It hasn't been a laughter-filled, skip-through-the-gently-breaking-waves under a blue sky kind of day. Just wanted to make that clear from the outset.
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Victoria has recorded another 403 new COVID-19 cases, NSW has clocked up another 19 and treasurer Josh Frydenberg expects the budget deficit to hit its highest level since World War Two.
The bleak news continued as Victoria revealed coronavirus has plunged the state into a $7.5 billion budget deficit as well as the less than ideal expectation that almost one in 10 Australians will be unemployed by Christmas as the pandemic continues to rip into the economy.
But above all that was the revelation that Victoria suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic yet - with another five families grieving the loss of loved ones.
The latest victims are three aged care residents - a woman in her 70s, two men in their 80s and 90s, as well as two men, aged 50 and 70.
There are 213 aged care residents in Victoria who have tested positive at 21 facilities. Another 38 other aged care facilities have at least one staff member who has tested positive.
At the other end of the age scale, the state's Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said data from the start of July shows a quarter of the state's cases are people in their 20s.
There is no discrimination.
New cases have cropped up in Wangaratta, Ballarat, Colac, on the NSW Central Coast, the NSW Murrumbidgee, the Illawarra and all places in between.
Late today, thanks to the "Thai Rock restaurant cluster", Queensland added the Sydney suburb of Fairfield on its list of COVID-19 hotspots. It joins Campbelltown, Liverpool, along with the entire state of Victoria, on the blacklist.
And it might not be an official blacklist, but US President Donald Trump revealed the first two cities to come under the gaze of 'Operation Legend'. Federal agents will first tackle violent crime in Chicago and Albuquerque - both Democratic-run cities - before heading where needed.
If you've read this far, then we figure something positive and something head-scratchingly weird is the least we can offer.
How about the cheque from the city of Lae in Papua New Guinea to bushfire victims on the NSW South Coast?
A couple of hundred dollars was going to be gratefully received. So imagine how wide eyes opened when the $61,000 cheque was revealed.
There's some faith in humanity restored right there.
On "how bizarre was 2020" lists destined to be revealed at year's end, please consider this "incident" in western Ukraine. Thirteen people taken hostage on a bus were released after the alleged perpetrator spoke to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over the phone. The good prez agreed to one demand: talking up the 2005 animal rights documentary Earthlings, narrated by Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix, in a live video on Facebook. Sadly, it's since been deleted.
What a year you've been, 2020.
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