By Hope NewsroomTuesday 20 Jul 2021NewsReading Time: 2 minutes
Today’s headlines from the Hope News team. You can listen to hourly bulletin updates at hopenews.com.au.
Close contacts connected to COVID-19 cases have spread hundreds of kilometres outside of the Greater Sydney area – being identified more than five hours north of the city, in Coffs Harbour.
The latest close contact venues span more than 540km of NSW, with a petrol station in Padstow and a supermarket in Fairfield also added.
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Overall infection numbers to be released today aren’t expected to show a dramatic improvement, but authorities are hoping a downward trend continues.
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Thousands of businesses that applied for COVID support should be receiving payments from this week, despite the website crashing because of high demand yesterday.
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At least three athletes in the Olympic Village in Tokyo have tested positive to COVID, just days out from the Opening Ceremony.
Dozens of contractors and games attendants have also contracted the virus during the lead up to the Games.
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Australia has taken the rare step of directly blaming China for a series of cyber attacks.
The US, Britain and the European Union also accuse China of exploiting vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange, compromising thousands of computers and networks around the world.
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Islamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack on a market place in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
At least 35 people have been killed and more than 60 others injured in the bomb blast.
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Health experts are expressing concern over a sharp rise in the number of teenage girls attempting suicide and self-harm since the pandemic began.
The increase has come in data from Australia’s first-ever suicide and monitoring system, released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.