What you need to know about COVID-19 today, Saturday April 18.

Three more Australians have died, national death toll at 68.

Three more Australians have died after testing positive to COVID-19, bringing the national death toll to 68.

NSW’s coronavirus death toll has reached 28, Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Saturday, after a 83-year-old man and a 58-year-old woman passed away after testing positive to COVID-19.

The 83-year-old man, a Queensland resident, died in Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after recently returning from a cruise to South America on the Celebrity Eclipse.

The 58-year-old woman died in Tamworth Hospital and authorities are attempting to trace how she contracted the virus.

It comes after man in his 70s became the latest coronavirus death in Tasmania, bringing the state’s toll to eight.

The 74-year-old man was at the Northwest Regional Hospital, which is at the centre of a COVID-19 outbreak, the state’s Premier Peter Gutwein said on Saturday.

Tasmania’s government issued blanket testing across East Devonport’s Melaleuca Nursing Home, Ulverstone’s Eliza Purton Home and Coroneagh Park in Penguin following the discovery that a healthcare worker had done shifts at all three facilities prior to testing positive for coronavirus.

As of Saturday morning, Australia has 6,533 COVID-19 cases across the country with 68 deaths. A total of 3,819 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19.

In NSW, there are 2,936 cases, Victoria has 1,302, Queensland has recorded 1,007, South Australia has 435, Western Australia has recorded 541, Tasmania has 182, there are 103 in the ACT and 27 in the Northern Territory.

Scott Morrison confirms the tracing app will not be compulsory.

Mobile phone tracking software will not be compulsory, with the government relying on Australians to voluntarily download the application to help in coronavirus case tracing.

On Saturday morning, Morrison said: “The App we are working on to help our health workers trace people who have been in contact with coronavirus will not be mandatory.”

We will be seeking the cooperation and support of Australians to download the app to help our health workers, to protect our community and help get our economy going again.

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 18, 2020

It comes after the Prime Minister said on Friday that at least 40 per cent of the population needs to use the app to make it effective.

“My preference is to give Australians a go at getting it right,” he told Triple M on Friday. “That’s my plan A and I really want plan A to work.

“If you download this app you’ll be helping save someone’s life.”

Better contact tracing is one of three main benchmarks the government wants to meet before strict restrictions can be lifted. The other two are a broader testing regime and a greater capacity to respond to local outbreaks.

Scott Morrison also ensured Australians that the app won’t be used by police as evidence to prosecute people for breaching social distancing requirements.

The app uses Bluetooth to plot people who had spent 15 minutes or more in close proximity to a person with coronavirus. They then share the records with authorities when asked to be part of a tracing investigation.

NZ PM Jacinda Ardern is being sued over COVID-19 lockdown.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is being sued over the country's coronavirus lockdown, with two men arguing it has left them unlawfully detained.

The pair, who may not be named for legal reasons, made the claims at the Auckland High Court on Friday, local media platform Stuff reported.

The hearing took place via a virtual meeting room, the court confirmed in an email.

The men have asked for a writ of habeas corpus, which seeks to rule an imprisonment unlawful and release the applicants.

Stuff reported one man told the court the United Nations Secretary-General should have been consulted before the lockdown restrictions were imposed.

A model predicting 80,000 deaths in New Zealand from COVID-19 if the lockdown was not enacted was, in his opinion, an inaccurate "well-woven yarn of complete decimation," Stuff reported.

The other man said Ardern made the lockdown decision on no real evidence, and was putting lives ahead of the economy.

Global coronavirus death toll hits 150,000.

The number of worldwide deaths linked to the coronavirus has reached 150,000.

The first death came in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on January 9. It took 83 days for the first 50,000 deaths to be recorded and just eight more for the toll to climb to 100,000. It took another eight days to go from 100,000 to 150,000.

The death toll is still far short of the so-called Spanish flu, which began in 1918 and is estimated to have killed more than 20 million people by the time it petered out in 1920.

Authorities say that almost everywhere, thousands have died with COVID-19 symptoms — many in nursing homes — without being tested for the virus, and have thus gone uncounted.

"We are probably only seeing the tip of the iceberg," said Barcelona University epidemiologist Antoni Trilla, who heads the Spanish government's expert panel on the crisis.

In Britain, with an official count of about 14,600 dead, the country's statistics agency said the actual number could be around 15 per cent higher. Others think it will be far more.

The official death toll in New York City — the epicentre of the crisis in the US — soared by more than half earlier this week when health authorities began including people who probably had COVID-19 but died without being tested. Nearly 3800 deaths were added to the city's count.

Listen: Is it safe to send the kids to school this term? Post continues below audio.

China's death toll has been revised and updated.

China's official death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has jumped sharply as the hardest-hit city of Wuhan announced a major revision that added nearly 1,300 fatalities.

The new figures on Friday resulted from an in-depth review of deaths during a response that was chaotic in the early days.

They raised the official toll in Wuhan by 50 per cent to 3869 deaths. The revised numbers push up China's total to 4,632 deaths from a previously reported 3,342.

The higher numbers are not a surprise — it is virtually impossible to get an accurate count when health systems are overwhelmed at the height of a crisis — and they confirm suspicions that many more people died than the official figures had shown.

Questions have long swirled around the accuracy of China's case reporting, with Wuhan, in particular, going several days in January without reporting new cases or deaths.

That has led to accusations that Chinese officials were seeking to minimise the impact of the outbreak and could have brought it under control sooner.

Trump urges citizens to "liberate" states under lockdown.

President Donald Trump has urged supporters to "LIBERATE" three states led by Democratic governors, apparently encouraging the growing protests against the stay-at-home restrictions aimed at stopping the coronavirus.

A day after laying out a road map to gradually reopen the crippled economy, Trump took to Twitter with the kind of rhetoric some of his supporters have used in demanding the lifting of the orders that have thrown millions of Americans out of work.

"LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" "LIBERATE VIRGINIA," he said in a tweet-storm in which he also lashed out at New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for criticising the federal response. Cuomo "should spend more time 'doing' and less time 'complaining,"' the president said.

LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

LIBERATE MICHIGAN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

LIBERATE MINNESOTA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 17, 2020

Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to see businesses reopen quickly and claimed earlier this week that he possesses total authority over the matter, even though the lockdowns and other social-distancing measures have been imposed by state and local leaders, not Washington.

On Thursday, the president detailed a three-step set of guidelines for easing restrictions over a span of several weeks in places that have robust testing and are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases, assuring the nation's governors: "You're going to call your own shots."

Queensland Government offers lifeline to Virgin.

The Queensland Government has offered $200 million to help rescue Virgin Australia, as the cash-strapped airline struggles to survive.

The airline suspended trading in its shares to continue talks on financial aid and restructuring alternatives to help it weather the coronavirus downturn.

It has been unsuccessful in its request to the Australian government for $1.4 billion in loans.

Queensland State Development Minister Cameron Dick's says it was imperative Australia has two airlines, to support tourism, jobs and regional investment, and urged other states to assist.

"Queensland has given Australia both our national airlines — we won't let them go, or let thousands of families watch their jobs go, without a fight," he said in a statement on Saturday.

"But we can't do it alone, and nor should we, because all parts of Australia benefit from two national airlines."

UK launches vaccine taskforce.

The United Kingdom government has launched a taskforce dedicated to assisting and accelerating the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Government announced vaccine taskforce will be "key to coordinating efforts to rapidly accelerate the development and manufacture of a potential new vaccine, so we can make sure it is widely available to patients as soon as possible," Business Minister Alok Sharma said.

"The government has set up a vaccines taskforce, to coordinate the efforts of government, academia and industry towards a single goal: to accelerate the development of a #coronavirus vaccine." – @AlokSharma_RDG, Secretary of State @beisgovuk pic.twitter.com/NZtNNg7Sys

— UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet) April 17, 2020

The Government will inject 14 million pounds to fund 21 new research projects in the hope of rapidly progressing the development of the vaccine.

Read more:

• The cost of keeping us safe from COVID-19 will be paid by Millennials.
• Just a bunch of comforting graphs and facts about the state of COVID-19 in Australia.
• The 3 things the Government needs to see before COVID-19 restrictions can be lifted.

- With AAP

Feature image: AAP/WellChild.

To protect yourself and the community from COVID-19, keep at least 1.5 metres away from other people, regularly wash your hands and avoid touching your face.

If you are sick and believe you have symptoms of COVID-19, call your GP ahead of time to book an appointment. Or call the national Coronavirus Health Information Line for advice on 1800 020 080. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 000.

To keep up to date with the latest information, please visit the Department of Health website.

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