Australia

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.

Since 2007 only kava for medicinal purposes has been allowed.

Travellers had been allowed to bring in up to 4 kilogrammes in their luggage, but this has ceased with Covid-19 restrictions.

However restrictions are having a significant impact on Australia's Pacific community who say the case for allowing kava importation by mail is strong.

A Tongan-Maori student at the University of Canberra, Faonetapu Takiari, said there were no legal restrictions on kava in the Capital Territory as it's classed as a food and beverage.

Only 30 of the new infections were connected to contained outbreaks and 186 were under investigation.

There are now at least 1249 active cases in Victoria.

About 5 million Victorians in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire are under strict stay-at-home orders after weeks of worrying transmission of the deadly virus.

"This is not an ordinary weekend," Premier Daniel Andrews said. "You've got to be in your home if you are in the metropolitan Melbourne or Mitchell Shire areas."

But for 3,000 people living in public housing tower blocks, an even stricter lockdown was imposed on Saturday.

Unlike other Melburnians, residents of the nine towers cannot leave for any reason - they are subject to a police guard.

It's the toughest lockdown seen in Australia so far.

The "detention directions" in suburbs of Flemington and North Melbourne are designed to contain a cluster of infections found in some of the buildings.

Melbourne's five million residents will be barred from leaving home for six weeks, except for essential reasons.

Police say they are setting up a "ring of steel" around the city, with "checkpoints anytime and anywhere" to enforce the measures.

Borders between Victoria, of which Melbourne is the capital, and neighbouring states closed on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison paid tribute to Melburnians' resilience on Wednesday.

It comes after New Zealand also said it would be looking at limiting the number of arrivals in the country via a booking system.

The prime minister said there were no plans to reimpose restrictions across the country, after Victoria enforced stay-at-home rules in metropolitan Melbourne and one regional area due to a spike in infections.

Morrison was asked about the issue of travel bubbles being set up with other countries and taxing travellers.

"We haven't even concluded in the arrangements with any other countries at the moment.

Their joint proposal beat a rival bid from Colombia to host the tournament which is being expanded to 32 teams.

Japan, who had also put forward a bid to stage the event, pulled out on Monday after they were ranked below the joint bid by world governing body FIFA's evaluation report.

The report highlighted the infrastructure and organisational advantages of the Australia/New Zealand bid which FIFA believed would make for a commercially successful tournament.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said New Zealand was honoured to have been selected as co-hosts.

With 10 active cases and quarantine botch-ups, it could be months yet before Australian and Pacific visitors are allowed in.

Meanwhile, Australian Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has warned its border will mostly likely be locked down until 2021.

That has businesses feeling nervous.

For Skyline - an adventure tourism business in Queenstown and Rotorua - the weekdays are the hardest.

Locals are visiting in the weekends and school holidays, but in between the luges and gondolas are quiet.

The Japanese Football Association has announced that Japan is withdrawing its bid, just days before football's world governing body holds a vote to determine the successful candidate.

Following an executive board meeting on Monday, the JFA withdrew its candidacy and decided to support the Australia/New Zealand bid which will go up against a bid from Colombia.

Earlier this month, FIFA rated the joint Australia/New Zealand bid as the best to host the tournament, with Japan in second place.