* Restrictions on the AstraZeneca vaccine could be imposed in Australia after a link was confirmed between the jab and rare blood clots.

* Australia's drug regulators are holding urgent meetings to consider the findings before providing the government with recommendations.

* European authorities identified the link, prompting the United Kingdom to offer people aged under 30 an alternative vaccine due to the risk.

* An 82-year-old woman with an underlying medical condition died hours after receiving the Pfizer vaccine in a Queensland aged care home on Wednesday.

* The Therapeutic Goods Administration is investigating, but Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said there are no signs of any causal link to the vaccine.

* New research has suggested young Australian women are wary of receiving a COVID-19 jab, with an Australian National University survey finding just 43 per cent of young women were willing to get vaccinated as soon as possible, compared to 62 per cent of men in the same age group.

* Victoria's hotel quarantine program has restarted for a third time, after it was paused on February 13 when workers contracted the UK COVID strain from guests at the Holiday Inn. The outbreak, which grew to 24 cases, triggered a statewide five-day lockdown.

* Across the ditch, New Zealand has slapped a two-week ban on arrivals from India, after a drastic increase in the numbers of travellers with COVID-19.

* NZ health officials also announced a new community case - a security guard at an Auckland quarantine hotel - as well as 19 new cases on Thursday.

SPORT:

* The Hockeyroos and Kookaburras are running out of time to get match-hardened ahead of the Tokyo Olympics after a series of planned internationals were postponed due to coronavirus restrictions.

AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:

* Australia reported no locally-acquired virus cases on Wednesday. There were five overseas-acquired cases reported in hotel quarantine: three in Queensland and two in NSW.

* The national death toll is 909: Victoria 820, NSW 56, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 6, SA 4, ACT 3 (Two Queensland residents who died in NSW have been included in the official tolls of both states).

GLOBAL CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:

* Cases: at least 133,131,000

* Deaths: at least 2,887,000

* Recovered: at least 75,680,000.

Data current as of 1700 AEDT on April 8, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.

Australian Associated Press