Australia scraps mandatory COVID-19 isolation.

Australia's mandatory COVID-19 isolation period has officially been scrapped, following a decision by national cabinet.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and state and territory leaders agreed those infected with COVID-19 will no longer be subject to a five-day stay-at-home order, with the changes coming into effect from October 14.

However, the isolation period will still apply to employees in vulnerable settings such as hospital workers and those in aged care.

The decision to get rid of the mandatory isolation period will also mean the end of pandemic leave payments for affected workers, with the payments also ending from October 14.

National Cabinet meets today in Canberra. Collaboration between our state and federal leaders brings our country together and improves the lives of all Australians. pic.twitter.com/A082zgBc3H

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 29, 2022

Some state and territory leaders had urged ahead of national cabinet for an end to mandatory isolation periods.

However, earlier today, the president of the Australian Medical Association Steve Robson slammed leaders who had advocated for a scrapping of isolation measures.

"People who are pushing for the isolation periods to be cut are not scientifically literate and are putting the public at risk, and they need to understand that," he told the ABC.

"We're seeing a huge upswing in the numbers of COVID cases again. It's coming into holiday season when people would be travelling around the world.

"It's a period of significant risk and we're urging caution because we need to protect the health system."

There were almost 45,000 COVID-19 infections recorded last week and more than 200 deaths.

- With AAP. 

Queen Elizabeth's death certificate has been released by the National Records of Scotland, confirming she died of old age.

The Queen, who spent 70 years on the throne, died peacefully at the age of 96 at Balmoral Castle, her summer home in the Scottish highlands, on September 8.

The certificate records her time of death as 3.10pm (10 minutes past midnight AEST).

Buckingham Palace had released a statement just after 12.30pm that day to say doctors were concerned about the Queen's health and that she would remain under medical supervision.

Her death was officially announced at 6.30pm.

The Queen died of 'old age' at 3.10pm on 8 September, according to her death certificate.

The entry in the National Records of Scotland, published today, is signed by her daughter the Princess Royal, who was with her when she passed away. pic.twitter.com/Xdv8Z6mE0l

— The Royal Family Channel (@RoyalFamilyITNP) September 29, 2022

Elizabeth had carried out her last official duty, appointing Liz Truss as prime minister, just two days earlier.

She had been suffering from what Buckingham Palace had called "episodic mobility problems" since the end of last year, forcing her to withdraw from nearly all her public engagements.

The certificate shows her death was registered by her daughter, Princess Anne, on September 16.

- With AAP. 

Scrapping isolation for COVID-positive patients and boosting hospital funding will be on the agenda for a meeting between the prime minister and state leaders today.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will host state and territory leaders at parliament house in Canberra, as pressure builds from business to further ease the five-day isolation period.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet is calling for mandatory isolation to be scrapped, saying Australians needed to take personal responsibility for their actions.

"We need to get to the point where we move away from public health orders," he said.

"It's always a balance between the public health, broader health issues like mental health, social wellbeing and economic and financial issues facing people across our state."

Australia could soon be unshackled from the last remaining COVID-19 restriction - mandatory isolation.

Dominic Perrottet is now calling for the five-day isolation period to be scrapped. @lizziedaniels #9News

MORE: https://t.co/v9vOCZ80Y3 pic.twitter.com/EeDzZwm9KW

— 9News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) September 29, 2022

Albanese has consistently said national consensus is needed for any changes, as happened when leaders decided to cut the isolation period from seven to five days.

There were almost 45,000 COVID-19 infections recorded last week, with more than 200 deaths.

- With AAP.

John Bowie allegedly choked his wife nights before she went missing in 1982, his daughter has told his NSW murder trial.

Giving evidence at the NSW Supreme Court trial yesterday, Brenda Boyd said, "My dad was angry and he threw his dinner plate and was shoving the food down her top."

"He was choking her and they were yelling," she said. "I remember holding on to her leg and yelling at my dad to stop."

John Bowie's daughter describes father 'choking' her mother, Roxlyn, shoving food down her shirt https://t.co/08R1KUYbxW via @ABCaustralia

— Jamelle Wells (@JamelleWellsABC) September 29, 2022

72-year-old John Bowie has pleaded not guilty to murdering Roxlyn Bowie, who was 31 when she vanished from their Walgett home in northern NSW.

The Crown alleges he killed his wife on or about June 5, 1982 so he could have an unfettered relationship with another woman. Her body has never been found.

Boyd said she was aged six on June 5 and remembered her parents arguing a little before her mother put her younger brother to bed with her help.

"I remember saying goodnight to my mother and the next morning she was not there," she said.

Image: NSW Police.

When she asked her father where she was, he read her a note he said he found.

"He said she was sorry and she had to leave and he didn't know where she was."

The conversation was quite short and her father didn't seem upset. After a few days, her father took her and her brother Warren - who has since died - to their grandparents' home in Killara, Sydney.

The trial continues. 

- With AAP. 

Hurricane Ian has left a path of destruction in southwest Florida, trapping people in flooded homes and knocking out power to 2.5 million people as it dumped rain across the peninsula.

Ian is one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States, with winds reaching up to 665km, drenching much of Florida and the southeastern Atlantic coast.

Authorities confirmed at least one storm death in Florida, where the hurricane made landfall as a Category 4. A 72-year-old man was found dead yesterday in water in a canal behind his home in Deltona near Daytona Beach, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Another Florida sheriff said he believed the death toll would be "in the hundreds."

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Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno told ABC's Good Morning America that his office was receiving thousands of 911 calls from people needing rescue in the county that includes Fort Myers, but roadways were still impassable and bridges are compromised.

"It crushed us," Marceno said. "We still cannot access many of the people that are in need."

The storm previously tore into Cuba, killing two people and bringing down the country's electrical grid.

- With AAP. 

With another rate rise looking likely next week, there is a cohort of Australian home owners who have found themselves in a bit of a tricky situation.

Some, looking to refinance and get a better deal than the higher rate they're on, aren't able to get any financial institution to help them because they no longer meet the documentation requirements when their mortgage repayments are taking up more of their household income, or their house is now worth less than their loan.

This situation is known as a mortgage prison, when you can't afford the rate rise increases on your current mortgage but you also can't move to another option in order to make it more affordable. 

In this episode, The Quicky team finds out how mortgage prisons work and what it takes to break free from one. 

Missed yesterday's news feed? Catch up on what women were talking about here.

Feature Image: Chris Jackson/Getty/National Records of Scotland.