MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – The Prime Minister of the Australian State of Australia says more than 2,700 active cases have no source known and remain the primary concern of health authorities.
Victoria on Sunday saw a welcome drop in her new COVID-19 cases with 394 but a record 17 deaths, including two people in their 50s. It lasted the rate of the hard hit to 210 and the Australian total of deaths to 295.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said confirmed cases also involve nearly 1,000 health workers.
The city of Melbourne has been under severe restrictions for a week now, including an evening accident and mandatory wearing of masks, but will see the results of its efforts in one to two weeks.
Nearly 270 Victorian residents have been fined in the past 24 hours for violating the restrictions, including a man who helped a friend move a 27-mile (17-mile) television across the city.
Victoria Police have issued 268 fines to private individuals in the past 24 hours, including 77 for burglary in nightlife and 38 for failure of a mask when leaving home.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– The Indian Medical Association says 196 doctors have so far died from COVID-19 and in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requested adequate care for doctors and their families. The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday recorded nearly 64,000 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours for a total of 2,153,010. India also recorded 861 deaths, bringing the death toll to 43,379. India has filed an average of about 50,000 new cases per day since mid-June and has the third-highest caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil. It has the fifth-most dead, but its death toll of about 2% is far lower than the top two heaviest hit countries.
Hong Kong has seen a further decline in new cases of coronavirus, with just 69 reported as of Sunday. The Hong Kong Health Protection Center said 67 were transferred locally and the other two were brought in from abroad. No new deaths from COVID-19 were reported, bringing the total for the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city to 47 between 3,938 cases. Hong Kong has introduced strict measures to prevent new infections and the center urges members of the public to prevent going out, having social contact or going out to eat. Last week, authorities said they would offer free trials for every 7.5 million residents to follow those who may have the virus while having no symptoms and trusting the public that the outbreak is under control.
Chinese authorities on Sunday announced 15 new cases in the northwestern region of Xinjiang and brought eight others from outside the country. A total of 817 people remain in treatment, 43 of them are in serious condition, and 276 are being examined in isolation for signs of COVID-19 as positive tests for the virus without showing symptoms. China has reported a total of 4,634 deaths from COVID-19 among 84,619 cases. The main city of Urumqi of Xinjiang was the center of the last major outbreak of China, but strict measures, including travel restrictions and the closure of some residential areas, seem to contain the spread.
– South Korea has reported 36 additional cases of coronavirus amid an uptick of local infections. The additional figures Sunday took the national tally to 14,598 with 305 dead. Thirty of the new cases were transferred locally, while the rest were connected with international arrivals. South Korea also recorded 30 domestically transferred cases on Saturday, the first time the figure hit above 30 in about two weeks. Heath officials say many of these were linked to church meetings. Health authorities have said that imported cases are less threatening because they impose two-week quarantines on all people coming from abroad.
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