The United States has secured approximately 333 million doses of an experimental COVID-19 vaccine. The US Department of Health and Human Services pledged up to $1.2 billion to accelerate AstraZeneca’s vaccine development.

The use of the vaccine is unclear as of now because there is uncertainty surrounding immunity to COVID, however, the pledge is intended to potentially kickstart the US economy.

The US could potentially have the first doses as early as October according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has openly expressed criticism to the decision to keep the borders shut.

He told the Guardian that there is ‘no logic’ behind Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s decision to keep the borders closed.

Queensland leaders continue to discuss the date that borders will open as the rest of the States in Australia open their borders back up.

An error in the Jobkeeper application form has resulted in the reduction of workers covered by the scheme. The admitted error from the Federal Treasury revealed the estimated $130 billion dollar program is actually likely to cost $70 billion and only cover 3.5 million workers rather than 6 million.

The Australian Tax Office and the Federal Treasury discovered the error after careful analysis of the correlation between potential payments to businesses and the estimates of how many employees would be eligible for the scheme.

Transport Minister Mark Bailey announced that there would be no ‘social-distancing’ measures for public transport when school kids return to school.

The lack of measures come after there have been low reports of coronavirus in Queensland and a decrease of 70% of public transport users.

Bailey told public transport travellers to use ‘common sense’ when travelling and if the carriage on the train looks too crowded wait for the next.

University of Queensland student, Drew Pavlou, has walked out of a virtual hearing held to make a decision on his expulsion and whether he breached UQ’s code of conduct and brought the institution into disrepute.

Pavlou accused UQ of breaking their own rules for a disciplinary hearing by not providing him with documents that he believes are relevant to proving his innocence, whilst publishing a select few.

Carbon emissions across the globe have fallen to the lowest rate in 14 years, a study has revealed. It is predicted that a 7.5 percent decrease in carbon emissions could occur by the end of the year.