COVID: 19: Melbourne put under night curfew; Australian PM Morrison announces 'disaster payment'

After a state of disaster was declared in Victoria on Sunday, nightcurfew was imposed in Melbourne for the next six weeks as the country braced from renewed coronavirus restrictions.

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Australia on Monday reported 444 new coronavirus cases and along with 7159 new cases as the death toll due to the virus rose to 221. Victoria announced 429 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours rasing the total number of coronavirus cases to 6,500 as New South Wales recorded 13 new COVID-19 cases.

Meanwhile, Australian PM Scott Morrison announced "disaster payment" asserting that it was meant for "people who have to isolate for a period of 14 days through no fault of their own".

The payment is meant for people with no sick leave available and who need to self-isolate for 14 days.

“The payment will be made in the same way that Disaster Recovery Payments are made. People would only need to ring the number from Wednesday, and they’ll be able to make their application over the phone,” the Australian Prime minister said.

Amid the rising number of cases, Melbourne has been put under night curfew from 8 pm to 5 am as retail activity will be closed with some manufacturing allowed. Construction activity is also set to be scaled back the country grapples with the virus.

Melbourne's mayor Sally Capp said: "For Melbourne we've never had a curfew before, not in the history of our city. So I think it really reflects the fact that we need to lift up our efforts to do everything we can to slow the spread of the virus."

Melbourne has closed all non-essential business activity from Monday for six weeks until at least September 13.

New South Wales, Victoria and south Australia have emerged as the new epicentres of the virus. Victoria has shut businesses as part of six-week lockdown.

Australia currently has 18,361 coronavirus cases as authorities struggle with new cases.