On 11 April, there was an outbreak of the virus at Newmarch House, an aged care nursing home in New South Wales. On 14 April, it was linked to an infected staff member with minor symptoms, but who been at work for six days. Ten residents and five staff tested positive for coronavirus. On 27 and 28 April, four residents of the home died in less than 24 hours, bringing to eleven the number of residents who had died from COVID-19 since 11 April. By 9 May, there have been 69 COVID-19 cases linked to the home, 32 staff and 37 residents. Seventeen residents had died from COVID-19.
On 13 April, the Tasmanian government closed the North West Regional Hospital and North West Private Hospital in Burnie for cleaning. All the staff, over 1000 people and their families, were put into quarantine. Emergency medical teams from the Australian Defence Force were sent to Burnie to because the hospital staff were in quarantine. On 15 April, a Western Australian man became the first person in Australia to be jailed for breaking the self-isolation laws.
In May there was an outbreak of the virus linked to a meat processing factory in Victoria. By 8 May there was 71 people with the virus, at least 57 workers and 13 close contacts, including a nurse, aged care worker and high school student. By 9 May, the number had increased to 75.
On 9 May, there were two cases related to a McDonald's restaurant. By 18 May, this had increased to 12 cases. A a delivery driver had tested positive, and 12 McDonalds stores were closed for cleaning.
In New South Wales, on 15 May, some restrictions on public gatherings were eased. Cafes and restaurants, and hotel and club dining rooms, were allowed to reopen but with a maximum of 10 people. Outdoor gatherings could have up to 10 people and 10 guests were able to go to weddings. Funerals could have 20 people inside, and 30 outdoors. Up to 10 people could go into a church.
On 15 May, both South Australia and the ACT no longer had any active cases.
On 19 May, in New South Wales, another resident of Newmarch House nursing home died from coronavirus. This brought the total number of COVID-19 related deaths at the home to 19 and the national death toll to 100.
On 3 March, the Reserve Bank of Australia became the first central bank to cut interest rates in response to the outbreak. They were cut to a record low of 0.5%.
On 12 March, the Government said it would spend billion to help the economy. It included a one-off A$750 payment to around 6.5 million people who already received income help from the government , small business assistance with 700,000 grants up to $25,000 and to pay 50% of the wages for 120,000 apprenticies or trainees for up to 9 months, 1 billion to support economically impacted sectors, regions and communities, and $700 million to increase tax write off and $3.2 billion to support short-term small and medium-sized business investment.
On 19 March, the Reserve Bank again cut interest rates again to 0.25%, the lowest in Australian history.
In March 2020, the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed how the virus was affecting the economy. Retail sales had increased by 0.4% in February 2020. This was probably because of increased sales at supermarkets where people were buying extra supplies in case they were put into isolation. Businesses that relied on tourism lost most of their sales.
On 22 March, the government announced a second amount of A$66bn, bringing the amount to A$89bn. They doubled income support and made it easier to get the Jobseeker's allowance. They gave up to A$100,000 to small and medium-sized businesses and A$715 million to Australian airports and airlines. People were allowed to access up to A$10,000 of their superannuation in 2019–2020 and again for the next year.
On 30 March, the Australian Government said they would spend $130 billion on the "JobKeeper" program. This would pay employers up to $1500 a fortnight for workers that had been in that business for over a year. The business had to have lost 30% of their turnover. For businesses who had made more than $1 billion, their turnover must have dropped by 50%. Businesses pay the Jobseeker money to their staff, instead of their usual wages. This program was to deal with the enormous job losses seen one week before, when about one million Australians lost their jobs. This massive loss in jobs caused the Australian Government's myGov website to crash and lines of people waiting to enter Centrelink offices were hundreds of metres long. The program was backdated to 1 March, to help re-employ the many people who had just lost their jobs in the weeks before. Businesses would receive the JobKeeper money for six months.
In the first hour of the scheme, over 8,000 businesses applied for the payments. The JobKeeper program is one of the largest economic packages in the history of Australia.
Before the pandemic, 600,000 Australians worked in the arts, and added around billion to export revenues. The arts added about billion (6.4% of GDP) to Australia's economy in 2016–17".
In the second week of March 2020, Australian institutions began cutting back services, and many closed. The Melbourne International Comedy Festival, was cancelled entirely. Opera Australia close on 15 March. TAll cultural institutions were forced to close on 24 March. Public gatherings were banned. Other events that were cancelled included the Sydney Writers' Festival. By April over 50% of arts and recreation services were closed. Adrian Collette, CEO of the Australia Council for the Arts, said the affects on the arts were “catastrophic”.
The Australian movie industry has been severely impacted. At least 60 movies in production were stopped and about 20,000 people put out of work. On Monday 23 March, all productions funded by Screen Australia were postponed. , after some improvement in COVID-19 statistics in Australia, Screen Australia continues to fund work and process applications, intending to use all of its 2019/20 budget. Many movie production companies do not meet the rules for the Jobkeeper program and will not get any government help.
119 films and TV shows have been stopped, with only a few shows (such as "MasterChef Australia" and "Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell") continuing production through the pandemic. The TV soap "Neighbours" was the first English-language TV drama series in the world to say they would start production again after 20 April 2020.
The Australia Council will spend about million for new programs. These will be to provide immediate help to artists, arts workers and arts organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several state governments have also provided relief packages.
Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders have poorer health outcomes and a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population, particularly those living in remote areas Overcrowded housing and living in very remote communities, makes them very vulnerable to the virus. The remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia, restricted access to their lands in early March to protect their people from the virus.
The Northern Territory developed a remote health pandemic plan They set up a number of remote clinics.
The major sporting leagues (A-League, AFL, AFL Women's, and the National Rugby League) at first said that their games would continue behind closed doors. The leagues would all later be suspended.
The 2020 NBL Finals, the best of five series was cancelled after the third game with the title awarded to Perth Wildcats.
The remaining two One Day Internationals between Australia and New Zealand were cancelled after the first match was played behind closed doors. Cricket Australia also cancelled the Australian women's cricket team's tour of South Africa.
The 2020 Australian Grand Prix, which was cancelled on 13 March after McLaren withdrew when a team member tested positive for COVID-19.