LATEST NEWS ABOUT COVID-19:
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NUMBERS
* Confirmed cases in Australia: 2136 (at 3pm AEDT Tuesday), up from 1091 on Saturday.
* Australian deaths: eight (seven in NSW, one in WA)
* Social distancing: one person per four square metres
* Groups over 100 banned
* 1.5 million people estimated out of work by mid-year
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MEASURES
* Borders closed in SA, NT and WA from Tuesday, Queensland Wednesday. Already in place in Tasmania (freight and essential travel excepted)
* WA to ban travel between its nine regions
* All patients will be able to access Medicare-funded online consultations from next week
* Non-essential travel should cease
* Non-essential services urged to close
* Still open: public transport, some schools, hairdressers, supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, postal and freight services, bottle shops, newsagents, retail shops, restaurants restricted to take-away/delivery in most states
* Closed: schools in Victoria, gyms, indoor sports venues, pubs, cinemas, nightclubs, casinos, places of worship, theme parks
* Parents urged to keep children home from school in NSW, Queensland
* Live streaming of funerals in Queensland due to social distancing and closed border
* Elective surgery to be delayed in WA, NT, but ramped up in Victoria and NSW
* NSW police to have powers to arrest people breaching virus health orders under emergency bill
* Updated testing guidelines expected to be announced soon
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COMMENT
* Quote: "We prepared over the weekend for 55,000 ... I didn't think I'd have to prepare for 100,000 concurrent users." - Government Services Minister Stuart Robert on the MyGov website crash.
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SPORT
* IOC expected to announce soon that this year's Tokyo Olympic Games will be postponed
* The AFL, NRL, A-league soccer, Super Rugby and netball competitions postponed
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ECONOMICS
* Finance: The ASX200 closed 4.17 per cent higher at 4,735.7 while the All Ordinaries index also added 4.15 per cent, to 4,753.3
* Parliament has passed two packages worth $17.6 billion and $66 billion in response to the outbreak of the virus
* The Reserve Bank injected $6.9 billion into the financial system on Tuesday and will buy a further $4 billion in government bonds
* The IMF predicts a global recession worse than the GFC, but says there'll be a recovery in 2021
* Queensland has announced a $4 billion economic and health package
* WA to announce another stimulus package
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GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS
* Cases: more than 381,761
* Deaths: more than 16,558
* Recovered: at least 102,429
*Source: Australian Department of Health website at 0600 March 24, plus NSW government at 0800 and worldometer website.
Australian Associated Press