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Family, friends and dignitaries gathered for Archbishop Desmond Tutu's official state funeral on New Year's Day in Cape Town, capping a week of events honouring a man long considered to be the moral compass of South Africa.

Tutu died last Sunday at the age of 90, sparking a global outpouring of tributes to the anti-apartheid hero. He had been in poor health for several years.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who delivered the main eulogy during the service at St. George's Cathedral on Saturday, hailed Tutu as "our national conscience".

READ MORE: 'The big baobab tree has fallen': Flood of tributes for Desmond Tutu

Tutu's widow Nomalizo Leah, known as "Mama Leah," sat in a wheelchair in the front row of the congregation, draped in a purple scarf, the colour of her husband's clerical robes.

For decades, Tutu was one of the primary voices pushing the South African government to end apartheid, the country's official policy of racial segregation and White minority rule. He won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, before apartheid ended in the early 1990s and the long-imprisoned Nelson Mandela became the nation's first Black president.

READ MORE: 'A patriot without equal': Anti-Apartheid leader Tutu's incredible life

The revered anti-apartheid fighter will be remembered as one of the most important voices of the 20th century. However, his funeral was subdued: Before he died, Tutu asked for a simple service and the cheapest available coffin, according to two of his foundations. Tutu's funeral was limited to just 100 people, in line with current Covid-19 regulations.

In his address at St. George's Cathedral, a church famous for its role in the resistance against apartheid, Ramaphosa described Tutu as "a man with a faith as deep as it was abiding," and "a crusader in the struggle for freedom, for justice, for equality and for peace, not just in South Africa, the country of his birth, but around the world as well."

"Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been our moral compass and national conscience," Ramaphosa said. "He saw our country as a 'rainbow nation', emerging from the shadow of apartheid, united in its diversity, with freedom and equal rights for all."

"He embraced all who had ever felt the cold wind of exclusion and they in turn embraced him," Ramaphosa added, praising Tutu's advocacy for LGBTQ rights, campaigning against child marriage, and support for the Palestinian cause.

"His was a life lived honestly and completely. He has left the world a better place. We remember him with a smile," Ramaphosa said.

Tutu's daughter Naomi also paid tribute to her father and thanked the public for their prayers. "Thank you, daddy, for the many ways you showed us love, for the many times you challenged us, for the many times you comforted us," she said.

Reverend Michael Nuttall, the retired Bishop of Natal who was once Tutu's deputy, delivered the main sermon, calling Tutu a "giant among us morally and spiritually."

His voice breaking at times, Nuttal said being Tutu's deputy between 1989 and 1996 "struck a chord perhaps in the hearts and minds of many people: a dynamic Black leader and his White deputy in the dying years of apartheid; and hey presto, the heavens did not collapse. We were a foretaste, if you like, of what could be in our wayward, divided nation."

"When we were in the dark, he brought light," Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of the worldwide Anglican church, said in a video message shown at a requiem Mass celebrated for Tutu at St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town.

"For me to praise him is like a mouse giving tribute to an elephant," Welby said.

"South Africa has given us extraordinary examples of towering leaders of the rainbow nation with President Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu …. Many Nobel winners' lights have grown dimmer over time, but Archbishop Tutu's has grown brighter."

Tutu's body will be cremated in a private ceremony after Saturday's requiem mass and will then be interred behind the pulpit at the cathedral.

St. George's Cathedral can hold 1,200 worshippers, but only 100 mourners were allowed to attend the funeral because of COVID-19 restrictions.

A few dozen people braved stormy weather to watch the service on a large screen in front of Cape Town City Hall. The municipal government building is where Tutu held hands aloft with Nelson Mandela on the day in 1990 when Mandela was released after serving 27 years in prison because of his opposition to apartheid.

Week-long remembrance

Events were planned throughout the country to give South Africans the opportunity to collectively mourn '"the Arch," as he was known, while still practising social distancing.

A week-long remembrance began Monday with the ringing of the bells at St. George's Cathedral, which held a special place in the late archbishop's heart, so much so that he requested his ashes be interred there in a special repository.

On Wednesday, several religious leaders gathered outside Tutu's former home on Vilakazi Street — where his friend and ally Nelson Mandela also grew up — in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, for a series of events. Another memorial service was held Wednesday in Cape Town, and Tutu's wife, Nomalizo Leah Tutu, met with friends of the late archbishop on Thursday for an "intimate" gathering.

South Africans also paid their respects before Tutu's plain pine coffin on Thursday and Friday as it lay in state at the cathedral.

Tutu was born October 7, 1931, in Klerksdorp, a town in South Africa's Transvaal province, the son of a teacher and a domestic worker. Tutu had plans to become a doctor, partly thanks to a boyhood bout of tuberculosis, which put him in the hospital for more than a year, and even qualified for medical school, he said.

But his parents couldn't afford the fees, so he turned to teaching.

"The government was giving scholarships for people who wanted to become teachers," he told the Academy of Achievement. "I became a teacher and I haven't regretted that."

However, he was horrified at the state of Black South African schools, and even more horrified when the Bantu Education Act was passed in 1953 that racially segregated the nation's education system. He resigned in protest.

Not long after, the Bishop of Johannesburg agreed to accept him for the priesthood — Tutu believed it was because he was a Black man with a university education, a rarity in the 1950s — and took up his new vocation.

He was ordained in 1960 and spent the '60s and early '70s alternating between London and South Africa. He returned to his home country for good in 1975, when he was appointed dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg.

As the government became increasingly oppressive — detaining Black people, establishing onerous laws — Tutu became increasingly outspoken.

Hundreds of people breached Western Australia's COVID-19 restrictions to celebrate New Year's Eve at a party held in a Perth bar.

Operators of bar, The George, are now facing up to $250,000 in fines and are at risk of losing their liquor licence over the illegal event.

Police found the bar's doors locked and the windows blacked out when they attended about 11.30pm yesterday.

READ MORE: WA tightens border restrictions as NSW COVID-19 hospitalisations increase

Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said police had to scale walls to find the 300 party-goers inside.

"My officers had to climb walls to get inside and eventually got in through other doors," he said.

The large group was unmasked and it is believed the group destroyed the venue's QR posters.

Nightclubs, music events and dancing are currently banned under Western Australia's COVID-19 restrictions, while only seated service is permitted in bars.

READ MORE: What happens if I test positive to a rapid antigen test on day six?

Masks are required in all public indoor settings.

Commissioner Dawson said the people involved in the party had shown a "blatant disregard" for the health laws with their "selfish behaviour".

In a separate incident, WA Police charged a 42-year-old Yokine man for hosting a Boxing Day party in breach of COVID-19 restrictions.

The man advertised the boat party as a ticketed event, which took place on a chartered boat that departed the Barrack St Jetty in Perth at 6.20pm on December 26.

According to police, a video of the event posted on social media showed people standing in close proximity, dancing to music and consuming alcohol.

Police have said patrons did not appear to be wearing face masks.

The man will be issued with a $5000 fine.

A large grassfire is still burning at a former ammunitions factory site in Melbourne's north west, however authorities says the threat posed by the blaze has been significantly reduced.

Dozens of firefighters from Fire Rescue Victoria and Country Fire Authority have spent the afternoon battling the blaze at Raleigh Road in Maribyrnong, which began about 12.30pm.

The flames came within metres of residents hosing down their fences as homes were evacuated.

READ MORE: Victoria records 7442 new COVID-19 cases, nine deaths

More than 20 firetrucks have been on scene and water bombers have been used from above after collecting water from the nearby Maribyrnong River.

According to Fire Rescue Victoria, firefighters battled the blaze on two fronts.

They worked to prevent the fire from jumping the Maribyrnong River, where it would have been able to move uphill towards a large number of homes.

https://twitter.com/KateMcG6/status/1477105689679986688

Earlier this afternoon, people were being advised to avoid the Maribyrnong area to give way to emergency services.

Those living in Melbourne's north west – in suburbs including Avondale Heights, Keilor, Port Melbourne, Sunshine and Tullamarine – were being warned there is currently no threat to their safety but that they should monitor the situation.

However, as of about 6pm, VicEmergency has advised the threat has been reduced and residents are able to resume normal activities.

The fire has sent significant amounts of smoke across Melbourne's north west.

The body of a 17-year-old girl has been pulled from Murray River in South Australia after she fell from a houseboat on New Year's Eve.

The Adelaide Hills girl was found in the river south of Swan Reach about 2pm, near to where she fell in about 17 hours earlier.

Emergency services and members of the public spent the night and day scouring the water and riverbank searching for her.

READ MORE: Tropical cyclone forms off Queensland coast in dying hours of 2021

https://twitter.com/KellyCHughes_/status/1477177187325267968

Police were alerted to girl having fallen into the water around 9.15pm yesterday.

She was seen falling off a house boat but was not seen to resurface afterwards.

One couple returned home to find the mailbox about the only thing left standing. Charred cars and a burned trampoline lay outside smoldering houses. On some blocks, homes reduced to smoking ruins stood next to ones all but unscathed by the flames.

Colorado residents driven from their neighborhoods by a terrifying, wind-whipped wildfire got their first, heartbreaking look at the damage the morning after, while others could only wait and wonder whether their homes were among the more than 500 feared destroyed.

At least seven people were injured, but remarkably there were no immediate reports of any deaths or anyone missing in the aftermath of the blaze outside Denver.

Cathy Glaab found her home in the town of Superior where she lives with her husband had been turned into a pile of charred and twisted debris. It was one of seven houses in a row that burned to the ground.

“The mailbox is standing,” Glaab said, trying to crack a smile through tears. She added sadly, “So many memories.”

Despite the devastation, she said they intend to rebuild the house they have had since 1998. They love that the land backs up to a natural space, and they have a view of the mountains from the back.

The wildfire erupted Thursday in and around Louisville and Superior, neighboring towns about 32 kilometres northwest of Denver with a combined population of 34,000.

Tens of thousands were ordered to flee as the flames, propelled by gusts up to 169 kph, swept over drought-stricken neighborhoods with alarming speed.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation. Emergency authorities said utility officials found no downed power lines around where the fire broke out.

On the day after, David Marks stood on a hillside overlooking Superior with others, using a borrowed pair of binoculars and a long camera lens to see if his house, and those of his neighbors, were still there.

He said he thinks his home is OK, but he won’t know for sure until police let residents back in. Marks said at least three friends lost their homes.

He had watched from the hillside as the neighborhood burned.

“By the time I got up here, the houses were completely engulfed,” he said. “I mean, it happened so quickly. I’ve never seen anything like that. … Just house after house, fences, just stuff flying through the air, just caught on fire.”

By first light Friday, the towering flames that had lit up the night sky had subsided and the winds had died down. Light snow soon began to fall, raising hopes it could snuff out hot spots.

By late morning, the blaze had burned at least 24 square kilometres but was no longer considered an immediate threat.

“We might have our very own New Year’s miracle on our hands if it holds up that there was no loss of life,” Gov. Jared Polis said, noting that many people had just minutes to evacuate.

The wildfire broke out unusually late in the year, following an extremely dry fall and amid a winter nearly devoid of snow so far.

Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle said more than 500 homes were probably destroyed. He and the governor said as many as 1000 homes might have been lost, though that won’t be known until crews can assess the damage.

“It’s unbelievable when you look at the devastation that we don’t have a list of 100 missing persons,” the sheriff said.

The sheriff said some communities were reduced to just "smoking holes in the ground.” He urged residents to wait for the all-clear to go back, warning that it was still too dangerous in many neighborhoods because of fire and fallen power lines.

Sarah Owens, her husband, adult son and their dog got out of their Superior home within 10 minutes of learning about the evacuation from a Facebook post. But as everyone tried leaving by way of the winding streets of the well-to-do Rock Creek neighborhood, it took them 90 minutes to go three kilometres.

Once they safely found their way to a pet-friendly hotel, their cellphones and computers could not provide them with the only thing they wanted to know: Was their house still standing?

“The good news is I think our house may be OK,” Owens said.

But from now on, she said, she plans to have a bag packed in case of another fire.

“I never thought a brush fire could cause this kind of destruction,” Owens said. “I want to stay here. No matter where you live, there are always going to be natural disasters."

Mike Guanella and his family were relaxing at their home in Superior and looking forward to celebrating a belated Christmas when reports of a nearby grass fire quickly gave way to an order to leave immediately.

Instead of opening presents, Guanella and his wife, their three children and three dogs were staying a friend’s house in Denver, hoping that the firefighter friend who told them their house was still standing was right.

“Those presents are still under the tree right now — we hope,” he said.

Sophia Verucchi and her partner, Tony Victor, returned to their apartment in Broomfield, on the edge of Superior, to find that it was spared any serious damage. They had fled the previous afternoon with just Victor’s guitar, bedding and their cat, Senor Gato Blanco.

“We left thinking it was a joke. We just felt like we were going to come back. At 5 o’clock, we thought, maybe we’re not coming back,” Verucchi said. But they got an email in the morning saying it was OK to return.

“Seeing the news and seeing all the houses burnt, we just feel very lucky,” Verucchi said.

The two towns are filled with middle- and upper-middle-class subdivisions with shopping centers, parks and schools. The area is between Denver and Boulder, home to the University of Colorado.

Scientists say climate change is making weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.

Ninety percent of Boulder County is in severe or extreme drought, and it hasn’t seen substantial rainfall since mid-summer. Denver set a record for consecutive days without snow before it got a small storm on Dec. 10, its last snowfall before the wildfires broke out.

Western Australian has decided to block entry to anyone from Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory who is not an approved traveller as COVID-19 cases have surged once again in New South Wales and Victoria.

However, there have only been a small increase in case numbers in South Australia while Queensland has recorded less than the day before.

Western Australia has announced it will elevate Tasmania and the ACT to 'high risk' areas from 12.01am on Monday, January 3, with the decision "based on the latest health advice".

READ MORE: New record for Victoria COVID-19 cases

Travellers into WA from Tasmania and the ACT will not be allowed entry unless they are an approved traveller, with the definition limited to few roles including Government officials and military personnel.

NSW clocked a further 22,577 new infections and four coronavirus-related deaths. There were 7442 cases in Victoria, 2108 in South Australia and 2266 in Queensland amid a new reporting structure.

The NT reported 54 new cases and WA three.

Scroll down for key numbers and more details from today's COVID-19 state and territory reports around the country.

READ MORE: What happens if I test positive to a rapid antigen test on day six?

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1477046116701007875

NSW

Three women and one man, aged in the 60s, 70s and 80s have died in NSW due to complications from the virus.

One woman in her eighties was a resident of the Lillian Wells nursing home in north Parramatta. This is the second death linked to an outbreak of the facility.

Hospitalisations have also risen to 901, with 79 people in ICU. Of those 26 are on a ventilator.

It comes after the state saw a record-high 21,151 cases recorded on New Year's Eve.

The surge has sparked concern for the health system.

Health Services Union NSW secretary Gerard Haye told Today staff are burnt out and fatigued.

"We're in the grind now, the Prime Minister has indicated we're at the point of no return," he said.

"We have to have a short-term medium term and long-term approach to ensure the people doing all the heavy lifting over the past 18 months who are chronically fatigued, and now frustrated, are not being burnt out.

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1477067350604083201

In a statement released late yesterday, NSW Health announced some asymptomatic healthcare workers will be able to leave isolation to go to work even when classed as COVID-19 close contacts.

The Public Health Order was signed by Health Minister Brad Hazzard to "minimise potential impacts on health services across the state".

Mr Gerard said healthcare workers were only "given 40 minute notice of this change".

READ MORE: Isolation exemption for 'critical' asymptomatic NSW health workers

Victoria

Victoria has clocked 7442 new infections, up 1523 from the day before.

https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1477037138134790145

Nine more patients with COVID-19 have died.

451 people are being treated in hospital, with 51 in ICU.

A third of Victoria's COVID-19 cases are the Omicron variant, Victoria Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed yesterday.

Queensland

Queensland has seen a slight drop in their numbers, recording 2266 new COVID-19 cases compared to 3118 the day before.

However this decline can be attributed to a change in the way the Sunshine State reports new cases.

Going forward, case numbers will be reported from 7pm to 7pm. Today's numbers are from yesterday's 7am-7pm period.

Of the new cases, 80 people are in hospital and one patient is in ICU.

https://twitter.com/qldhealth/status/1477083364687446016

An indoor mask mandate has also been introduced for everywhere except from the family home and certain workplaces.

Coverings must be worn in workplaces, pubs, clubs and cafes, stadiums, schools and medical waiting rooms from 1am.

"The Chief Health Officer has ordered masks be worn indoors everywhere except in the family home and workplaces where it is unsafe," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk wrote on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1477083347746635777

South Australia

COVID-19 cases have climbed to 2100 in South Australia after an "almost record" day of PCR testing.

While a small increase compared to 2093 yesterday, Premier Steven Marshall said hospital admissions have seen a surge.

"It's a small increase on the day before," Mr Marshall said.

"Unfortunately though we have seen quite a surge in terms of hospital admissions.

Mr Marshall said 71 COVID-positive patients are currently in hospital, compared to 40 the day prior.

"This is quite a significant increase on where we were the day before.

"We are very happy that we only have four people in ICU."

Of those in hospital, ten are children.

Mr Marshall said 23,790 residents fronted up for a PCR test.

"We've seen a surge in symptomatic testing, which is exactly what we want to see," he said.

Of 39 COVID samples that underwent genomic testing, 36 cases were Omicron and just three Delta.

Mr Marshall said this mirrors the trend seen in other states.

NT

The Northern Territory has recorded 54 new COVID-19 cases, with at least six cases of community transmission.

Of those six cases, five were in Darwin and one was in Katherine. Twenty-one cases are under investigation.

WA

Two new local COVID-19 cases have been reported in WA, both related to the backpacker cluster. A further case related to a returned traveller has also been reported.

The total number of active confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state now stands at 35.

A man who lives across the road to the Manukau Velodrome said the place has been a “trouble hotspot” for some years now.Police this morning launched a homicide investigation after a man involved in an incident at the velodrome died…