Sixteen people have died from the disease at Sydney's Newmarch House nursing home where 37 residents have been infected.

A cluster at a Melbourne abattoir has been linked to 49 cases, but is yet to result in deaths.

Australia's increase of 26 new cases on Wednesday was the highest daily spike for more than two weeks.

Finding cases through testing, tracing contacts and responding to outbreaks have been the key criteria for gradually easing restrictions.

Deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly is confident those targets are being met, putting national cabinet in a strong position to ease rules on Friday.

"This will be gradual. Some things will open - others will not," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

"It will be scaled so that risk of increasing the number of cases is minimised while giving the maximum benefit to the economy and to normalisation of society."

He said there was strong global knowledge about the virus, arming officials with responses.

"These are now strengthening our resolve in terms of our general principles as to how we are going to look at reopening society, reopening the economy in a COVID-safe way," he said.

Professor Kelly said nursing homes were difficult because the residents were vulnerable while meatworks forced people into close contact.

"As we look to open up society we will expect to see other outbreaks and the important thing is that we will need to be able to get on top of them quickly," he said.

"I have great confidence in my state and territory colleagues in doing that exact work."

The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee will provide leaders with triggers to reinstate restrictions if there's outbreaks, along with detailed advice about specific industries and locations.

States and territories will be allowed to make restriction decisions based on their own health data.

There is a July target for more widespread reopening of business and industry.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt also defended state health units' handling of outbreaks.

"Compared with the rest of the world we have flattened the curve," he told reporters in Melbourne.

"But we always warned there could be spikes or outbreaks in any one particular place. That's what we're seeing now."

Australia's death toll is at 97, with under 900 active cases from 6875 infections.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has railed against the herd immunity strategy being pursued by some nations.

He said the United States, Britain and Sweden were nowhere near reaching their immunity targets.

"That's a death sentence," he told 2GB radio.

JobKeeper payments for workers stood down during the outbreak began rolling out on Wednesday.

While the $130 billion scheme budgeted for six million workers, around 4.7 million will be covered through the current subscription level.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has ruled out extending the program to more ineligible workers.

He also insists the temporarily doubled JobSeeker payment will go back to $40 a day after the pandemic.

Australian Associated Press