SYDNEY (Reuters) – An increase in COVID-19 cases in Australia’s second-largest city could take weeks to lessen despite a shutdown and orders to wear masks, Australia’s acting chief medical officer said Monday as the country prepares for a second wave of infection.
FILE PHOTO: People walk downtown in the first day of New South Wales Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) restrictions in Sydney, Australia, July 1, 2020. Photograph taken via a glass window. REUTERS / Loren Elliott
Authorities in the state of Victoria, whose capital Melbourne is in a partial shutdown amid a new outbreak, reported 275 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, below a daily record of 438 three days earlier.
Australia’s Acting Medical Director Paul Kelly said it would take “weeks” to delay the outbreak to levels seen in June, when Victoria and the rest of Australia reported daily single or double-digit infections.
“We have learned over time that the time between introducing a measure and seeing its effect is at least two weeks, and sometimes more than that,” Kelly told Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio.
Australia has recorded around 11,800 coronavirus cases with a death toll of 123, a fraction of what has been seen in other countries. In most Australian states, the disease has been effectively eliminated.
Less than a month ago, Australia was widely recognized as the world leader in the fight against COVID-19, but quarantine lapses in Victoria triggered an outbreak of infections in June. An official investigation into the outbreak began hearings on Monday.
The Victorian government ordered about five million people to be partially locked up for six weeks and told Melbourne residents to cover their faces if they had to leave their homes.
Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said it was too early to declare that such measures had flattened the outbreak.
“Until we have some stability on this, we won’t be able to talk about a trend,” he said, referring to the drop in new daily cases.
The Victorian outbreak and the increase in daily cases in neighboring New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, are fueling fears of a second national wave.
NSW reported 20 new infections on Monday, the highest in three months. The transmission rate in the state is higher than in Victoria, even though the restrictions of social distancing were tightened.
New South Wales authorities have been unable to trace some of the groups, and state authorities have urged people to avoid unnecessary travel and public transportation.
Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian said she would consider tightening restrictions on social distancing in cities like Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, if the numbers continue to rise in the coming weeks.
If NSW is forced to implement new restrictions, it would be a severe blow to Australia’s hopes for a rapid economic recovery. Australia is already facing its first recession in almost three decades, with unemployment at a maximum of 22 years.
Colin Packham’s report; Editing by Stephen Coates
.
