Coronavirus live news: Victoria declares state of disaster and nightly curfew for Melbourne

Hundreds of ‘mystery cases’ have forced decision in Australian state; UK planning to avoid a second national lockdown; South Africa’s cases pass 500,000Victoria announces stage four coronavirus lockdown in Melbourne Masks recommended in more circumstances in New South Wales Global report: curfew in Australia’s second-largest city as Mexico racks up daily recordSee all our coronavirus coverage 8.07am BST That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thank you for following along. My colleague and blogger extraordinaire Ben Quinn will be taking you through the next while of pandemic news. In non-coronavirus news, here is a glimpse of a stupefyingly good whale sighting on Sunday morning at Manly Beach near Sydney, Australia:Bad day here in Australia pandemic-wise, but this photo taken today at Manly Beach near Sydney is an absolute beeeeauty (open): pic.twitter.com/b4mo7IDLgY Related: Close encounter: mother and calf humpback whales stun surfers at Sydney's Manly beach 8.01am BST Here are the key developments from the last few hours: Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/aug/02/coronavirus-live-news-victoria-faces-highest-lockdown-as-south-africa-cases-pass-500000 #coronavirus_outbreak #world_news #australia_news #uk_news #us_news #science #infectious_diseases