PM

An urgent call to get vulnerable people off the streets and into empty hotel rooms across the country

There's deep concern about the risk coronavirus poses to the health of Indigenous Australians and last week the National Cabinet imposed strict isolation measures for remote communities for their own safety.

It's evident that people in the most crowded spaces - supermarkets - are getting too close. Now some customers are concerned they'll catch the virus while shopping.

A Melbourne GP at the frontline of the coronavirus crisis says he's gravely concerned there's still a lack of personal protective equipment, or PPE, for health professionals - and it risks undoing any positive projections for how the system's going to cope as the virus continues.

Both the Job Seeker and Job Keeper allowances may literally be life saving for some Australians who would otherwise face overwhelming financial hardship.

The Health Minister says the all-important “coronavirus curve” has begun to flatten in Australia. The rate of growth of cases has slowed to 9% in the past few days.

Australians who would otherwise be out of work will receive the Job Keeper payment, worth $1,500 a fortnight, after a massive funding pledge from the government; Experts are taking some hope from a slowing rate of increase of COVID-19 cases in Australia, but economist, Professor Quentin Grafton warns we need to do much better; and some Australians who've made it home from overseas say they're hungry and being treated like prisoners in forced quarantine.

Imagine being pregnant in New York City right now, where more than 33,000 COVID-19 cases have been recorded, with more than 770 deaths, and where the Mayor says there's only one week's worth of medical supplies.

Thousands of Australians across the globe are still trying to get home to hunker down in isolation. The federal government's plans to repatriate some Australians from a cruise ship in Uruguay have hit a snag, while others languish in countries with no prospect of a mercy flight.

A new paper today says despite some signs that the rate of growth of infections in Australia is slowing, it is still exponential, and more has to be done to get the rate down.