Health authorities are trying to contact around 140 people who were on a Sydney Harbour boat cruise on Friday night after five cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed. There's concern that two are likely to have the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The World Health Organisation says the Omicron variant does not appear to cause more severe disease than previous COVID-19 variants, but caution is still needed.
Australia's top vaccination body, ATAGI, is expected to make its decision later this week on the final approval of the Pfizer vaccine for children aged five to 11 years. It is expected that, once approved, children in this age group could receive their vaccination before returning to school in the new year.
COVID Statistics:
Victoria has recorded 1,312 cases and five deaths.
NSW recorded 403 cases and one death.
Queensland and the NT have recorded two cases, and the ACT eight cases.
Quarantine and restrictions state by state:
Travel
Financial help
There are changes to the COVID-19 Disaster Payment once states reach 70 and 80 per cent fully vaccinated: