Coronavirus In Australia: Victoria Expects Fewer Than 100 Cases A Day By Next Week
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Victoria - the epicentre of Australia’s latest COVID-19 outbreak - said on Friday it expects to soon report just double digit daily rises in new infections, as a stringent lockdown slows the spread of the virus.
Victoria said it has detected 113 new cases in the past 24 hours, unchanged from the previous day, and well below the one-day record of 725 cases reported in early August.
Authorities said they expect cases numbers to fall below 100 as soon as the weekend, four weeks into a six-week hard lockdown of around 5 million people in the state capital, Melbourne.
“It’s not gotten below 100 (per day) yet, I do expect that to happen, if not over the weekend, then by next week,” Victoria Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton told reporters in Melbourne.
“It is helpful from a psychological point of view.”
Other Australian states have closed their borders to Victoria, a measure that authorities believe has stopped a nationwide second wave.
New South Wales on Friday said it has found 13 new cases, the biggest one-day rise in cases since August 13.
Queensland was the only other state to report new infections, with three cases detected in the past 24 hours. Elsewhere the virus has been effectively eliminated.
The country has now recorded nearly 25,500 COVID-19 infections, while the death toll rose to 584 after 12 people died in Victoria.
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