'One-der-ful': Australia's COVID-19 hotspot records single case
17 October, 2020
Australia's coronavirus hotspot of Victoria recorded a single case of the condition on Saturday (Oct 17) - the lowest daily number since early June - no deaths, with the state's top health official saying the figures were "won-der-ful".
Victoria's capital Melbourne, which has been the epicenter of the country's COVID-19 outbreak, is in its third month of a stringent lockdown and Premier Daniel Andrews is because of update plans to ease restrictions over the state on Sunday.
"We reside in hope," Brett Sutton, Victoria's chief health officer, said at a televised news conference. Earlier, when the coronavirus numbers were released, he said on his Twitter account: "One. One-der-ful."
The government has been increasingly putting pressure on Andrews to reopen the location and the state, with Health Minister Greg Hunt saying on Twitter on Saturday that it had been time to ease.
"The epidemiological conditions for a COVID Safe reopening of hospitality, movement & family reunions amongst others, have been firmly met," Hunt said.
But Andrews, whose Labor Party government is towards the conservative Liberal Party at the helm of the federal government, said he would not get pressured.
"No one ought to be suggesting that .. (we) are keeping the restrictions on any more than they have to be," Andrews told the news headlines conference. "We aren't likely to risk everything that Victorians have sacrificed."
Victoria state officials have said they would ease restrictions when the common for new daily cases over a two-week window falls below five. On Saturday, the 14-day day rolling case average was 8.1, down from 8.7 on the last day.
In neighboring New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, there have been seven new cases of COVID-19, five of which locally acquired and most associated with an outbreak at a childcare centre.
Meanwhile, 17 travelers of the hundreds who flew from New Zealand to Sydney within a fresh trans-Tasman travel bubble, traveled later to Melbourne, which isn't a portion of the bubble, and were being sought by health authorities, officials in Victoria said.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com
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