Thank you very much for following our rolling live coverage of the most important news from around the nation. It’s time to sign off now, but we’ll leave you with a recap of the headlines. The blog will be back again first thing tomorrow morning.
- Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced Australia’s vaccine rollout will be accelerated by a deal to swap doses with Singapore, with 500,000 Pfizer doses to be received in September and the same amount sent to the city-state in December.
- Two women, one aged in her 40s and the other in her 60s, have died with COVID-19 in Victoria. The state recorded 76 new cases on Tuesday and will finalise a plan that includes what restrictions can be eased once certain case number thresholds are reached.
- More than 150 people have been arrested in NSW following 79 statewide anti-lockdown protests, with almost 600 fines for public health breaches issued.
- NSW reported 1164 new local coronavirus cases on Tuesday and three deaths as Premier Gladys Berejiklian revealed two-thirds of the state’s adult population has received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
- The AFL has announced that this year’s grand final will be played in Perth on Saturday, September 25. WA Premier Mark McGowan described it as “an historic moment for our state” though “tempered by the fact that our brothers and sisters in Victoria, are going through a very hard time”.
- The ACT has recorded 13 new coronavirus cases overnight and each infectious person is passing on the virus to less than one new person on average, but the territory’s lockdown will be extended to September 17.