As it happened: Victoria reports 94 new COVID-19 cases; NSW hopes clusters reduce as Australian death toll jumps to 602

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Stay safe, look after one another and goodnight.

"Having a backyard vacation! Basking in the sun with watermelon frappés, heaven!"
- Brook

"Well, we haven't strangled each other yet...so that's one good thing. We really do feel for people who are going through this crisis on their own, must be incredibly hard for them. Hope and pray that it doesn't last much longer... hang in there folks!"
- Geoff and Pam Pendlebury

"My husband and I took the dog for a walk along Dandenong Creek. Many, many walkers, runners and cyclists, and some storm damage from Thursday. We also came across some adorable COVID cuteness!"
- Kate KM

"Spent the day in the garden. Mowed the lawns. Kids grabbed an ice cream from up the street. Played in the front yard. Kids doing some yoga in the sun. Now reading on the back verandah with music playing in the background. Lockdown seems like a distant memory albeit for a few hours."
- Brad

"Weekend away."
- Naomi

"In beautiful Eltham North I was soaking up some much needed Vitamin D and doing some soul-soothing crafting, while our puppy, 'Autumn', brought cries of delight to people walking past. My world has narrowed down too much physically, spatially and emotionally, and I haven't made the most of the hour of exercise, or even our beautiful garden.
Responsible for myself and two children, I lurch between letting things go based on it being extraordinary circumstances, and beating myself up for not having the energy or skills to look after myself better and provide a happier, more productive and constructive environment for my kids. And compared to many, I have it easy.
Today has cracked open my darkened soul just a little."
- Katharine

Responding to the ruling, Berlin's interior minister, Andreas Geisel, said the court had given protesters a second chance to show they can comply with social distancing measures.

"I appeal to everyone to gather in Berlin without violence," he said.

Querdenken 711, one of the movements behind the protests, urged demonstrators in a YouTube video to "be peaceful and exercise no violence toward the police".

Until now Germany has managed the coronavirus crisis better than many of its European counterparts, with rigorous testing helping to hold down infections and deaths.

But new daily infections have accelerated in recent weeks, as in much of the world.

On Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel urged citizens to keep up their guard against the virus.

"This is a serious matter, as serious as it's ever been, and you need to carry on taking it seriously," she said. Protesters gathered before the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin ahead of Saturday's march with signs reading "Stop the corona lies" and "Merkel must go".

That would ruin her hopes of taking a short holiday after the Tour leaves Nice on Monday and heads deeper into France, after two days of racing around the city.

But while no fan of the race herself, and despite the health risks of pushing ahead with cycling’s greatest roadshow in the midst of the pandemic, Leneveu is adamant that the three-week Tour must go on, because “life must continue."

“These are already tough times and it will be very, very hard to endure over the long term if, on top of all this, we don’t allow people to escape via the television, with events like this,” she said. “Many of my family members adore it and they would have been very sad if there’d been no Tour de France, because it’s emblematic.”

That the Tour, delayed from July, survived the health crisis that wiped out scores of other sporting events testifies to the emotional, political and economic clout steadily accumulated by the race during its 117-year history, both in France and beyond.

For race organizers and the French government, the reward of successfully steering the Tour to the finish in Paris on September 20 will be a striking message — that the country is getting back on its feet after the first deadly wave of infections and learning to live with its epidemic that has claimed more than 30,500 lives in France.

The risk is that so many riders might fall sick during the 3,484-kilometer (2,165-mile) odyssey that organizers are forced to cut it short.

Not reaching Paris would lead to questions, already being voiced by medical personnel and others, about whether the race should never have set off from Nice at all.

AP

Cyclists were being stopped and questioned on the busy St Kilda Road in the city’s inner south as officers enforced the 5km limit rule.

Despite the continued positive trend in the daily case count, the Premier said it was still too early to go public on a roadmap out of lockdown or even say if the tough stage four restrictions will end as scheduled on September 14.

But Labor has found a way to break the Parliamentary impasse over its controversial bid to extend for another 12 months its power to declare states of emergency, which it has been using every four weeks throughout the pandemic.

A deal has been hammered out with crossbench MPs in the upper house, giving Mr Andrews’ government a one-off extension which will last six months, but not the permanent legislative change it was seeking, on condition that members of Parliament are briefed on the health situation each time a new four-week state of emergency is declared.

[Read the full story here]