LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
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* Victoria reported one more COVID-19 death and 12 new cases on Saturday, taking the state toll to 782 and the national figure to 870.
* Premier Daniel Andrews has appointed mental health minister Martin Foley to replace Jenny Mikakos after her resignation from the state's health portfolio.
* He described her departure as an "appropriate course of action" but wouldn'd explain why despite asserting on Friday that she was partly responsible for Victoria's bungled hotel quarantine scheme.
* Ms Mikakos also intends to resign from parliament.
* Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the federal budget will be a "titanic effort" to pull Australia out of the COVID-19 economic crisis.
* At the same time, the government is accused of stripping millions from the economy through cuts to unemployment payments, with the JobSeeker supplement reduced from $550 a fortnight to $250 on Friday and JobKeeper to shrink and be split into full-time and part-time tiers on Monday.
* Mr Morrison says thousands of Sydneysiders visiting a re-opened South Australia will provide an estimated $800 million boost to that state's economy.
* Queensland has detected three new virus cases in overseas arrivals, though they are all in quarantine: two men, in their 40s and 60s, who are crew members from an international cargo ship, and a traveller in his 40s.
* There are seven active cases in the state but it has been more than two weeks since an infection caused by community transmission.
* NSW recorded no locally acquired cases after a mystery new case on Friday ended its three-day streak of no community transmission.
* Queensland health chief Jeannette Young said it appeared the infection would reset the border clock between the two states but she would await the result of an investigation. NSW must record 28 days with no community transmissions before Queensland reopens its southern border.
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SPORT
* Two of the NRLW's biggest stars, Corban McGregor and Maddie Studdon, have been forced to move from their homes to meet strict biosecurity standards designed to have players and staff from all four clubs approved with the season set to start next Saturday.
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KEY DATES
* September 14 to September 27 - stage four lockdown for Melbourne with some changes, including the curfew moving back an hour to 9pm.
* September 27 - NSW, Queensland and WA will start taking more international arrivals.
* September 28 - if average daily cases are 30-50 in metro Melbourne over the previous 14 days, the city will move to the 'second step', including increased limits for public gatherings and a staged return to school for some students.
* October 1 - Residents of Byron Shire, Ballina, Lismore, Richmond Valley including Casino and Evans Head, Glen Innes and 41 other NSW postcodes will be added to the Queensland-NSW border bubble.
* October 26 - Tasmania's state of emergency due to expire. In Melbourne, the overnight curfew will be dropped if - over the previous fortnight - the average number of new cases falls below five and there are fewer than five cases from an unknown source.
* November - Victoria's hotel quarantine inquiry report due.
* November 23 - If there are no new cases for 14 days in Melbourne, the city will move to the 'last step'. That includes all retail shops opening, public gatherings of up to 50 people allowed outdoors, and up to 20 visitors at a time allowed into a home.
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AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS
* There were 17 new cases in Australia - 12 in Victoria, three in Queensland and one each in NSW and WA.
* The national death toll is 870: Victoria 782, NSW 55, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 6, SA 4, ACT 3. (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).
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GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS
* Cases: at least 32,770,000
* Deaths: at least 993,542
* Recovered: at least 24,178,500.
Data current as of 1800 AEST September 25, taking in federal government and state/territory government updates, Worldometer and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre.
Australian Associated Press