Melbourne: Australia on Monday recorded its highest count in daily COVID-19 deaths with 25 fatalities, taking the country-wide coronavirus death toll to 421.
Apart from the 25 deaths, 282 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in the last 24 hours. Now, the country’s total number of COVID-19 cases stands at 23,576, including 14,080 cases of recovery.
In his daily coronavirus update, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said daily virus spike of under 300 cases was welcome but vigilance among the people remained important.
“We can’t allow any sense of complacency to creep in here. This is an ultramarathon. While there is a trend that is positive, today is a very sad day for 25 families,” he said.
Andrews announced that the number of active cases in aged care homes had surpassed 2,000 cases.
“I’m pleased to say, there’s a falling number of people whom we can’t make contact with for whatever reason (who are suspected to be linked with virus-infected people), and that’s why the door-knocking is going on — literally thousands and thousands of doors are being knocked on”
the premier said, referring to the contact-tracing procedure.
“We are strong, there is good cause for people to be hopeful about the future,” Andrews said.
Victoria is under a four-week ‘state of disaster’ routine since August 2. The ‘state of emergency’ period will be extended till September 13, Andrews said, adding that the extension will help the authorities in enforcing restrictions.
In New South Wales, seven new COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, of the six were locally-acquired cases and one was an overseas traveller who is now in hotel-quarantine.
The state saw one death and its lowest daily coronavirus cases in a month with five COVID-19 detections on Sunday. The death took the coronavirus toll in New South Wales to 54. The deceased was a man in his 80s.
Queensland on Monday recorded no new cases and according to the health authorities, there were no cases of community transmission in the last 28 days.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the state’s border restrictions with New South Wales and Victoria would continue and will not be relaxed till the number of community transmission cases do not come down to zero.
”We do not have any intention of opening any border whilst there is community transmission active in Victoria and in New South Wales”
she said.
“I think we’re going to continue to see restrictions in Victoria up until Christmas time, that’s very unfortunate for people living there but it’s a serious situation”
Palaszczuk said.
Over the weekend, 582 new cases and 20 deaths were reported in Australia.