(Melbourne) Australia on Thursday reported 723 new coronavirus cases identified in 23 hours in the state of Victoria (South-East) alone, a new record of contaminations linked in particular to retirement homes.
Posted on 29 July 2020 at 23 h 32
France Media Agency
This state of which Melbourne is the capital is the heart of the resurgence of the disease on the island-continent, whose initial response to the epidemic had been hailed.
For three weeks, several districts of Melbourne and its surroundings have been subjected to containment.
However, the authorities announced on Thursday 723 new contaminations in 23 hours, and 13 coronavirus-related deaths in the state of Victoria alone. The previous record for new cases on Monday was much lower ( 549) and covered the entire territory.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews partly attributed this sharp increase to a resurgence of cases in institutions for the elderly. Most of those who died were over 70 years.
Concern over this return of COVID – 18 is starting to spread across the country. Three new cases have been identified in the state of Queensland and several schools in Sydney closed between Wednesday and Thursday, with some fearing that Australia's largest city may also be on the verge of falling back into a full-scale epidemic.
The state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, reported 16 new cases on Thursday, a figure similar to the previous days.
While the huge island-continent had rather managed to control the epidemic before, Melbourne has seen a resurgence of cases since mid-June. The new wave was blamed on breaches of rules at hotels where travelers returning from abroad undergo their quarantine.
Australia, which has 24 millions of inhabitants, recorded more than 16 000 cases of coronavirus and 189 death.
