Hi. It's Wednesday, April 20 and you're reading The Loop, a quick wrap-up of today's news.
Let's start here
A bunch of announcements were made today about close COVID contacts, with multiple states and territories deciding it's just about time to remove them.
Here's a quick look at who's said what so far:
- Victoria's Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed this morning that isolation rules for close contacts will be scrapped, along with vaccine requirements and mandatory mask rules in most settings. The changes will come into effect from 11:59pm on Friday
- The New South Wales government has also scrapped the requirement for close contacts of COVID-19 cases to isolate at home for seven days, but those contacts will need to wear masks indoors and undertake a daily rapid antigen test. Those changes begin from 6pm on Friday
- ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said today she was still working out what changes the territory would make, but that she was keen to keep the territory as aligned with Victoria and NSW as possible. Canberrans can expect an announcement on Thursday
- Queensland Health Minister Yvette D'Ath also flagged quarantine requirements for close contacts of COVID cases could be scrapped after the state passes the peak of its Omicron wave, and says she's meeting with the state's Chief Health Officer today to talk about it
- South Australia's Police Commissioner Grant Stevens has loosely foreshadowed a possible repeal of isolation requirements for household contacts, saying there was discussion about it at yesterday's Emergency Management Council meeting, but no announcement has been made yet
- Meanwhile, some experts have warned the West Australian government against changing restrictions too early. Authorities there flagged that restrictions are likely to ease further "in the coming weeks and months", but have been tight-lipped on specifics
- There's not too much to report from Tasmania or the NT yet, but those governments may still respond to Victoria and NSW's decisions in some capacity
What else is going on
- Dramatic vision taken from inside the basket of a hot air balloon shows the moments leading up to its emergency landing in the driveway of a Melbourne unit block. Luckily no-one was injured:
- Scott Morrison has rejected accusations that the Coalition bungled a key security relationship after Solomon Islands shrugged off warnings from Australia and signed a pact with China. Solomon Islands PM Manasseh Sogavare defended the pact, declaring that his government went into the agreement with its "eyes wide open".
What Australia has been searching for online
- Maria Sharapova. The former women's tennis world number one has made a big announcement on her 35th birthday: she's having a baby. It's her and fiancé Alexander Gilkes' first child.
- Harry Styles. Yes, fresh off the back of an iconic Coachella performance, the best thing since sliced bread (bakery pun intended) has confirmed he's finally returning to Australia after COVID-induced cancellations.
One more thing
It's made us laugh, it's made us cry, it got us through many a day locked down at home — but Netflix has suffered its first fall in subscriber numbers in more than a decade, with a 26 per cent tumble erasing about $US40 billion off its stock market value.
Cutting its services off in Russia put a roughly 700,000-users-sized dent in its subscriber base, but the company also estimates that about 100 million households worldwide were watching its service for free by using the account of a friend or another family member.
Netflix has signalled it will likely crack down on the sharing of subscriber passwords and, for the first time, said it was open to the idea of offering lower-priced subscriptions with advertising.
Time will tell how much these figures will change the Netflix experience so many of us have come to know so well.
You're up to date
Thanks for reading, see you tomorrow.
ABC/wires
