As it happened: Victoria records 76 new COVID-19 cases as AstraZeneca pauses vaccine study; Sydney pub ordered to close as Australian death toll jumps to 781

• The NSW family of a 39-year-old man named Mark, who has recently been given a terminal cancer diagnosis, have been . Mark's four children, father and brother may never have the chance to say their goodbyes in person.

• NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian says she does "begrudge" her northern counterpart and also wishes WA and Queensland would take in more international arrivals. Ms Berejiklian says she hopes commonsense prevails and Queensland's border is open by Christmas.
• Hollywood star Tom Hanks has arrived back in Queensland to resume filming an Elvis biopic on the Gold Coast after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in March. Hanks will be subject to random police checks to ensure he remains in hotel quarantine, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says.
• Anti-lockdown protestors are planning to walk en masse on Saturday in Melbourne again, a week after 17 people were arrested and a police officer injured in similar protests.
  

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This is Rachael Dexter signing off.

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Stay safe, look after one another and goodnight.

“You’ll find that a number of them have referred to contact tracing specifically. What we have seen is commentary from Peter Collignon who has talked very much about Victoria’s contact tracing and comparing it with New South Wales," he told ABC Radio Melbourne's Drive program.

When pushed by host Rafael Epstein on what data there was to show the difference between the two state’s systems, Mr Hunt said before the military arrived more than 1000 cases hadn't been traced.

“ADF when they arrived in Victoria, they recognised that difficult situation - no criticism - there were up to a thousand cases that had never been contact traced. They’ve helped provide that rigour.”

Mr Hunt said none of his comments were meant as criticism and that he welcome Premier Daniel Andrews' announcement that Victoria would adopt a localised method of contact tracing.

But then something goes wrong in your life, and they totally ghost you. Maybe you get sick, maybe you go through a break-up, maybe there's some other painful disruption. And these people just cease to exist. They don't want to know you. They'll appear again when you've sorted yourself out.

The tourism industry in Australia has a lot of these fair-weather friends. Right now, hoteliers and tour guides, air hosties and travel agents, destination managers and PR reps, cleaners and drivers, bar staff and waiters and so many more people – almost a million across Australia directly or indirectly involved in tourism – are all hurting, because they've come to realise something: their friends have disappeared.

Australians love to travel in the good times. It's part of our national identity, something we proudly spruik. From the long-held Indigenous tradition of the walkabout, to the modern-day gap years spent drinking at the Walkabout, we as a nation have always travelled, and we always will.

That's why it has been such a shock to so many in the industry to find that in the bad times no one cares about travel, and no one cares about those people who work in the industry.

And these are, undoubtedly, bad times. The worst. The federal government recently released modelling showing the Australian tourism industry will lose $55 billion this year, thanks to COVID-19 and its associated restrictions and closures. Fifty-five billion dollars if states keep their borders closed and other restrictions continue.

Imagine if tradies were about to take that sort of hit to their bottom line. Imagine if chippies and sparkies, brickies and plumbers were poised to collectively lose the net wealth of an entire country in the space of a year.

Imagine if that was going to happen to the coal industry: the value of coal exports in Australia is currently about $67 billion, so that would pretty much mean an entire industry wiped from the nation. Imagine if farmers were going to lose $55 billion.

There would be a national outcry. There would be something done. If we can find a way to shift AFL players around the country to play in their grand final then we would definitely be able to swing tradies some more work, or make special allowances to salvage big coal, or lend the farmers a hand. These industries occupy an important place in the Australian psyche, there's something solid and tangible and real about the work they do.

But tourism? Nah. It's a bit of fun. Harmless frivolity for the good times.

Read the full version of Ben's column.

"When you have a major clinical trial like this there's an independent medical expert panel, they review any adverse events that are significants amongst the trial participants."

Mr Hunt said it was still unknown if the adverse reaction was due to the vaccine and whether the participant had actually received a dose of the vaccine or a placebo.

"So we've asked if we can have that information as a matter of priority but that's now going to be determined by an independent medical expert panel. But they set them up so as they have these multi person trials, this will ultimately grow to be a 50,000 person trial and have safety as the number one item.

"As soon as that information is known we'll have it and we'll share it with Australia but the expectation is that this is part of the normal process of a vaccine trials."

Mr Hunt confirmed the frail, elderly and healthcare workers would be among the first to receive a vaccine if one became available in Australia.

“However, the restrictions have not eased sufficiently to allow for mass participation events to take place.

“While we are disappointed that we can’t take on Canberra with you in 2020, we are committed to forging ahead to put on events that inspire you to come together, lace up and go beyond.”

The ultramarathon, marathon, and the other shorter-distance events will now be virtual races, with people able to run their own courses across eight days from November 7 to 15.

Sydney’s City2Surf event was officially changed to an entirely virtual race last week, ending weeks of hope that a physical event with a smaller entry number could go ahead.