Canberra, July 21 (TIWN) Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison flagged major changes to the government's coronavirus support packages, while pledging "targeted" economic backing.

Morrison told reporters on Monday that the "Jobseeker" and "Jobkeeper" schemes will continue in different forms beyond their planned end date in September, reports Xinhua news agency.  "So it will be phased, and we will be announcing this week the next phase post September," he said.  "It will be targeted, it will be temporary, it will be effective as the first round has been, but we do know that this first round has been very important."  Both the wage subsidy and the boosted unemployment benefit were launched in March as COVID-19 restrictions took their toll on the Australian economy.  A total of 12,069 COVID-19 cases have been reported in Australia while 8,392 have recovered, according to the latest figures from Department of Health.  The number of new cases in the last 24 hours was 296.