All roads lead to Orange.

COVID-19 cases are climbing in NSW aged care facilities, there are changes to Australia’s testing requirements and tennis star Novak Djokovic’s visa has been rejected.

The Hyatt Hotel guard is the second hotel worker to become infected in recent days after a Pan Pacific worker tested positive to the Omicron variant on Sunday.

That sense of family will be palpable at the State Library of Victoria’s summer program, which will celebrate all things Lego starting this month.

Ghassan Amoun, brother of underworld figure Bassam Hamzy, was killed in South Wentworthville on Thursday afternoon.

Omicron may be a milder strain of COVID-19 than previous outbreaks, but it’s having a devastating effect on Sydney’s arts industry.

The Health Minister revealed a third of all tests results processed in Victoria on Wednesday were positive, as the national tally of new cases exceeded 72,000.

We forgot for a few hours the COVID-19 statistics and were far more concerned by batting averages.

The South Steyne may be one of Australia’s most prized heritage vessels, but the steamship’s owner is struggling to find a permanent home

Police found an injured woman in a Woolloomooloo apartment complex after concerned neighbours called about loud noises coming from inside a unit.

In a remarkable life, Richard Leakey discovered hundreds of fossils, helped to preserve Africa’s wildlife and became an internationally renowned academic and philanthropist.

The Therapeutic Goods Administration has launched an investigation after widespread reports of rapid coronavirus tests meant for bulk sale to health professionals being repackaged for individual sale.

Today on Please Explain, The Age’s Paul Sakkal joins Nathanael Cooper to look at what brought Djokovic to this point.

Few things fill me with more sheer joy than an empty beach. But maybe it’s COVID and close to two years of not experiencing the congregating of human beings, but I find myself enjoying a popular seaside resort at the busiest time of year.

The state government has tweaked some health rules to address the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Plenty of people in line at Caringbah on Thursday still wanted to get a test even if, strictly speaking, they weren’t required to.

Djokovic will mount a legal challenge to the last-minute rejection of his visa, after spending eight hours in detention at Melbourne Airport pleading his case to border officials overnight.

Rapid antigen tests would become more affordable if the GST was taken off their asking price, but the states disagree with the federal government about how to make this happen.

So far, 65 people have reported feeling the effects of the earthquake to Geoscience Australia. 

The best photos from the international wire agencies as chosen by our picture editors

Several Perth Wildcats players are waiting to learn if they have contracted COVID-19 after returning positive rapid antigen tests on Wednesday. 

Why did Home Affairs grant Djokovic a visa in the first place?

There are 1609 people in NSW hospitals with the virus, of whom 131 are in intensive care units. 

The surge in COVID cases comes as the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital announced on Thursday it would close its fever clinic at the end of the day.

Queensland contact tracers are to focus on vulnerable settings and will limit publishing exposure sites unless they are venues of high concern, as the Omicron wave is set to peak and COVID cases become unmanageable.

How’s your naive optimism looking now, you snowflakes? For those of us whose glass is forever half-empty, these troubled times only validate our relentless pessimism.

Scott and Buddy have paired up to take down the mighty team of Toto and Anthony in the social media race of their lives.

As an ill child Charles MacKenzie was walled off from the world to keep him safe - until blood from a former prison inmate was pumped into his veins.

There were 652 active COVID-19 cases in residents of NSW aged care facilities by Tuesday, an increase of nearly 100 in four days.

Eddie Woo leads a team of expert maths teachers who visit schools around the state to help improve the way maths is taught

Your editorial rightly suggests that the Morrison government’s bungled “vaccine stroll out” and its current mess with rapid antigen tests indicates a serious problem with its competence

Ten people were arrested during blockade action on the Franklin River yesterday at Warners Landing.

Trivia buffs: test your knowledge with today’s interactive superquiz and target.

The risk has passed for Melbourne’s west, but thousands in western Victoria remain without power after heavy rain and strong winds lashed the state, causing flash flooding in and around Ballarat.

An offshore worker who stopped by Divers Tavern in Broome before heading home to Queensland has tested positive to the virus and the pub is now an exposure site among several new locations in Fremantle and Perth including Yagan Square on New Year’s...

The bouquet of the season.

Paramedics have been dealing with record call-outs as those managing symptoms at home seek advice and assistance.

The man spearheading Queensland’s present response to the pandemic says the virus would be here “whether we opened the borders or not”.

Queensland residents have been left waiting hours for COVID-19 tests, with frustrations boiling over in queues.

Concession cardholders will receive 10 rapid antigen tests, but universal free access has been ruled out, while tennis star Novak Djokovic has been granted a medical exemption to enter Australia despite not being fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The surge in demand for rapid antigen tests has been an added stress for those trying to visit loved ones in nursing homes.

The daughter of the engineer who oversaw the reconstruction of the GPO clock tower in the 1960s says his collection of papers, slides and technical documents should be preserved for the nation.

A year on from Washington’s Capitol riots, President Biden’s inauguration promise to display “tolerance and humility” towards his political and ideological enemies is ringing hollow.

Elective surgery has been halted again as pressure mounts on Victoria’s hospitals, ambulances and testing systems amid escalating Omicron infections.

Parents trying to book vaccine appointments for 5 to 11-year-olds on Victoria’s new system are reporting mixed results since it launched on Wednesday afternoon.

Ambulance Victoria said the situation had been exacerbated by the number of paramedics in isolation, with 500 Ambulance Victoria staff currently out of work while awaiting COVID-19 test results.

Company says some pharmacies have been selling the sought-after testing kits at excessive prices.

Sledging matches, crocodiles, beer bottles and Omicron were all part and parcel on the first day of a very strange Sydney Test.

The man attempted to drive his partner, who has Parkinson’s disease and dementia and uses a wheelchair, through outback WA as temperatures soared in the car.

An interactive map shows COVID-19 case numbers in your postcode, while an analysis of data points to high infections in suburbs populated by Sydney’s youth.