Third person dies of coronavirus in Victoria, national death toll rises to 12
Australia’s death toll from coronavirus has reached 12 after a third resident of Victoria died on Thursday.
Two men in their 70s died overnight and the death of a third man in his 70s was announced by Health minister Jenny Mikakos on Thursday afternoon.
The patient died in a Melbourne hospital, Ms Mikakos said.
“We all have a role to play in the fight against coronavirus and this means we must all take very seriously the message that we must stay home unless it is absolutely essential to leave your home, you must stay at home at every opportunity,” she told reporters.
“We asked people to follow all of the rules around social distancing, hand hygiene and staying at home as much as is possible.”
Before the third death Victoria’s Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brett Sutton, told radio station 3AW the two deaths were “not unexpected”.
“We're now up to 520 cases (in Victoria), so two deaths amongst 500 is relatively small looking at the global figures.”
On Wednesday night, a Queensland man aged 68 died from COVID-19 in Toowoomba Hospital.
He had “a serious underlying medical condition before contracting the virus”, Queensland Health said.
In NSW, two more children under the age of 10 have tested positive for COVID-19 bringing the state’s total in the age group to four. NSW has recorded 1219 positive cases of COVID-19.
“A one-year-old girl whose parent is a confirmed case and a two-year-old girl who acquired the infection overseas have both already been isolation with family, and have mild symptoms,” NSW Health said.
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