Australia

The workers were to be sent to the Northern territory to work on mango farms and orchards.

However a farewell ceremony set for this morning was hastily cancelled with government minister Bruno Leingkon saying the Council of Ministers still needed to approve the pilot programme.

A Council paper was prepared by the Department of Labour over three weeks ago but the minsiters were only meeting today on the matter.

One issue is that the government had proposed not to resend ni-Vanuatu into Australia but transfer those already there to the Northern Territory.

The latest fatalities take the state's Covid-19 death toll to 438.

Yesterday's total of 116 new cases was the state's lowest in more than seven weeks .

It followed 209 new cases on Sunday and 182 on Saturday.

Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to give his regular daily update with details about the new cases later today.

Yesterday, he announced his Government would seek to change laws so that Victoria's state of emergency could be extended by another 12 months.

Brent Shannon and Ethan West found the stones near goldmining town Tarnagulla in Victoria state.

Their lucky find was shown on TV show Aussie Gold Hunters, which aired on Thursday.

The men dug up the ground and used metal detectors to detect gold in the area.

"These are definitely one of the most significant finds," Ethan West said, according to CNN. "To have two large chunks in one day is quite amazing."

The inquiry also heard guards at quarantine hotels were given "inappropriate" training advice.

Australian media report that guards were told masks and other protection would not be necessary, as long as they adhered to 1.5m social distancing.

Victoria is currently in lockdown because of a second wave of infections.

Stricter "stage four" restrictions were put in place in the city of Melbourne on 2 August for six weeks.

Official data on Thursday showed there were 292 new infections in the past 24 hours, down from 428 on Wednesday.

It is the lowest daily total since 20 July. Victoria had by far the most infections - 278. Its capital Melbourne began its shutdown on 3 August.

Health Minister Greg Hunt voiced cautious optimism about the new data.

"We now believe, cautiously, that we have early signs of the flattening of the curve," he said.

There was, however, some evidence that drastic lockdown measures in the city of Melbourne were having an effect, with daily new infections in the state of Victoria slowing to a near two week low.

"I am more hopeful of that today than I was in the course of the past week," Morrison told reporters in Canberra, as he called on state leaders to cooperate to allow stranded residents to return home.

Australia's federal political system has led to its eight states and territories taking different measures in response to the crisis, resulting in several internal border closures.

The ABC understands that details of the Vanuatu deal are to be announced by the Australian Government.

No Pacific seasonal workers have travelled to Australia since the closure of international borders in March, but there have been growing calls to let foreign workers in over fears that fruits will rot on trees otherwise.

Vanuatu's Labour Commissioner Muriel Meltenoven says talks have been held up by health and safety conditions for workers.

This is the state's equal-deadliest day since the pandemic began.

The 13 deaths include a man in his 60s, two men and a woman in their 70s, two men in their 80s and five women and two men in their 90s.

Eight of the deaths are linked to aged care outbreaks.

The deaths take the state's coronavirus toll to 136.

Of the new cases, 36 are linked to outbreaks or complex cases and 393 are under investigation.

Premier Daniel Andrews said 671 new coronavirus cases had been detected since yesterday and seven more people had died.

Six of the deaths have a connection to aged care.

Andrews said there was an "unacceptably high" number of community transmission cases, and the state had 760 active "mystery" Covid-19 infections where the source of the transmission was not known.

"Those mysteries, that community transmission, is in many respects our biggest challenge and the reason why we need to move to a different set of rules," he said.

Authorities in the state of Victoria, whose capital Melbourne is in partial lockdown amid a new outbreak, reported 275 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, down from a daily record of 438 three days earlier.

Australia's acting chief medical officer Paul Kelly said it would take "weeks" to slow the outbreak to levels seen as recently as June, when Victoria and the rest of Australia reported single or double-digit daily infections.