* All direct passenger flights into Australia from India have been suspended until May 15 as the South Asian nation deals with an escalating coronavirus catastrophe.

* The move will affect about 500 people due to return to Australia.

* India has recorded 323,144 new cases in the past 24 hours.

* All international flights into South Australia have been paused for at least three days after the state announced 14 cases in hotel quarantine on Monday alone. Another case was identified on Tuesday.

* West Australians have emerged from a three-day snap lockdown, triggered by an infected man who returned from India after travelling to get married.

* WA Premier Mark McGowan has defended imposing the lockdown, set to cost the local economy about $70 million, after only two locally acquired infections were found from more than 37,000 tests.

* Interim restrictions will remain in place in WA until 12.01am on Saturday, including the mandatory wearing of face masks and limits on gatherings.

* In NSW, health authorities have confirmed the South African variant of COVID-19 spread between guests at a Sydney quarantine hotel earlier this month.

* The Australian Medical Association has backed calls for federally run quarantine.

* There are around 34,300 Australians currently registered with the foreign affairs department as being overseas and wanting to return home. About 9000 of those are in India, 650 of whom are considered vulnerable.

* Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has again pushed for purpose-built quarantine facilities in the regions, while WA Premier Mark McGowan has floated the Christmas Island detention facility as an option.

* The Victorian government on Tuesday wrote to the federal government to ask for permission to accept 120 international students per week from May 24.

* The students would not be included in Victoria's weekly cap of 1000 returned travellers, would be housed in a dedicated quarantine hotel, and their bill would not be footed by the state.

AUSTRALIAN CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS:

* Australia reported zero locally acquired virus cases on Tuesday.

* There were 23 new overseas-acquired cases in quarantine; 12 in NSW, four in Victoria, four in WA, two in Queensland and one in SA.

* The national death toll is 910: Victoria 820, NSW 56, Tasmania 13, WA 9, Queensland 7, 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 147,883,000

* Deaths: at least 3,120,000

* Recovered: at least 85,583,000

Data current as of 1730 AEST on April 27, taking in federal and state/territory government updates and Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centre figures.

Australian Associated Press