New South Wales reports 105 infections and fourth death linked to latest outbreak – as it happened

In case you missed it, the minister for immigration, Alex Hawke, has announced this weekend that supermarkets in states and territories subject to Covid-19 lockdowns will be able to employe international students for more than the 40 hours a fortnight limit that normally applies.

The reason for the change, according to Hawke, is to help supermarkets stay open and cope with high customer demand, even when employees are required to self-isolate.

The decision apparently follows a request for urgent relief by the supermarket sector, as many staff are subject to self-isolation orders, according to the press release announcing the change.

Hawke:

Supermarket workers have been unsung heroes of the pandemic. They stepped up to ensure Australians have access to essential items, and they have kept doing so during the pandemic’s darkest days.

This temporary measure ensures that supermarkets can continue to provide their critical services to the community and it provides essential workers themselves with added income flexibility during lockdown.

Just when I say the news has slowed, NSW Health has released a Public Health Alert for a number of new exposure sites and public transport routes across the state.

The updated list includes a BP truck stop in Raglan, near Bathurst, confirming fears that the virus is spreading far and wide across the state.

Anyone who attended the truck stop during the times listed must immediately call NSW Health on 1800 943 553, get tested, and isolate until NSW Health provides further advice. This serious response just goes to show how worried the state is about seeing the virus hit regional towns.

NSW Health has also updated the times it previously gave for Coles, at Hurstville Westfield to Saturday 12 - 12.30pm.

It has advised of additional times for previously announced venues, including the Ikea at Marsden Park, and Fairfield Forum Pharmacy.

Click here for the full list of exposure sites and public transport lines.

News has slowed for a hot second, so here is a roundup of the best tweets responding to Guardian Australia’s report that Katie Hopkins is set to be dumped by Channel Seven after mocking Australia’s lockdowns and joking about her plans to breach hotel quarantine.

We already have a new term for the saga...

Others think that Hopkins isn’t the only one who should be held accountable...

Yeah, there is definitely a lot of anger towards the producers of Big Brother on Twitter...

People are criticising a recent tweet from the Victorian deputy opposition leader and shadow health minister, Georgie Crozier, for spreading misinformation around the Victoria Covid-19 lockdown.

In a tweet on Friday, Crozier shared a ‘Lockdown #5 Checklist’, which included action items like “setup kids’ desks for home schooling” and “call Mum and explain I won’t be able to visit her in the nursing home as promised”.

But many have raised concern with the dot point “reschedule mammogram”.

Under the current lockdown restrictions, Victorians are still allowed to leave home for medical reasons. BreastScreen Victoria also confirmed on Friday they will remain open and screening with safety measures in place throughout the lockdown.

Virginia Trioli, host of Mornings on ABC Radio Melbourne, called on Crozier to delete the tweet.

Others said they were especially concerned the shadow health minister didn’t know you could get a mammogram during lockdown.

Victoria Health has released updated advice for anyone who attended the Wallabies v France match at AAMI Park on Tuesday 13 July.

There is a map of the stadium to show whether you were seated in a tier 1, tier 2 or tier 3 exposure site.

Anyone who entered gate seven is considered to have visited at tier 2 exposure site and must immediately get tested and isolate until they received a negative result.

But if you entered gate seven between 7.56pm and 8.13pm, you are classified as having visited a tier 1 exposure site, and must immediately get tested and isolate for 14 days, regardless of your test result.

Click here for more information about the AAMI Park exposure site.

Greens senator and anti-racism spokesperson Mehreen Faruqi has responded to the Guardian’s report that far-right commentator Katie Hopkins is set to be dumped by Channel Seven.

While Faruqi welcomed the news, she said that “Channel Seven has some serious questions to answer”.

“Hopkins should never have been offered a platform to spew her hate in the first place and Seven should not be let off the hook.”

OK, back to Covid-19 news (sorry):

NSW police are taking greater steps to ensure people are complying with lockdown restrictions.

In a statement, NSW police have said general duties police will be out in force undertaking high visibility patrols, while specialist officers will patrol roadways and transport hubs.

Minister for police and emergency services David Elliot said:

I share the community’s disgust in the selfish behaviour of a small minority of who wilfully continue to flout the public health orders. In the past 24 hours, more than 20 people have been charged and will be before the courts for criminal breaches.”

Police do not want to have to have interactions with people who won’t comply but make no mistake if people do not abide by the public health order, we will not shy away from enforcing the orders.

In the last 24 hours police attended just over 1,325 Covid-related jobs, about 860 of those were reports from members of the community to Crime Stoppers. This highlights that police are responding to the widespread concerns being raised by the community about breaches of the health orders.

It’s been a tough few weeks for us, Australia.

So to break up all news of Covid-19 case numbers and lockdowns, here’s a sweet story to bright up your Sunday.

And remember, if you are having a tough time, you can ALWAYS call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or visit https://www.lifeline.org.au/

New South Wales Health has confirmed two positive Covid-19 cases spent the night at a truck stop just south of the Queensland border, prompting concerns that the virus spreading further across the state.

An alert has been issued for the truck stop at the Ampol Service Station near Murwillumbah turnoff, including the truck drivers’ toilets, showers and lounge, and the food court.

Anyone who visited the site between Tuesday 13 July 8.30pm to Wednesday 14 July 7.30am is considered a close contact and must immediately get tested and isolated for 14 days, regardless of the test result.

Click here for the list of new NSW exposure sites.

You may be wondering: if the crew members end up testing positive for Covid-19, will WA premier Mark McGowan just ask the ship to head back out to sea?

McGowan has already confirmed this won’t happen. That’s because there’s a good chance that if some of the crew are sick, they’ll infect the rest of the people on board.

“You’ll imagine, they’re on the high seas or cruising along the coast of Western Australia, and the entire crew can’t operate the ship, well then that is a maritime emergency,” he told reporters today.

Thanks so much to my colleague, Graham Readfearn.

It’s Justine Landis-Hanley here, bringing you the latest news updates this afternoon.

You can follow me on Twitter @justinel_h. And please send me any stories, tweets, tips and memes!

No new cases of Covid-19 today for Western Australia, where there are 7 active cases.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is asked about the chances of getting cases down to zero by the end of the month, when the current lockdown rules are in force until.

Our aim is to quash the virus but if there is anything we can do to ease things in the community, and we may be able to resume some level of activity, that will be based on health advice.

We have given commitment to allow a level of the construction industry to come back after 30 July but we are constantly reviewing settings.

The health team are constantly giving us advice and if there is any opportunity for us to ease the burden on our citizens of course we will do that but please, you will know as soon as I know.

Rosemary Bolger on our news desk is following the Victoria press conference to help us report on three government media conferences happening simultaneously.

Daniel Andrews had said last week he would consider shortening the lockdown in regional Victoria earlier based on health advice.

The case in Mildura, in the state’s north, makes that seem very unlikely. The premier says he has no health advice to suggest the restrictions should be eased in regional Victoria.

“Victoria is a big state but when it comes to the spread of this virus, it is actually very small,” Andrews says.

The Wallabies rugby union game at AAMI Park in Melbourne last Tuesday is included on Victoria Health’s list of Tier one exposure sites.

Anyone that went in through gate 7 between 7:56pm and 8:13pm will have to immediately isolate, get a COVID-19 test, and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure.

There’s also a Covid-19 press conference from Western Australia premier Mark McGowan going on right now.

So that’s NSW, Victoria and WA all doing a press conference at the same time. We’ll get across all of it.

Deputy police commissioner Gary Worboys says police issued 240 infringement notices in the last 24 hours in 43 different police districts. Most were in Newcastle and Sydney.

He said three removalists that travelled from Illawarra up to Molong in the central west had been issued court attendance notices.

What I want to highlight is the maximum penalty that the court can impose is $11,000 and or six months in jail.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is also about to speak. So I have two conferences going on at once. Why don’t they coordinate this stuff?

Some more detail on those 105 new cases on NSW from chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant.

Some 69 were in isolation through their infectious period, seven were in isolation for part of that period but, worryingly, 27 were infectious and out in the community.

More from Gladys Berejiklian.

We know these are difficult times but we also know that when we come together we can achieve what we need to achieve. We are throwing everything at this. We want to come out of this lockdown as soon as possible.

We want to make sure that we allow families and businesses in particular to bounce back as soon as we can and that is why we are throwing everything at it in the next two weeks.

We’re expecting to hear from NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian at 11am.

The NSW branches of the Transport Workers’ Union and the Australian Road Transport Industrial Organisation are welcoming an exemption for their workers in the three local government areas where only health and emergency workers are allowed to leave.

The groups say updated advice now includes a list of “authorised workers” permitted to go to work, “which includes freight, logistics, courier and delivery workers, bus drivers, waste workers and airport workers”.

Taxi and rideshare drivers have not been granted the exemption, the group says. TWU NSW branch secretary Richard Olsen says:

The exemption will come as a relief to the more than 20,000 transport workers in south-west Sydney who yesterday believed they would not be able to go to work. We commend the NSW government for responding quickly to our calls for an exemption, however the advice to workers and operators is still far too sluggish.

Deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce is asked about far-right media figure Katie Hopkins flying into Australia and going into hotel quarantine (maybe to appear on the local reality TV show Big Brother, as is the speculation).

I’m the one who wanted to send home Johnny Depp’s dog, so I have no problem sending home someone who wants to flout our laws. If you want to do that, pack your bongo and get out of country!

I don’t know if Hopkins plays the bongo.

Barnaby Joyce is delivering a bizarre response to the ABC’s David Speers on a question of whether the Coalition partner, the Nationals, would back a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050.

He’s got an analogy about eating lunch and wanting to see what’s on the menu.

And something about “sautéed gherkins and sashimi tadpoles” which I think was a metaphor for certain climate policies he might not like to eat.

Essentially he’s saying unless he can see the exact cost of everything he can’t support any proposals.

Deputy prime minister and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce is talking to the ABC’s Insiders program. He’s asked about the lockdowns and if he supports them.

Yeah, right now we’ve got to make sure that we keep the virus suppressed and that’s what is happening. Because we’ve got to make sure that we keep people alive.

We’ve got to keep that incredible track record that we have in Australia that would be the envy of the rest of the world and how we’ve managed to deal with the virus.

And the ultimate goal, the ultimate goal, even ahead of vaccinations, is keeping people alive and we’re doing that.

Not sure we’re the envy of the world for our vaccination rollout.

And the early leaks on Victoria’s numbers have started. The ABC’s Rafael Epstein says it’s going to be 16 new cases, including one transmission from a rugby game.

We’re expecting the official numbers very soon.

Because we live in quite odd times, I bring you the news that TikTok comedian Jon-Bernard Kairoz has delivered his official prediction for the number of new cases for NSW today: 105.

We’ll get the official official numbers from NSW later. Kairoz has been right a couple of times.

Victoria Health also added the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory to their list of Tier 1 high-risk exposure sites last night.

Some details on the close contact exposure sites announced last night by NSW Health.

They include the Raw Coffee Bar in Belmore, from 5am – 3pm daily extending from 7 to 16 July and the Belmore Medical Centre from 2.50pm–3.10pm on 8 July.

There are 10 bus route journeys to check that are also considered close contacts.

Anyone at those sites at the times identified “is a close contact and must get tested and isolate for 14 days since their last day at the site, regardless of the result.”

Morning all. Welcome to Guardian Australia’s live news blog for Sunday.

Graham Readfearn here to take you through the first bit of what’s looking like another tumultuous day as New South Wales and Victoria try and contain the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus. I’ll drop in any other non-Covid news too.

Here’s where we are at.

• Great Sydney is waking up to its strictest restrictions since the start of the pandemic after 111 new cases were recorded yesterday. We are updating our page on restrictions in NSW.
• From midnight last night people in the Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool have to stay in their local government area unless they are health or emergency services workers.
• Also last night, NSW Health announced new exposure sites including some public transport routes. You should check those if you’re in Sydney.
• Victoria recorded 19 new cases yesterday. The stay-at-home orders are due to lift on Tuesday night there, but that could change today.
• About 30 new exposure sites were released by health officials in Victoria late last night. We’ll hear from Victoria first this morning (we think).
• Prime minister Scott Morrison urged world leaders yesterday to ramp up production of mRNA vaccines, such as Pfizer, at an Apec meeting.

In non-Covid news, the Wallabies rugby team beat France last night to win a series. Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is due to fly to Tokyo today to front a presentation as Brisbane emerges as a very strong favourite to host the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.

Go well, stay safe and let’s go.