Australia Covid live news: NSW to give update; Victoria’s highest ever daily cases; Melbourne enters fourth day of protests

Victoria records 766 new Covid cases and four deaths; spit hood ban passes South Australian upper house; one new local case in Qld; parcel delivery workers strike; PM speaks in Washington DC. Follow all the day’s news

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2.33am BST

Jeroen Weimar:

Of the 21 cases in regional Victoria, one case in Ballarat, a known primary close contact that has been isolating for their entire infectious period.

We have eight cases in Mitchell shire. Six are linked to known cases in three different households and their isolation protocols are strong. We also have a truck driver based in Mitchell shire who was picked up in the routine surveillance testing we introduced a number of months ago which highlights the importance of that routine, testing and picking up the important cases.

2.32am BST

Victorian testing commander Jeroen Weimar is up now, breaking down today’s record case numbers:

In the northern suburbs, we have 468 cases, that is over 60% of today’s cases. Particularly call out the local government area of Hume where we have 264 cases in yesterday’s numbers. That is a 60% increase in the last four days.

We are doing a lot of work with the community in Hume to see what we can do to support them and reduce the rate of transmission. The suburbs of concern include Craigieburn, Roxborough Park and Meadow Heights.

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