Morning mail: Australia battles Covid outbreaks, Joyce rewards backers, MasterChef recap

Monday: new lockdowns and restrictions across Australia as coronavirus sweeps nation. Plus: MasterChef double elimination

Good morning. Millions of Australians are waking up in lockdown today as states and territories attempt to prevent the spread of the latest Covid outbreak. Similar restrictions are also being put in place internationally as the Delta variant continues to spread. Barnaby Joyce has reshuffled his cabinet, and Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is set to head back to the office today after recovering from a fall in March.

New South Wales reported 30 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday as a string of new outbreaks across Australia forced states and territories to introduce sweeping new restrictions and prompted urgent calls for vaccine eligibility to be widened. Gladys Berejiklian warned Sydney to prepare for a further increase in cases over the coming days. Given how contagious [this strain] of the virus is we do anticipate over the next few days case numbers are likely to increase even over what we have seen in the last few days," she said. The 30 new cases were all linked to the Bondi cluster and half were in insolation while infectious. Several new exposure sights have been released for Sydney and Queensland.