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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will hold a meeting with state and territory leaders to discuss the surge in COVID-19 cases across the country.

National Cabinet is expected to meet on Monday for a briefing on the latest medical advice and pandemic response.

More infectious sub-variants of the virus are driving case numbers and Aged Care Minister Anika Wells expects it to be several weeks before the peak of the latest wave arrives.

The government outlined its response on Thursday to how aged care facilities would manage the rise in cases during winter.

Following talks with chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly earlier this week, Ms Wells said the peak could continue into early August.

"He is as worried about this wave as he was in December about what became the January Omicron wave," she told reporters on Thursday.

"We are leaving no stone unturned ahead of our response to this current winter wave."

Ms Wells will meet with aged care providers from across the country next week in a bid to limit the spread of the virus in facilities.

The government's winter plan in aged care is based around around an increase in vaccination, antiviral access, visitor and worker safety, infection control training and proactive engagement.

As of Wednesday, 819 aged care facilities across the country have an outbreak.

The weekly average of deaths in aged care has also risen, from 69 to 91, with 2141 fatalities in facilities so far this year.

The government is under fire for its decision to allow a scheme giving free rapid antigen tests to concession card holders to wrap up at the end of the month.

NSW Opposition Leader Chris Minns called on the federal government to also reinstate pandemic leave payments for workers who are forced to isolate because they have tested positive.

That scheme finished at the end of June and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the decision was made by the previous government.

"We inherited those cut offs across a range of decisions from the former government," he said.

"We have added three months' health funding for the state and territory governments ... because the pandemic continues to have an impact."

Health Minister Mark Butler said he regretted the decision, but said the payments had to come to an end eventually.

"Unfortunately, whenever an emergency payment arrangement is withdrawn or comes to an end, there will be an impact on the community, whatever time that was," he said.

Mr Butler also said he was worried by misinformation about testing requirements.

"There is no change to the arrangements that are in place right through the pandemic," he said.

"If you think you have COVID, if you have symptoms, if you're exposed as a close contact anywhere in Australia, you can access a COVID test free of charge through the state government.

"I am concerned about misinformation that has been spread that there will be change to the free COVID testing arrangements in place for some time now."

Aged and Community Care Providers Association interim chief executive Paul Sadler welcomed the winter plan.

He said while aged care facilities were better prepared than the previous Omicron wave, workforce availability remained a concern.

"The aged care system is already under extreme pressure from COVID, so every bit of help is needed," he said.

LATEST 24-HOUR COVID-19 DATA:

Victoria: 11,283 cases, 20 deaths, 771 in hospital with 34 in ICU

NSW: 14,235 cases, 36 deaths, 2001 in hospital with 56 in ICU

Tasmania: 1844 cases, one death, 125 in hospital with four in ICU

Queensland: 6900 cases, 18 deaths, 863 in hospital with 16 in ICU

South Australia: 4761 cases, one death, 231 in hospital with seven in ICU

Western Australia: 6535 cases, two deaths, 329 in hospital with 14 in ICU

Northern Territory: 494 cases, no deaths, 55 in hospital with three in ICU

ACT: 1367 cases, no deaths, 137 in hospital with five in ICU.

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The unemployment rate plummeted to 3.5 per cent in June, the lowest rate in 48 years, as Australia's great jobs boom continued.

The drop, from 3.9 per cent in May, was much better than economists were expecting, and Deutsche Bank economist Phil O'Donaghoe said it was one of the best labour market reports in Australian history.

"You can never get too carried away with any number, whether it's positive or negative, but really it is just an extraordinary strong print, really adding to a very, very robust demand story here in Australia," he told ausbiz television.

Australian Bureau of Statistics head of labour data Bjorn Jarvis said the June figure was the lowest unemployment rate since August 1974, when the rate was 2.7 per cent and the survey was quarterly.

CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman called the figure a "staggering low" and a sign of an incredibly tight labour market.

Economists said the low unemployment rate would increase pressure on the Reserve Bank to aggressively hike interest rates given the RBA didn't anticipate unemployment falling to about 3.5 per cent until June 2023.

NAB economist Taylor Nugent said the next RBA interest rate rise would likely be either 50 or 75 basis points, and a 100-basis point hike couldn't be ruled out.

The number of unemployed people in June fell by 54,300, to 493,900 people.

There were nearly as many job vacancies in June - 480,000 - as there were jobless people. Before the coronavirus pandemic there were 3.1 unemployed people per job vacancy.

Employment rose sharply by 88,400 people, smashing expectations of a 30,000-strong rise.

The participation rate rose from 66.7 per cent to 66.8 per cent, a record high and 0.9 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels.

The unemployment rate fell for both men and women, both by 0.4 per percentage points. The 3.4 per cent unemployment rate for women was the lowest since February 1974, while the 3.6 per cent jobless rate for men was the lowest since May 1976.

Total hours worked decreased slightly, which economists said was likely due to the high number of COVID-19 and influenza cases. Absenteeism due to illness was at the second-highest level on record.

Full-time jobs increased for eight straight months and AMP chief economist Shane Oliver said he expected the unemployment rate would likely fall further, to about 3.2 per cent in the next three to six months.

"Thereafter it's likely to start rising again, reflecting the lagged impact of rising interest rates and falling real incomes on economic growth and hence labour demand," he wrote in a research note.

Dr Oliver said while a 48-year low in the unemployment rate was obviously good news, the comparison to 1974 was "not necessarily a good omen, as after that we slid into a bad bout of stagflation".

"Of course, many of the circumstances are different today, but the 1970s experience highlights the need for the RBA to act quickly," he said.

Acting employment minister Mark Butler welcomed news of the drop in unemployment.

"This is all terrific news for tens of thousands of people who find themselves in work who weren't last month," he told reporters in Adelaide.

"It also reinforces the incredible tightness of Australia's labour market and the need for government to work collaboratively with business and with unions to boost productivity."

A summit is planned for September to address economic constraints.

Acting opposition leader Sussan Ley said the jobs result was a testament to the former coalition government's action, including the national workforce strategy.

"All we've seen from Anthony Albanese since his election is a plan to have a plan with his pledge to hold a summit not this month, not next month but the month after," she said.

"It is time for them to stop talking about problems and get on do something."

© AAP 2022

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has renewed calls for national cabinet talks on COVID-19, saying her NSW counterpart supports the idea.

More than 860 people are in Queensland hospitals with the virus, with 16 in intensive care. The number of active cases has passed 45,000, with the peak of the latest wave still two weeks away.

Another 18 people have died, and 6900 new cases were recorded in Queensland.

Ms Palaszczuk says she spoke with NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet before the State of Origin decider in Brisbane on Wednesday night about the impact of rising cases and hospitalisations in his state.

She said he supports her call for a national cabinet meeting so Australian Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly can brief leaders about the situation.

"We're all on the one page, and you know, the pressures are obviously across the nation, they're not just in NSW and Queensland," the premier told Seven's Sunrise program on Thursday.

"So we just want the up-to-date information, which is what we used to regularly get.

"We don't want a long meeting, but we just want to get the advice and the information, like, is this just going to be a short, sharp wave, or are we going to get another wave in September?"

Ms Palaszczuk said leaders should discuss how people who were off work sick with new virus subvariants could be best supported.

She said it was up to the Commonwealth to determine pandemic leave payments, but existing financial supports may not be enough for some people.

"We are now seeing people getting the virus twice, which may mean additional time off work,'' Ms Palaszczuk said.

"We are seeing some people being hit harder, so that means that they are off work for longer than the seven days (of isolation) ... We need to look at those particular examples."

However, Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the decision to end pandemic leave payments was put in place by the former government.

"But at some point, you need to end emergency payments that are put in place in an emergency period," he told reporters on Thursday.

"We don't have the financial capacity to continue to fund these emergency payments forever."

Meanwhile, Queensland's aged care sector is under pressure from the current virus wave, with at least 261 facilities dealing with outbreaks by the end of last week.

That number could rise substantially in the coming weeks, said Paul Sadler, interim chief executive of the Aged and Community Care Providers Association.

"It could reach similar levels of impact on aged care as we had back in January, and possibly even higher than that," he told ABC radio on Thursday.

Mr Sadler hoped there wouldn't be "complete lockdowns" of aged care facilities during the coming peak, but said some places were restricting all visitors for "a day or two" after an outbreak was confirmed.

© AAP 2022