LATEST COVID-19 DEVELOPMENTS
* Two people have tested positive for the Russian strain of COVID-19 amid an outbreak at a Brisbane quarantine hotel, with another 75 security guests now being tested for the virus.
* Premier Gladys Berejiklian says NSW has been left in the dark on key aspects of the federal government's COVID-19 vaccine rollout, including which NSW aged care facilities have been visited by vaccine teams and how many residents have got the jab.
* Defence personnel will help with the rollout of coronavirus vaccines across Australia from next week.
* About 41,000 Australians are still stranded overseas due to limitations on international travel, with emergency biosecurity powers now extended for another three months until mid-June.
* Qantas and regional Rex Airlines want further handouts to see them through COVID uncertainty, with the ending of the JobKeeper program this month.
* Qantas has also warned of further redundancies if uncertainty around travel continues. It wants further "ad hoc" border closures ruled out.
* A nine-month extension to the Victorian government's state of emergency powers passed parliament late on Tuesday with the support of three crossbench MPs.
* The Therapeutic Goods Administration is batch testing the first doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine this week, with the aim of rolling it out from March 8.
AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Australia recorded no new locally-acquired cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday. There were eight new cases in returned travellers in hotel quarantine: six in NSW, one in South Australia and one in Western Australia.
* The national death toll is 909: Victoria 820, NSW 56, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 6, SA 4, ACT 3 (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).
GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:
* Cases: at least 114,749,889
* Deaths: at least 2,549,111
* Recovered: at least 64,903,492
Data current as of 1730 AEDT on March 3, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.
Australian Associated Press
