Victoria records 278 new coronavirus cases and eight deaths in sign the deadly Melbourne outbreak is finally getting under control
- Victoria has recorded 278 new coronavirus infections and eight deaths
- The state suffered its deadliest day on Wednesday, with 21 deaths and 410 cases
- Premier Daniel Andrews is confident Victoria’s COVID-19 curve is flattening
Victoria has recorded 278 new coronavirus infections and eight deaths on Thursday, a significant drop in the 410 recorded yesterday.
It comes after the state suffered its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with 21 deaths on Wednesday.
A record 725 new daily infections were recorded on August 5.
Premier Daniel Andrews is confident Victoria’s COVID-19 curve is flattening.
Victoria has recorded 278 new coronavirus infections and eight deaths, a significant drop in the 410 recorded yesterday
The virus-hit state is starting to bear the fruits of the week-long stage four restrictions shutting all non-essential businesses in Melbourne.
While noting Victoria’s seven-day case average was falling, Mr Andrews acknowledged the lockdown’s full effects would not be known until next week.
‘We all know that a week is not the life-cycle of this virus,’ he told reporters on Wednesday.
‘This is not precise. It’s not exact because it’s all dependent upon literally hundreds of millions of individual choices and decisions that each of us make every single day.’
Professor Catherine Bennett, Chair of Epidemiology at Deakin University, also believes the state is ‘past its peak now’.
‘The main driver of the large numbers recently has been outbreaks and so the fact that the suppression of community transmission helps [by] preventing seeding new outbreaks really changes the dynamics of the numbers we are seeing every day because we are now not replacing every case,’ she told the Today Show.
The virus-hit state is starting to bear the fruits of the week-long stage four restrictions shutting all non-essential businesses in Melbourne
Professor Bennett also acknowledged that active cases of COVID-19 in Victoria dropped on Wednesday for the first time.
‘So hopefully this pipeline, if you like, of people being exposed then becoming ill and possibly also triggering workplace outbreaks is now shifting so that we are starting to close down those existing outbreaks,’ she said.
‘We should see the numbers really drop quite rapidly once these outbreaks are contained and we stop, you know, having more people coming into [contact], whether it’s working in hospital or aged care in particular.’