As the day unfolded: Daniel Andrews to ease COVID-19 restrictions on Victoria from Wednesday as NSW, QLD students return to classrooms, Australian death toll stands at 97

Thanks for reading the latest updates on Australia's coronavirus response today.

Here's a recap of what happened:

• NSW public schools had their first day back under the state's phased return-to-school plan, where about a quarter of students are expected to attend school each day to complete one mode of remote learning. Here's how that went.
• The promise of a future trans-Tasman bubble is a step closer today after NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced some easing of the country's strict lockdown measures.
• Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the first relaxation to the state's lockdown rules, with five visitors allowed in homes from 11.59pm on Tuesday. Here's an explainer on what the rules are now for each state.
• The Ruby Princess inquiry was adjourned to a later date, but not before hearing that nobody told disembarking passengers to socially distance.
• Sydney restaurant operators are looking forward to welcoming guests on Friday for the first stage of COVID-19 restrictions easing in NSW,
• The global death toll surpassed 283,000 and in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the first minor easing of the country's seven-week lockdown.

We'll continue our live coverage of the pandemic overnight and into Tuesday in a new blog, which you can read here.

Thanks for joining us.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she hopes Queenslanders will be travelling around their own state by June or July, but she expects people in the southern states will have to wait a bit longer before they can visit.

It all depends on how community transmission goes as NSW and Victoria open up, Ms Palaszczuk said on the ABC's Q&A program tonight.

"I've said very clearly we're going to review our borders at the end of each month and we'll take it from there and see how it goes. Hopefully by June and July we'll be able to have people travelling around Queensland. But it might be a little bit longer before we see our southerners come back to Queensland.

"We love you dearly. We want you to come to Queensland but not at the moment," Ms Palaszczuk said. Her comments prompted NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian later in the program to quip that "I'll probably get to Auckland before I get to Cairns."

Responding to a question about the proposed trans-Tasman bubble between Australia and New Zealand, Ms Berejiklian said she welcomed Jacinda Ardern's moves today to ease some of the country's restrictions.

But she said "we do have to address the issue of our internal borders and what that means."

Liberal MPs are calling for a pathway out of the mammoth job assistance programs that are supporting more than 5 million workers as the coronavirus crisis pushes Commonwealth debt beyond $600 billion.

Worried about the cost of the schemes, government backbenchers are backing the return of mutual obligation rules as a gradual step to curb the sweeping payments to those who have been thrown out of work.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared it "premature" on Monday to change the JobKeeper wage subsidy of $1500 per fortnight for those in work and the JobSeeker payment of $1100 per fortnight for the unemployed. But the PM's own ministers and MPs are debating ways to phase out the record assistance as active coronavirus case numbers fall and parts of the economy return to life.

Read the full story here. 

With Australia continuing to flatten the curve of coronavirus infection rates, Federal Parliament resumes sitting this week. In today's episode of Please Explain, chief political correspondent David Crowe joins national editor Tory Maguire to discuss what this week's socially distanced question time may bring.

The coronavirus has killed so many people in Iran that the country has resorted to mass burials, but in neighbouring Iraq, the body count is fewer than 100. The Dominican Republic has reported nearly 7,600 cases of the virus. Just across the border, Haiti has recorded about 85.

The coronavirus has touched almost every country on earth, but its impact has seemed capricious. Global metropolises such as New York, Paris and London have been devastated, while teeming cities such as Bangkok, Baghdad, New Delhi and Lagos have - so far - largely been spared.

The question of why the virus has overwhelmed some places and left others relatively untouched is a puzzle that has spawned numerous theories and speculations but no definitive answers.

That knowledge could have profound implications for how countries respond to the virus, for determining who is at risk and for knowing when it's safe to go out again.

Read the full story here.