Lockdown

The lockdown at Lae's University of Technology started on Sunday after the deaths of two academics - one the head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Dr Gabriel Arpa.

Unitech's administration said the cause of their deaths is yet to be confirmed but both people had Covid-19 symptoms, The National newspaper reported.

Unitech said as an interim precaution, they had decided to suspend all classes for two weeks and impose a total lockdown.

The outbreak in Queensland's capital - home to two million residents - has grown to 16 infections in total.

State Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the low number of new infections meant the lockdown could be lifted in time for the Easter holiday weekend.

Some restrictions will still apply including mask-wearing in indoor areas.

Gathering numbers are also limited to 30 people in a household, while church services will be able to operate at full capacity if people remain seated and have tickets.

Macron said that schools would move to remote learning from next week.

Lockdown measures, introduced in some areas of France earlier this month, are also being extended to other districts.

All non-essential shops are to close from Saturday and there will be a ban on travelling more than 10km from home without good reason.

France's Health Ministry on Wednesday reported 59,038 new coronavirus cases.

The ministry added that 5053 patients were in intensive care units, down from a 2021 record of 5072 on Tuesday.

The French territory entered a lockdown earlier this month after new community cases of the coronavirus were confirmed.

Furthermore, covid cases have exploded in the neighbouring French territory of Wallis and Futuna, adding further risks.

Authorities in New Caledonia suggest the lockdown has controlled the latest surge of infections.

But they have issued an extension to ensure the end of community transmission.

By April, France is expected to have supplied 42,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine to New Caledonia.

The first infection was reported on Saturday in a school principal who had left mandatory quarantine weeks ago after returning a negative test result.

His case appears to be linked to a simultaneous community outbreak in New Caledonia which went into a lockdown at midnight after recording its first nine community cases.

The authorities in Wallis now report 19 cases in total, including the first on the island of Futuna.

Passenger air traffic has been suspended.

He said the last official figures for Papua New Guinea's autonomous region of Bougainville were 40 cases of the coronavrius - a rise from just three last Thursday.

Toroama said Bougainville's health officials had been trying to convince people to wear masks, wash their hands and maintain social distance.

There had been criticism of Bougainvilleans failing to respond to the Covid-19 surge but Toroama said Buka town would now go into a full, 14-day, lock down.

Victoria health officials said two previous cases have been classified as prior infections taking the total positive cases associated with the tournament to seven.

"The new positive cases linked to the Australian Open involve two players and one non-playing participant," said a statement from the health department.

Tiley said athletes who tested positive were not considered contagious and were still at their regular accommodation.

The June quarter, which included alert level 4 nationwide lockdown, saw the value of spending at retailers on the Paymark network drop 15.5 per cent compared with 2019.

But by December, spending for the year was up 5 per cent.

Retail spending across the eftpos network in 2020 was $42.6 billion, an increase of just 0.1 per cent.

The average value per transactions increased, from $39.04 to $42.58.

Retailers experienced the highs and lows of 2020 differently, according to Paymark.

The state has detected 36 cases since infections were found in Adelaide on Sunday, the first community cases detected in six months.

Authorities say the "circuit breaker" measures were necessary to stop the virus' spread "at the beginning".

Australia has previously also responded aggressively to small outbreaks.

Various state governments have at times closed parts of the economy, enforced border restrictions and other measures to stop the virus' spread.

Auckland Council's economic team, which has tallied the cost, said the total 4205 jobs lost in the region were 60 percent of the national total for the month.

Its chief economist David Norman said the city's job losses averaged 200 a day - which was fewer than the 250 a day forecast in alert level 3, but still high.

"These are real people. It's lives and families to support, and a lot of them lost their jobs; over 400. So that's a real impact".