Prime Minister Scott Morrison was again joined by Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy along with ministers for aged care and sport to address the media at 2pm today.

There are over 6,760 confirmed cases in Australia with unfortunately 92 resulting in death.

There are now only around 1000 active cases in Australia, and over the past week, daily infection rates have been very low, especially in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, the ACT, Queensland and South Australia.

Mr Morrison says restrictions will be lifted early, with the National Cabinet meeting being brought forward to 8 May rather than 11 May.

Unemployment

Mr Morrison says that in six weeks 900,000 claims have been processed for the Jobkeeper payment, bringing the total 1.5 million Australians on the scheme.

“This bears out the Treasury estimate that unemployment will rise to 10 per cent and perhaps beyond.”

CovidSafe App

Mr Morrison continues to encourage people living in Australia to download the CovidSafe app, saying 3.5 million downloads is great but there needs to be more.

“It’s done on the basis of encouragement in the national public health interest and I have to say in the national economic interest. It is our path back to download the CovidSafe app,” says Mr Morrison.

Companies forcing employees to download the app is against the law.

READ MORE: We asked experts for their opinion on the COVIDSafe App: Is it a game-changer?

Aged Care

The National Cabinet agreed on a new aged care industry code that outlines rules and rights for people visiting their loved ones at the end of their life and those going for regular visits as part of care practice, like for those who have dementia.

A one-off $205 million will be allocated to the aged care sector to help it respond to coronavirus and comply with the new industry code.

The Aged Care Minister, Richard Colbeck, says all the major aged care providers, including Anglicare and BaptistCare, signed up to the new aged care code last night.

READ MORE: Fronditha Care to ease restrictions in its residential care facilities

Sport

National Cabinet agreed that sport and recreation will play a significant role as Australia emerges from the COVID-19 environment due to the associated health, economic, social and cultural benefits it brings.

According to the ‘National Principles for the Resumption of Sport and Recreation Activities’ developed by the AHPPC in consultation with sporting bodies across Australia:

“Resumption of community sport and recreation activity should take place in a staged fashion with an initial phase of small group (10) activities including full contact training/competition in sport. Individual jurisdictions will determine progression through these phases, taking account of local epidemiology, risk mitigation strategies and public health capability”

More Testing

More testing is being rolled out with Professor Murphy urging that even if you have a throat tickle, a mild cough or a runny nose to go and get tested.

He says, “We need to test more people. If we are going to get on top of those small outbreaks … we cannot afford to have an outbreak that takes off so that we get a second wave when we reduce restrictions such as a number of other countries have seen. So our testing has to be very good.”