COVID-19 breaking news: NSW records 941 cases, six deaths; Queensland cases grow by six with new restrictions; Victoria case numbers surge to 1438

Schools in regional Victoria are set to return to normal operation from October 26, the state’s Education Minister has announced.All students are scheduled to return to the classroom at least part-time by the second week of term four, with all prep, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Year 12 students to be back at school fulltime from Monday.

The ACT has achieved an Australia-first coronavirus vaccine milestone, with more than 90 per cent of its residents now having received at least one dose of the vaccine.Meanwhile, the Federal Government said Australia has hit 54.2 per cent of over-16s having both doses, with 77.8 per cent having one dose.A total of 27.7 million vaccines have been put into arms.

Singapore authorities are concerned about COVID-19 transmission among migrant workers after the city state reported a record 2268 new cases.From the new cases reported on Wednesday, 2258 are locally transmitted including 448 in migrant worker dormitories, the Ministry of Health reported.There were also eight further deaths.

Professor Spurrier has given further details about the new South Australian case.She said the male truck driver is currently in Victoria and will be treated by authorities there.”There is quite a risk for our truck drivers … with them going to and fro across borders this is not unexpected.”Professor Spurrier said the truck driver’s wife who works at an aged care centre has been fully vaccinated and tested negative.His child and grandparents who live in the same household also tested negative in Adelaide.”It does give a very good example of why we need to have full vaccination,” Professor Spurrier said.

South Australia has reported one new local COVID-19 case – a male truck driver who travelled to Victoria.Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said the man was aged in his 20s and regularly travelled to Melbourne and regional Victoria.Professor Spurrier said the man had received his first vaccination. He tested negative on Monday but returned a positive result yesterday.The new case brings active transmissions in South Australia to two.

More Australian employers are offering their staff a four-day working week as a form of flexible conditions, a new study has found.Those who took part in the shortened week reported feeling “less stressed” and had less of a “risk of burnout”.Organisations offering a four-day week instead of five, at full-time hours, has risen by 29 per cent in the past four years.

As of July, the app identified just 17 close contacts that had not already been identified by contact tracers, and none since October last year.This is in spite of 7.6 million downloads of the app.