Australia govt says social distancing ‘halves spread’
MELBOURNE: The rate of spread of the novel coronavirus in Australia has halved in recent days, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday as he announced an additional A$1.1 billion (22 billion baht) to expand telemedicine care and other health services.
The daily increase in cases in recent days was at about 13%-15%, down from 25%-30% seen a week ago, showing social distancing measures were working, Mr Morrison said.
“These are still strong rates of increase, no doubt about that,” Mr Morrison said in televised remarks.
There were 3,809 confirmed cases in Australia early yesterday, 431 more than in the previous day, according to health ministry.
Sixteen deaths were attributable to the virus, health officials said.
Neighbouring New Zealand saw its first death related to the coronavirus yesterday, with cases rising to 514 confirmed infections.
Two-thirds of the cases in Australia have been traced to contact with people returning from overseas, government officials said.
State leaders, however, are worried about the recent rise in community transmission, especially in the most populous states of New South Wales and Victoria, where more than half of Australia’s 25.5 million people live.
Australia has introduced a series of measures to combat the spread of Covid-19, but state and federal governments have sent some mixed messages about social distancing and other containment measures, leading to widespread confusion.
Mr Morrison said that all of Australia’s six states and two territories were working to keep actions consistent, but rising case numbers may require individual states to take additional actions “sooner than other states”.