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MELBOURNE: Australia’s coronavirus hotspot, Victoria, recorded a single case of the disease on Saturday (October 17), the lowest daily number since early June, and there were no deaths, and the country’s top health official state said the figures were “unique.” .
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, which has been the epicenter of the country’s COVID-19 outbreak, is in its third month of a strict lockdown and Prime Minister Daniel Andrews must update plans to ease restrictions across the state. on Sunday.
“We live with hope,” Brett Sutton, Victoria’s health director, said at a televised news conference. Earlier, when the coronavirus figures were released, he said on his Twitter account: “Uno. Uno-der-ful.”
READ: Australians end lockdown as virus numbers drop
The federal government has been increasingly pushing Andrews to reopen the city and state, and Health Minister Greg Hunt said on Twitter Saturday that it was time to relax.
“The epidemiological conditions for a safe COVID reopening of hospitality, movement and family gatherings, among others, have now been firmly met,” Hunt said.
But Andrews, whose Labor Party government opposes the conservative Liberal Party at the head of the federal government, said he would not be pressured.
“No one should suggest that … (we) keep the restrictions for longer than necessary,” Andrews said at the news conference. “We are not risking everything that the Victorians have sacrificed.”
Victoria state officials have said they would ease restrictions when the average number of new cases per day in a two-week window falls below five. On Saturday, the 14-day moving average was 8.1, down from 8.7 the day before.
In neighboring New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state, there were seven new cases of COVID-19, five of which were acquired locally and most were linked to an outbreak at a child care center.
READ: COVID-19 – Six months after closing its borders, Australia allowed the entry of New Zealanders
Meanwhile, 17 travelers out of the hundreds who flew from New Zealand to Sydney as part of a new travel bubble through Tasmania, later traveled to Melbourne, which is not part of the bubble, and were being wanted by authorities in health, officials in Victoria said. .
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