“Australians deserve an early mark.” Scott Morrison says decision to ease restrictions could move forward.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced today the Government could move the decision to ease restrictions forward to as early as Friday, May 8, but on the condition that more Australians download the CovidSAFE app.

“Australians deserve an early mark for the work that they have done,” he said in Friday’s press conference following a meeting of the National Cabinet.

“But we need that tool so we can open the economy. So if you haven’t downloaded the app yet, download it. And if you have and you know someone who hasn’t, please encourage them to download it.”

So far, more than 3.5 million Australians have downloaded the public health app, but the Prime Minister said “there needs to be millions more” before restrictions can be relaxed.

Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy said increasing the uptake of the app is the final missing piece of Australia’s coronavirus puzzle.

The Prime Minister also announced a further $205 million cash injection for the aged care sector. He said the one-off payment is to support aged care providers manage the costs they’re incurring dealing with the pandemic.

National Cabinet also agreed to a set of principles for sport and recreation, which will be released today, and also approved the aged care code.

WATCH: Today’s coronavirus headlines. Post continues after video.

The state of COVID-19 across Australia.

There have been 93 deaths across Australia, with more than 6740 recorded cases of the disease.

An 86-year-old Tasmanian, and another resident of the NSW Newmarch aged care home are the latest fatalities.

The current COVID-19 figures.

Infection rates have been steadily falling, with the ACT becoming the first state or territory to eliminate all known cases of coronavirus.

In the NT, where there are just three active cases, major restrictions are set to be lifted when pubs and restaurants reopen on May 15.

WA and Queensland recorded no new cases on Thursday and SA did the same for the eighth day running.

NSW had two new cases and Victoria recorded seven, but Australia continues to squash the rate of infections under distancing measures.

From today in NSW up to two adults and their dependent children can visit another household anywhere across the state.

In Queensland from tomorrow families can have a picnic, sit on a park bench, do non-essential shopping, and drive 50km from their house.

New cluster linked to Victorian aged care facility.

Victorian health authorities are investigating a cluster of coronavirus cases at an aged care facility, as the state records its highest number of new cases in more than a week.

Seven new cases of coronavirus were confirmed yesterday, with Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton revealing a cluster had emerged at the Hawthorn Grange aged care facility.

He said two residents and one staff member at the inner-east privately-owned facility had tested positive to COVID-19, with extensive testing underway to get on top of the outbreak.

Three more residents have tested positive at the aged care cluster in Sydney, NSW, where 13 residents have already lost their lives.

The latest death was confirmed this morning.

Tasmanian cluster caused by Ruby Princess.

A report has found the Ruby Princess was the root cause of a deadly coronavirus outbreak in the state.

Twelve of the island’s 13 COVID-19 deaths have been in the northwest and two-thirds of its overall 221 cases are linked to the cluster.

The only death in the south of the state was also a Ruby Princess passenger who died in the Royal Hobart Hospital.

The outbreak forced authorities to close Burnie's North West Regional Hospital and its private counterpart on April 13 and put 1200 workers in quarantine.

An interim report, released on Thursday, found the source of the virus cluster was two elderly Ruby Princess passengers who were admitted in late March and later died.

The Premier urged people not to blame the healthcare workers or cruise ship passengers.

"This is simply a case of people going about their lives, going about their jobs," he said, describing the Ruby Princess as "ground zero".

UK past its peak.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Britain is now past the peak of its coronavirus outbreak and has promised to set out a lockdown exit strategy next week despite rising deaths and criticism of his government's response.

Holding his first news conference since recovering from COVID-19, and a day after his fiancee gave birth, Johnson offered hope to locked-down Britons but urged them to stick with restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus.

"I can confirm today that for the first time, we are past the peak of this disease," Johnson said.

"We're past the peak and we're on the downward slope, and we have so many reasons to be hopeful for the long term."

Nevertheless, Britain now has the second-highest official COVID-19 death toll in Europe.

A total of 26,771 people have died of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, up by 674 in a 24-hour period.

Bodies found in unrefrigerated NY trucks.

The city of New York has delivered a freezer truck to a funeral home after it was found to be storing dead bodies in unrefrigerated U-Haul vehicles.

ABC News reported about 100 bodies were stored in the vehicles after the owner of the Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services funeral home said the freezer that normally stores bodies stopped working.

The bodies were found after neighbours reported an odour coming from the trucks, New York media reported.

More than 18,000 people have died of COVID-19 in America's biggest city, with the US having the most confirmed deaths in the world at more than 60,000.

Funeral homes say they are facing weeks-long backlogs to bury or cremate the dead.

Denmark hasn't seen a spike since reopening.

Denmark, the first country outside Asia to ease its coronavirus lockdown, says the spread of COVID-19 has not accelerated since the gradual loosening of restrictions began in mid-April.

The Nordic country began reopening day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade two weeks ago followed by hairdressers and other small businesses on April 20 after seeing the number of infections and deaths decline.

"There are no signs that the COVID-19 epidemic is accelerating," said the State Serum Institute, which is responsible for preparedness against infectious diseases.

The so-called "R rate," which shows the average number of infections one person with the virus causes, has increased slightly in the past two weeks but remains below 1.0, it said.

Denmark, which was one of the first in Europe to shut down, has had 452 coronavirus-related deaths.

Russia's PM diagnosed with the virus.

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has been diagnosed with the coronavirus and is temporarily stepping down to recover.

Mishustin, who has been one of the main co-ordinators of Russia's response to the coronavirus, is the first high-ranking Russian official to publicly say they have the virus.

He broke the news hours after the number of confirmed cases of the virus in Russia surged past the 100,000 mark.

The country has so far had 1073 coronavirus-related deaths.

200 leaders taking part in livestream.

Oprah Winfrey, Julia Roberts, Deepak Chopra and former US President George W Bush are among 200 cultural and spiritual leaders taking part in a 24-hour livestream this weekend aimed at unity during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Call to Unite - starting on Friday at midnight GMT (10am AEST on Saturday) and streamed globally on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media platforms - hopes to support people who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus or who feel isolated, depressed or overwhelmed.

May 1 @ 8pm EDT. Streaming everywhere on earth. Everyone is invited. #AnswerTheCall pic.twitter.com/cpM4gNwdrO

— UNITE (@TheCallToUnite) April 25, 2020

Classical musician Yo-Yo Ma, rapper Charlamagne tha God, the African Children's Choir, lifestyle guru Marie Kondo and US pastor Rick Warren are also among those who will offer prayers, songs and inspirational messages, organisers said.

Captain Tom's birthday honour.

A British World War Two veteran who has raised $56 million for the UK's National Health Service has been promoted to honorary colonel on his 100th birthday.

Captain Thomas Moore made headlines around the world when he started a campaign to support British healthcare workers by walking 100 laps of his garden.

His donation drive has become the biggest individual fundraiser in the country's history.

Tom was presented with a letter containing the offer of colonel, made by The Queen, by the commanding officer of his WWII battalion.

He was also given a special flypast by the RAF to celebrate his birthday, and was sent more than 125,000 cards on his big day.

 

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Today, the British World War II veteran celebrates his 100th birthday. Tom Moore has raised over $56 million for frontline health care workers by walking laps around his garden. "In the last war it was soldiers in uniform on the front line," he told ITV. "This time our army are the doctors and nurses (in) uniforms."

A post shared by Mamamia (@mamamiaaus) on Apr 29, 2020 at 3:57pm PDT

- With AAP

Feature image:Getty.