Ambulances will soon be driven by soldiers in a bid to speed up response times as dying Victorians wait for their Triple Zero calls to be answered.

The new measure comes as two people died of cardiac arrest this week, where their calls to Triple Zero went unanswered for five minutes.

The two people both suffered heart attacks during spikes which demanded 40 call-takers – double than the 20 staff available.

READ MORE: Mask mandate for Victorian schools as virus cases spike

Another emergency call also went unanswered for 33 minutes as the system is pushed to the brink.

Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority (ESTA) CEO Marty Smyth confirmed the deaths today, telling 3AW's Neil Mitchell they were receiving "unprecedented" numbers of ambulance calls.

Mr Smyth said the Triple Zero calls for the two deaths both had about a five-minute delay.

"We can't say that someone has died because of a delay in the call … but regrettably, yes, there have been delays in answering calls," he told Neil Mitchell.

"I found one the other day that was about 13 minutes and then we had a couple of calls that lasted even longer than that."

READ MORE: Vaccination blitz for Victorians with a disability begins

Melbourne father, Ali, told 9News he was on hold for more than two minutes while watching his six-month-old baby choke.

"His face turned blue, I panicked," Ali said.

"It's failing, it's broken, it needs to be fixed or more people are just going to die waiting."

Among the 3000 Victorians calling for ambulances every day are 200 people infected with COVID-19 – up 13 per cent this year.

The ESTA aims to answer 90 per cent of calls within five seconds, but Mr Smyth said the surge in calls recently had blown out wait times.

"At the moment we're experiencing a spike in triple-zero calls like we've never seen before in the ambulance service," he said.

"It's getting down around the 70 per cent at the moment and even lower on some days."

READ MORE: Daniel Andrews fined $400 for failing to wear mask on two occasions

From next week, Australian Defence Force troops will drive ambulances to ease the pressure off the crippled system.

A team of students, SES and St John Ambulance staff will also partner solo paramedics on the road.

Former Chief Police Commissioner Graham Ashton will investigate the Triple Zero call centre following reports of the lengthy delays.

Ambulance union general secretary Danny Hill said the long wait times were not good enough.

"With that time frame, we're really robbing that patient of any chance of survival," he said.

"They need to be predicting absolute chaos, absolute crushing demand on the system."

By RNZ The group Grounded Kiwis has filed papers in the High Court at Wellington seeking an urgent judicial review of managed isolation and quarantine.The group alleges Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins, Health Minister…

Northland mayors have expressed anger and frustration that two people have potentially brought the virus to the region. Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins revealed at a snap press conference that the confirmed virus case,…

An arrest has been made in connection to the alleged murder of heavily pregnant aged care nurse Janet Dweh, five days after her body was found at her Perth home.

Police have yet to formally release details, but have confirmed an arrest has been made.

Ms Dweh was due to give birth to her fourth child just weeks before her bloodied body was found at her house in Dayton, a quiet suburb in Perth.

READ MORE: Homicide detectives closing in on Janet Dweh's killer, arrest expected to be made 'very soon'

Yesterday, the homicide detectives announced they were closing in on Ms Dweh's alleged murderer, with authorities believe she was killed sometime between Sunday evening and Monday morning.

READ MORE: US nuclear submarine hits underwater object in South China Sea

The person suspected of the killing is believed to be well known to Ms Dweh, having either used a key to enter Ms Dweh's property, or were invited in.

Eight months pregnant, the 36-year-old was just weeks away from giving birth to her fourth child.

READ MORE: Brisbane school restricts bathroom access due to 'unprecedented acts'

Her body was discovered by her brother at her home on Mataro Drive, near Garrido Way, in Dayton at around 6pm.

READ MORE: The meeting on the other side of the world that Australians should know about

Friends said Ms Dweh was a refugee who had fled war-torn Liberia in search of a better life.

She worked in Perth as an aged care nurse and had already started her maternity leave.

A school safety officer in Long Beach, California, in the US, has been fired after shooting an 18-year-old woman following a physical altercation last month, school officials said on Wednesday.

The officer was accused of violating district policy, Superintendent Jill Baker said.

The decision came after Manuela "Mona" Rodriguez was shot by a Millikan High School safety officer on September 27, after a fight between Ms Rodriguez and a 15-year-old girl, according to the Long Beach Police Department (LBPD). As Ms Rodriguez and two others attempted to flee the scene in a four-door sedan, the school safety officer shot Ms Rodriguez, who was sitting in the passenger seat, police said.

READ MORE: Brian Laundrie's father joins hunt for missing son

After spending more than a week on life support, Ms Rodriguez died Wednesday and her organs were donated, family attorney Luis Carillo told CNN.

Also Wednesday, the Long Beach Board of Education unanimously voted to fire the school safety officer over the shooting. He had been on administrative leave.

"After our internal review, you clearly saw areas where the employee violated district policy and did not meet our standards and expectations," Ms Baker said at a news conference.

"We believe the decision to terminate this officer's employment is warranted, justified, and quite frankly, the right thing to do."

The school safety officer violated the district's use-of-force policy, which directs its officers not to fire at a fleeing person, moving vehicle, or through a vehicle window unless "circumstances clearly warrant the use of a firearm as a final means of defence," Ms Baker said.

The school safety officer was hired by the school on January 10 of this year and had "no disciplinary issues or complaints filed against him," Long Beach Unified School District spokesperson Chris Eftychiou previously told CNN in an email.

READ MORE: Cause of death a mystery for family found in isolated hiking area

Mr Eftychiou said school safety officers are employees of the district, not of any police department. He added that school safety officers go through more than 600 hours of state-mandated peace officer training, and the officer had been up to date on that, including twice-yearly firearm training.

Ms Rodriguez's mother, Manuela Sahagun, told reporters during a vigil held for her daughter last week that her heart was "shattered" and that she did not wish for any mother to go through what she was going through.

The Long Beach Police Department and the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office are conducting a criminal investigation into the shooting.

"We send our sincerest condolences to everyone who has been impacted by this terrible event, especially the family and friends of the shooting victim Manuela Rodriguez," Ms Baker said.

"The actions of one employee do not represent our thousands of employees who work each day to provide our students the best education possible."

Queensland might be locked to most of the country right now, but Aussies may soon be able to get a salty slurp of the Great Barrier Reef without even setting foot in the state.

Townsville Brewery has announced it is creating the world's first beer made with water from the World-Heritage listed wonder.

Sixty litres of water collected from the aptly-named John Brewer Reef will be turned into 1600 litres of Great Barrier Reef Gose.

READ MORE: All the travel advice you need to plan your NSW summer holiday

Head brewer Glen Nolen said he hoped the unique brew would bring the flavours of North Queensland to more people.

"Our goal is to bring more awareness to the Great Barrier Reef, especially the areas off Townsville, and highlight just how unspoilt and special it is," Mr Nolen said.

And no, it doesn't taste briny.

Mr Nolen says the salt gives the beer mouthfeel and brings out the other flavours.

"It will be slightly salty, but it won't be seawater salty," he said.

"It's dry and refreshing."

Paul Crocombe from Adrenalin Snorkel and Dive, said the water on John Brewer Reef was so clean, the barrels could be filled right off the back of one of their boats.

"I think the big thing with the beer is it brings the reef to the attention of more people. It highlights the quality of the reef and how healthy it really is," he said.

Mr Nolen said the project had received the go-ahead from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

John Brewer Reef was named after a troop ship named John Brewer sailing from Sydney to India in 1842. It was first surveyed in 1984.

The beer is expected to be available to the public in about three weeks.

A radical Islamic preacher has been jailed for a maximum of nine years for selling drugs to an undercover police officer.

Mohammad Junaid Thorne, 32 was being watched by a terrorism taskforce in 2018 when he struck up a partnership with the operative.

The court heard he arranged a phone with encrypted technology to ensure their communications were kept under wraps.

Over the following months, he and his girlfriend of the time sold him $66,000 worth of cocaine and $34,000 of MDMA in multiple deals at Newington and Guildford.

Thorne was arrested and charged in July 2019.

The court heard the Perth-born man was raised in a strict Muslim family which included a stepfather who was violent. 

At one point they moved to Saudi Arabia but Thorne was deported after protesting his brother's imprisonment on terror charges.

Shayden Thorne also spent more than three years in a Victoria jail for involvement in a 2016 plot to join Islamic militants in the Philippines.

Mohammad Junaid Thorne developed a profile with young extremists and delivered controversial lectures around the country.

He spent three months in prison for travelling under a false name but has never been charged with any terror offences.

Thorne had argued he should be given more time on parole because he has been classed as "extreme high risk" and is currently housed in Supermax, making his time more difficult.

He will be eligible for parole in 2025 but 9News understands he will appeal.

By Matthew Rosenberg, Local Democracy Reporter Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta is stressing the importance of mana whenua involvement in Three Waters after a pair of southern councillors took shots at partnership with Māori.Councils…

Teenagers as young as 14 have been needing emergency housing during lockdown, and social agencies say it’s a growing issue requiring urgent attention. It’s midnight in the middle of lockdown and another call has come through that…

Northland will move to level 3 tonight after a woman used false information to obtain travel documents and spent several days in the region.Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the confirmed case travelled from Auckland…