to issue tickets.”

WHAT WE DON’T KNOW

For some Aussies it seems like there might be an end in sight for the strict social restrictions we are currently living under.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said today there may soon be room to “tweak” the current restrictions across the state but she didn’t want to “raise expectations”.

“We know that the restrictions are having an effect, but it takes us a couple of weeks to get the data through the health experts to be able to advise us,” she said.

“So I don’t want to raise expectations, but at the same time, there could be a chance, if the health experts deem it appropriate for us, to look at some relaxations. It’s a rolling monthly basis that we’ll look at that.”

Across Australia, the numbers of new coronavirus infections are coming down after social distancing measures were introduced during March.

A public health expert has said there was now the prospect of Australia returning to “semi- reasonable normality” in the short term, although you should banish hopes of returning to bustling bars and crowded stadiums for a bit.

However, it isn’t exactly clear when this easing of restrictions might happen, with Ms

Berejiklian’s comments in stark contradiction to recent remarks made by her Victorian counterpart.

Premier Daniel Andrews flagged on Tuesday that Victoria could be heading for stage four restrictions.

Mr Andrews said while cases are stabilising across the state, it is no time for complacency and further restrictions are possible.

“If and when there is a need to do more, we won’t hesitate to do that. We know there’ll be pain, we know there will be disruption, but that is a price worth paying if it saves lives,” he said.

“That’s what the first three stages have done, the stability in these numbers hasn’t happened by accident.”