PM

A warning in New South Wales as people are caught going about their business while sick with COVID; More bickering and point scoring around the vaccine roll out; And a hundred years of the Communist party in China, correspondent Bill Birtles looks at the big celebrations centred around Xi Jinping.

The tough choice for younger Australians and their GPs. As health authorities and politicians weigh in - is AstraZeneca right for them? In New South Wales, the Premier's hinting the two-week lockdown could do the job, despite more than 20 new COVID cases; And a voice of gratitude, Afghan translator Nawid Aaman joins PM, he arrived in Australia last weekend, saved from the Taliban.

Parts of Queensland's in a COVID lockdown after an unvaccinated Brisbane hospital worker caught the disease and took a trip north; A rush of interest in AstraZeneca vaccinations at some GP clinics, now that doctors are indemnified from legal action if patients experience ill effects; And an urgent plea for resettlement on behalf of a senior Afghan government official who helped Australians during the war and reconstruction.

The COVID alert escalates, with cases in four states and territories, in locked down Sydney police issue fines for a protest and sunbaking; The six people who didn't contract COVID at a birthday party were vaccinated; Politicians keep saying their pandemic actions are based on the best health advice, but one epidemiologist tells us we don't know who's really making the decision; And threatening punishment, Myanmar's embassy demands expats studying in Australia pledge loyalty to the military junta.

A growing COVID outbreak forces people who live and work in Central and Eastern Sydney to stay home for a week from midnight; Businesses warn they'll need financial support if the lockdown drags on, the sudden closure's already costing them dearly; And we have a report from our North America correspondent in Miami – where dozens of people are still missing after an apartment tower collapsed.

The 'scariest time' for New South Wales, says its Premier, but she's not imposing a lockdown yet, despite COVID case numbers climbing; Even short of a lockdown, Restrictions in Sydney's hot spots are tough for tourism and hospitality, is there a case for fast tracked financial help? And Hong Kongers line up to get their hands on the last ever edition of the pro-democracy paper called Apple Daily, it's been run out of business by Beijing.

Sydney masks up as the COVID outbreak expands across the city and other states impose tough border rules; and the Taliban threat facing Australia's former interpreters in Afghanistan, veteran Stuart McCarthy says only an emergency evacuation can save them.

Tourism businesses and the Reef authority are as outraged as the government at a threat to list the Great Barrier Reef as in danger; One of Australia's top climate and oceans specialists Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg tells PM that there's no surprise the reef is at risk; And as the Sydney COVID cluster grows, so too the concern about so-called fleeting transmission of the Delta variant;

Barnaby Joyce returns to Nationals' leadership after a three-year break on the backbench; State and Territory leaders receive a reassurance about vaccine stocks, but the AstraZeneca rejig means the rollout is as stretched as ever; And what options are there for anybody who defies the official advice and rejects a second Astra Zeneca vaccine?

New South Wales battles a smouldering COVID outbreak, with transmissions through brief, passing contact. Will its rhetoric on avoiding lockdowns hold? Doctors desperate for more Pfizer shots as they cancel AstraZeneca bookings for patients in their 50s; And a backlash after Whitehaven Coal chair and former Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile is appointed Chancellor at the University of Newcastle.