Coronavirus Australia: Country records just 12 new cases - NEWS.com.au

Health Minister Greg Hunt has thanked the community for the small number of new coronavirus cases, with only 12 recorded overnight.

Six states and territories reported none, with just NSW and Victoria recording two and 10 respectively.

"All of this means that we are achieving things beyond what anybody had dared hope or talk about six, eight weeks ago," Mr Hunt told Sky News.

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In total, Australia has recorded 6929 cases of COVID-19, with 3051 in New South Wales, 1477 in Victoria, 1045 in Queensland, 439 in South Australia, 552 in Western Australia, 227 in Tasmania, 107 in the Australian Capital Territory and 30 in the Northern Territory.

The nation’s death toll is at 97.

While the number of new cases was a vast improvement, Mr Hunt added that now was not the time to relax.

“The discipline we’ve shown is the discipline we must maintain,” he said.

While hospital capacity has been boosted and the number of ventilators has been tripled, Mr Hunt said outbreaks of coronavirus could still occur.

Australians have also been warned to be cautious while visiting their mums today, particularly if they are elderly.

Some states are allowing families to make Mother’s Day visits to their mums as coronavirus pandemic restrictions are eased.

“If you are feeling sick yourself, do not go and visit your mum. Please don’t,” Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told reporters in Canberra on Saturday.

“If you are feeling well and you really want to see your mum, I’m sure it is fine. But for elderly mums just be a little bit cautious and probably keep that 1.5 metre distance for now. I know it is hard and we all want to cuddle our mums on Mother’s Day.”

He went on to ask Australians to focus on one number: 1.

“We are continuing doing a lot of testing, just under 8000 tests yesterday with a very low positivity rate, under 1 per cent now,” Dr Kelly said. “Those figures are way less than what we were having even a couple of weeks ago and this is all very good news.”

In April, Prime Minister Scott Morrison credited the falling case numbers to Australians complying with social distancing orders.

“Well, we’re far ahead of where we thought we would be at this time,’’ the Prime Minister said.

“And the people I have to thank for that is the Australian people and their patience and their discipline and their application.

“I know it’s frustrating and annoying and all of those things. But this is really delivering for Australia and making us safer.”

On Friday, Mr Morrison unveiled National Cabinet’s three-stage road map for lifting restrictions, with some states acting immediately to ease lockdowns.

Every state and territory has also now broadened the testing criteria. That means anybody with acute respiratory symptoms – cough, sore throat, runny nose, cold symptoms, flu-like symptoms – can get tested.

But the message from the country’s leaders and health experts remains for Australians not to become complacent.

University of Melbourne associate professor Ben Phillips last month said thanks to steps taken by authorities to “flatten the curve”, the nation is in “the enviable position of having negative growth rates”, but said the risk of an undetected outbreak or second wave was “very real”.

“Such an outcome would very quickly set us back and could have us in real trouble. So there is a delicate balance to be made, and it needs to be made carefully,” he said.

NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian today echoed the same sentiment.

“I say to all our citizens – thank you for your efforts so far. To have a population the size of New South Wales, to see our cases go from a maximum of 200 or so a day down to just a small handful is a wonderful achievement.

“We don't want to see any of this lost. We need to fire up or economy. We need to get people back into jobs. We need to see some semblance of normality come back. But we can't breach any of the restrictions in place.”

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2020-05-10 01:33:57Z
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