Melbourne coronavirus cases continue rising despite curfew
Sydney, Australia, Aug 5 (efe-epa).- The number of COVID-19 cases in the Australian city of Melbourne continue to increase, with 725 new infections and 15 deaths recorded in the state of Victoria on Wednesday, despite the city’s 5 million inhabitants being placed under lockdown and a night curfew.
The government of Victoria, which announced a six-week lockdown in its capital, Melbourne, on Jul. 9, ordered a night-time curfew in the city, which has been in effect since Sunday due to an increase in COVID-19 infections, which have risen to around 10,000 since the beginning of July.
The figures released on Wednesday are a new record for daily infections and deaths in Victoria after it recorded 723 cases and 13 deaths in a day last week.
Among the 15 casualties are 12 residents of aged care homes, one of the most worrying epicenters of infection, with more than 1,400 active cases in Victoria, Australia’s second largest state in terms of population and economy.
“A number of those settings that, I think it’s fair to say, were in crisis, they have stabilized. In fact, I think all of them could now be described as “stable,” Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said at a daily press briefing.
“There will be additional outbreaks. There will be additional settings where we need to — when I say “we”, us the Federal Government, public hospitals, private hospitals — we need to step in and do more and of course we will do that,” he added.
The COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne, which is attributed to security breaches in the quarantine of international travelers, has hit the precarious aged care sector, where nurses from public hospitals have been sent to try to contain the spread of the virus.
Meanwhile, the state of Queensland, which reported a COVID-19 case, announced the closure of its internal border with the Australian Capital Territory, which houses Canberra, and New South Wales, which reported 12 infections linked to several hotspots in Sydney.
Australia, which was believed to have eradicated the virus until the Melbourne outbreak, has recorded a total of about 19,500 cases, including 247 deaths, since the start of the pandemic. EFE-EPA
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