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MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Australia recorded no new daily community coronavirus infections on Sunday for the first time in nearly five months, health officials said, paving the way for further easing of social distancing restrictions.
The state of Victoria, a coronavirus hot spot accounting for more than 90% of the 907 coronavirus-related deaths in Australia, recorded zero new daily infections and no deaths for the second day in a row.
With no new COVID-19 cases recorded in the rest of the country, Australia saw its first transmission-free day since June 9, Health Minister Greg Hunt said.
“Thank you to all of our amazing health and public health workers and most of all the Australian people,” Hunt said on his Twitter account.
Swift and strict measures combined with community compliance have been recognized to have reigned in the pandemic before it hit the public health system in Australia.
Queensland voters kept the Labor Party in office for a third term on Saturday, showing their support for keeping the internal borders of the state closed, which has put local authorities at odds with the federal government.
Last week, Victoria ended most of its 111-day lockdown restrictions, some of the toughest and longest in the world, with a recent Ipsos poll commissioned by The Age newspaper and Nine News showing that Victorians backed state management of the pandemic.
Victoria’s health director, Brett Sutton, hinted Sunday that the state could see more restrictions on public movement in the coming days, but urged more compliance.
“The assignments that come … will be absolutely informed by what this week will be like,” Sutton said at a televised news conference.
“Seeing 50,000 cases a day in France, seeing Belgium sending patients out of the country because they are so overwhelmed, that’s what we could have faced had we not been able to overcome it.”
Australia has reported just over 27,500 cases since the pandemic began as it quickly closed its international borders and imposed social distancing restrictions and widespread testing and tracing.
Australia on Friday warned its citizens not to travel to the United States, its key ally, due to the risk of protest violence and coronavirus.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 9,024,298 cases of the new coronavirus on Saturday, an increase of 99,750 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 1,009. at 229.109.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Michael Perry)
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