SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia recorded its biggest one-day rise in COVID-19 deaths on Monday although a drop in new cases gave hope that a second wave of new infections in the state of Victoria may have caught on.
PHILO PHOTO: Medical staff administers coronavirus (COVID-19) tests at a pop-up test center as the state of New South Wales strikes with an outbreak of new cases, in Sydney, Australia, July 30, 2020 REUTERS / Loren Elliott
Nineteen people had died in the past 24 hours from the virus, all in Victoria, a national daily record. However, only 337 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 nationwide, the lowest one-day incidence since July 29, officials said.
“This is a painful day for members for the 19 families who have lost a love of COVID-19 today,” Michael Kidd, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, told reporters.
“We are now seeing the first promising signs of a significant decline in the number of cases.”
The delay in cases comes more than a month after the nearly 5 million residents of Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, were told to stay home, and a week after most businesses in the country’s second largest city were ordered to to close in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus.
With around 21,000 cases of COVID-19 and 314 deaths, Australia has registered even fewer infections and deaths than many other developed nations. Outside the two largest states of Victoria and New South Wales, the virus has been effectively eliminated.
“HIDEOUS THOUGHT”
Desperate to contain the outbreak, Australia’s states and territories have closed their borders and delayed a timetable to remove remaining social-distancing restrictions. Victoria will continue in a hard lockdown for at least another five weeks.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said internal travel restrictions are likely to remain in place until at least Christmas.
Social distance restrictions have destroyed Australia’s economy. Unemployment is expected to rise to 14% this year as the country enters its first recession in nearly three decades.
The government last week proposed expanding its wage subsidy scheme by A $ 16.8 billion ($ 12 billion) amid the Victorian outbreak, prompting some criticism that the economic toll was too high.
But Morrison said the alternative was unthinkable.
“There have been some suggestions, I have read it … that somehow our parents should be treated in some way in connection with this virus,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.
‘That’s just awful thought. An absolutely amoral, horrible thought. One that I did not face with when it was suggested. ”
Report by Colin Packham; Edited by Jane Wardell and Stephen Coates
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