MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – After a one-day respite, COVID-19 cases in the Australian state of Victoria have re-emerged, prompting a move to make the masks mandatory in the Melbourne metropolitan area and the nearby Mitchell county.
Health officials on Sunday registered 363 new cases in the last 24 hours. Two men and one woman in their 90s died, taking COVID-19’s national death toll from 122.
On Saturday, Victoria’s new cases fell to 217 from a record high of 428 the day before.
By Wednesday, face masks or covers will be mandatory for people leaving their homes to exercise or purchase essential goods.
Victoria Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said the state government ordered up to 3 million face masks and that the first batch of 300,000 will arrive this week.
Andrews said those who do not wear a mask will be fined A $ 200 ($ 140).
“There is no vaccine against this wildly infectious virus and it’s a simple thing, but it’s about changing habits, it’s about becoming a simple part of your routine,” Andrews said.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– China reported 13 other confirmed cases of coronavirus on Sunday in the northwestern city of Urumqi, bringing the total of the country’s most recent local outbreak to at least 30. Three other cases abroad increased the total number of infections. China’s confirmed at 83,660 with 4,634 reported deaths. Despite the Urumqi outbreak, China only has 251 people remaining on COVID-19 treatment. Another 151 people were monitored in isolation for showing signs of having the virus or testing positive without showing symptoms. At least 23 of those asymptomatic cases were in Urumqi, although China does not include them in confirmed cases. Urumqi responded by reducing metro, bus, and taxi services, shutting down some residential communities, and is now conducting tests across the city, starting with areas where cases have been reported, according to state media. Some restrictions have also been imposed on people leaving the city, with the number of flights from the city being reduced.
– South Korea has reported fewer than 40 additional cases of coronavirus for the second day in a row as authorities fight to suppress an increase in local infections. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that the 34 new cases bring the country’s total to 13,745 with 295 deaths. The agency says 21 of the recently confirmed cases were infected in the country, all of them in the densely populated area of Seoul or in two central cities. The rest were from overseas. Health authorities have said the imported COVID-19 case is less threatening than local broadcasts because South Korea is forcing two-week tests and quarantines on all people arriving from abroad.
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