Good evening and thank you for reading our live coverage of the day’s events. If you are just joining us now, here’s everything you need to know:
- NSW recorded 1290 new local cases of COVID-19 on Monday, a new daily record in Australia. Four more people have died, including an Indigenous man in his 50s who died at Dubbo Hospital. His is believed to be the first death of an Aboriginal Australian from coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, and the first death reported in western NSW. Another man in his 70s with underlying health conditions died at Westmead Hospital, while a resident at Meredith House Aged Care at Strathfield, in Sydney’s inner west, died at Concord Hospital after acquiring his infection at his aged care home. A woman in her 60s from western Sydney who acquired her infection at Cumberland Hospital died at Westmead Hospital.
- Australia has now recorded more than 1000 coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic. The four additional deaths recorded in NSW on Monday took the national death toll to 1003. Globally, there have been 4.5 million deaths from coronavirus, including 637,531 in the United States and 132,760 in the United Kingdom. New Zealand has recorded 26 deaths.
- The NSW prison system has been locked down statewide as COVID-19 clusters grow among inmates and staff, with authorities rushing to roll out rapid antigen testing and vaccines. At least 12 cases among inmates at Parklea Correctional Centre were confirmed at the weekend and two correctional officers at Bathurst prison have since tested positive, bringing a cluster at the facility in the Central West to eight.
- Victoria recorded 73 new, locally acquired cases of COVID-19, at least 24 of whom were in isolation throughout their entire infectious period. Government officials were expected to make a final decision on Tuesday about what lockdown would look like beyond Thursday when it was scheduled to end.