NSW and Victoria are preparing for worsening COVID-19 case numbers today, while Queenslanders are hoping for good news as more than 16 million Australians wake up to a weekend in lockdown.
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The sunshine state has seen successive days of promising case numbers as the southeast counts down to the scheduled end of an eight day lockdown on Sunday.
Yesterday, Deputy Premier Steven Miles said it was too early to confirm the lockdown would lift at 4pm on Sunday, but felt the tough restrictions were doing their job. We'll see what news today's conference brings.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said there was no sign of the NSW outbreak heading towards zero, which remained the national approach.
"There is clearly a need for a circuit-breaker," he said.
The comments came as the state hit a record 291 new locally acquired cases, with 96 infectious in the community.
NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian warned case numbers were expected to rise.
"We are likely to see this trend continue for the next few days so I just want everybody to prepare themselves for higher case numbers," she said.
The NSW press conference is expected at the usual time of 11am.
Victorians are bracing for more exposure sites spread across wider parts of the state, with health authorities racing to contain the Delta coronavirus variant.
There are now more than 10,000 close contacts of positive cases isolating.
In Olympic news, Australia's Kelsey-Lee Barber has taken out the bronze medal in the javelin. In third place going into the concluding round and assured of a medal, Barber's last throw of 64.56m in Friday night's final was her biggest of the year - but not quite enough to move her any further up the leader board.
Today's medal hopes sit with the women's high jump after Nicola McDermott and Eleanor Patterson soared into the Olympic final.
Meanwhile, five members of Australia's Olympic silver medal-winning men's hockey team have been reprimanded for sneaking out of the athletes' village to buy alcohol.
Hockey is the fourth sport after rowing, soccer and rugby sevens to have athletes disciplined by Australian Olympic bosses during the Tokyo Games.