Get up to speed on all the coronavirus news from across Australia.
Look back on all of Saturday's news and updates on our live blog.
Key events
Live updates
By Dannielle Maguire
Cases, hospitalisations and deaths
For a detailed breakdown of cases across the country, check out Charting the Spread.
Can't see your state? Don't fret pets! We'll be updating this post throughout the day as numbers are announced.
Victoria: 19 deaths and 7,224 new cases. 487 cases are in hospital, 79 of those in ICU
NSW: 32 deaths and 8,183 new cases. 1,650 cases are in hospital, 104 of those in ICU
Tasmania: 456 new cases. 17 cases are in hospital, 1 of those in ICU
Queensland: 13 deaths, 3,660 new cases. 508 cases are in hospital, 49 of those in ICU
ACT: 428 new cases. 51 cases are in hospital, three of those in ICU
NT: 1425 new cases. 170 cases are in hospital, two of those in ICU
WA: 27 local cases
SA: One death, 1,372 new cases. 213 cases are in hospital, 17 of those in ICU
By Dannielle Maguire
Farewell for now
But you better believe I'll be back with more COVID news tomorrow!
Have yourself a merry little Saturday!
By Dannielle Maguire
WA also recorded 22 cases among returned travellers
The state's Police Minister Paul Papalia says the government made the right decision delaying the border reopening given the number of cases coming from interstate and overseas:
"Had we not had our borders closed, those people would've been wandering freely and we would be at thousands of cases right now.
"Possibly tens of thousands."
By Dannielle Maguire
WA records 27 new local cases
That's way down from yesterday, when 51 new local cases were reported - the state's highest daily total in the pandemic.
The source of six of the local cases is not yet clear.
There were an additional 22 cases from returned travellers.
By Dannielle Maguire
Omicron is still Victoria's dominant strain
Victoria's Chief Health Officer's update says most of the cases in the state in the past few months have are the Omicron variant.
Genomic testing was carried out on 10,222 samples collected from early December last year to early February
Of those, 98 per cent were positive for the Omicron variant of concern.
Why can't I find out which Covid variant I had? I have tried and been told that the pathology company don't have the capability to determine that. Seems odd to me considering the amount of data coming out stating percentages of each variant and new variants emerging.
-Jenny
But as case numbers exploded, that stopped.
That's because working out which strain of the virus is in a positive sample takes a lot of time and chews through a lot of resources when done on a mass scale.
NSW Health announced an end to conducting genomic sequencing on every new case on December 18, saying:
With the high number of COVID-19 cases now in NSW, NSW Health will only undertake genomic sequencing for the Omicron variant in the circumstances where it will make a clinical difference to the care of a patient.
For instance, where it will inform treatment choices as some therapies work with Delta but not for Omicron, and in situations where it will inform public health action.
By Dannielle Maguire
More on Victoria's deaths
There were 19 deaths reported in Victoria's COVID update today.
More detailed information from Chief Health Officer's update says the people who died were in their 70s, 80s, 90s and 100s.
We don't know when the deaths occurred, but the update says 12 were in past week, and the others were in the past fortnight.
There have been a total of 2,266 COVID deaths in Victoria since the beginning of the pandemic.
By Dannielle Maguire
Queensland's official COVID stats for the day
By Dannielle Maguire
NT records 1425 new cases
That includes 42 cases added to yesterday's total.
There are 170 people are in hospital with COVID-19, with 21 people requiring oxygen and two people in ICU.
By Dannielle Maguire
By Dannielle Maguire
No plans to ditch Victoria's check-in app
The state's Treasurer Tim Pallas acknowledged compliance with Victoria's QR code check-in system was declining while case numbers remained too high for contact tracing to be effective.
But he said there were no plans to wind back the check-in requirements, as has been done in other states, because the "vitally important" system allowed venues to check vaccination status of patrons.
"We still have too much COVID in the community … it makes it practically impossible to individually contact trace at the moment," he said.
"But as those numbers come back into a manageable sense, it gives us our best chance to get on top of the presentations in the community."
Click here for more on the COVID situation in Victoria today.
Reporting by Yara Murray-Atfield
By Dannielle Maguire
What's up buttercups?
Let's hear from our commenters!
Hi Dannielle
-Positive Thoughts
I don't have any specific question or comment to make, but I wanted to say hi and thank you for all you do, for all the work the whole blog team does in keeping us informed. It is much appreciated.
Hope you have a lovely Saturday.
Over heard our youngest (8) yesterday planning her costume for her second dose. Turns out she will be a witch to make the nurse smile.
-Mr mo
I don't have a mobile phone, I check-in with paper and pen. Do I need to continue doing this? We're told it's still important because you can check your app and see where you've been, but that doesn't apply to me. So why should I keep on checking in? Is there a valid reason?
-Victorian
I'm a mum of 2 teenagers in Perth., where the Omicron wave is just starting for us. My youngest has a rare genetic condition and is considered immunocompromised. She had her 3rd primary dose of the vaccine yesterday, and she's been excitedly planning for her birthday coming up in 2 weeks. Meanwhile, I fluctuate between panic with the increasing omicron cases now here in WA, and quietly stoic that as a parent I have done all that I possibly can to give her as much protection from getting infected. I hope the health system here will be able to cope.
-Prepared mum
I got the virus first week of January. The worst was 3 days of brain fog, I almost set the house on fire when I forgot to turn off the griller and shut the grill door. I was oblivious to the alarms ringing and it was my son who saved the day.
-Coffee Maker
I’m still here!
Gosh, I'm glad crisis was averted. A big thumbs to your son!
By Dannielle Maguire
About half of Victoria's adults have had their booster shots
About 50 per cent of Victoria’s adult population has now had a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the health department.
The third dose will soon be essential for people to be considered "up to date" with COVID-19 vaccinations, following changes from the country's vaccine advisory group, ATAGI.
Victoria has flagged an expansion of its vaccine mandates to require three doses to visit some venues or work in more industries.
But authorities have not confirmed if or when those changes will be made.
ATAGI recommended that the "up to date" change take place from the end of March to allow more people to be vaccinated and give people time to adapt to any changes.
"Fully vaccinated will require a third dose, and being able to access a lot of venues will necessarily require it as well," Treasurer Tim Pallas said.
Reporting by Yara Murray-Atfield
By Dannielle Maguire
Eleven of NSW's deaths did not occur overnight
Today NSW reported 32 deaths, which was a jump from yesterday's tally of 19 deaths.
But NSW Health says 11 of those deaths were included in today's total "following the conclusion of coronal investigations".
We don't have any more information about those coronial investigations.
Those deaths occurred between January 22 and February 5
By Dannielle Maguire
Send in your thoughts!
Got something to say?
Maybe you've got a COVID question or a good news story about something lovely happening in your life.
Whatever it is you want to share, it all starts with hitting that big blue comment button.
By Dannielle Maguire
Canberra's check-in rules change
As of today, people won't have to check-in at every venue in the ACT.
But if you're in our nation's capital, you'll still have to check-in at places that have been deemed high risk settings like pubs, non-ticketed events, schools and early childhood education centres.
The businesses that don't need to display a QR code anymore are still encouraged to keep the signs up, however, for those people who want to check in to keep a record of where they've been.
By Dannielle Maguire
ACT records 428 new cases
There are 51 people in hospital with the virus, three of them are in intensive care and one requires ventilation.
By Dannielle Maguire
And that's the Queensland COVID update all wrapped up
There weren't a lot of COVID questions for Dr Gerrard, who was wearing a high vis vest and a hard hat during the press conference because the update was tacked on to an announcement about a Brisbane infrastructure project and held at a construction site.
He says the technical issues with the COVID data should be sorted out today, so I'll keep my eyes peeled for that Queensland Health infographic.
By Dannielle Maguire
Queensland's hospital rate is falling
The state's Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says the number of people in hospital is continuing to fall, but there's a bit of lag in the decrease of cases in intensive care.
There are 508 patients in hostpial with COVID-19, 49 of those in intensive care.
By Dannielle Maguire
Queensland's Chief Health Officer is speaking now
John Gerrard says there have been some "technical issues" with data reporting so there's probably more than the 3,660 new cases.
He says six of the 13 deaths were unvaccinated, two had received one dose, one had received two doses and four had received booster shots.
Six of the deaths were aged care residents.
