CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared that he is “encouraged” by the nation’s fight against a second wave of COVID-19 infections in the state of Victoria.
Morrison on Friday held a meeting of the National Cabinet, which is composed of the prime minister and state and territory leaders, after which he welcomed a significant decline in new COVID-19 cases in Victoria, the hardest-hit state by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, and praised the state government’s decision to ease restrictions in regional areas.
“We’re encouraged by what we’re seeing out of Victoria now,” Morrison told reporters on Friday.
“We’re encouraged about the relaxation of the restrictions that we’ve seen in Victoria in regional areas.”
“We are hopeful that the road map that has been outlined by the Victorian Premier continues to be achieved, and we hope it continues to be accelerated in response to the case numbers that we’re seeing there.”
As of Friday afternoon there had been 26,861 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, and the number of new cases in the last 24 hours is 51.
There were five new deaths reported in Victoria on Friday, taking the national death toll to 837.
Of the new cases, Victoria confirmed 45 and New South Wales confirmed six more cases. Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, has now confirmed fewer than 50 cases for eight consecutive days, the first time it has done so in recent months.
“All of today’s deaths are linked to known outbreaks in aged care facilities. To date, 750 people have died from coronavirus in Victoria,” said a statement from the Department of Health and Human Services in Victoria on Friday.
The National Cabinet on Friday agreed to increase the cap on international arrivals to Australia in a staged way from 4,000 to 6,000 per week.
The prime minister also addressed Thursday’s labor force data which revealed a surprise drop in the unemployment rate from 7.5 percent in July to 6.8 percent in August.
“I mean, these are employment numbers that have seen more than half now, more than half of the jobs lost come back. That’s good news,” he said.
Despite the positive news, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Friday that there was “a lot of uncertainty” in the economy.
He described the labor market as “challenging” and reiterated calls for strict COVID-19 restrictions across Melbourne, the capital city of Victoria, to be lifted earlier than currently planned.
“Now, I am hoping, the prime minister is hoping, that those restrictions can be eased as quickly as it is COVID-safe to do so,” he told media.–Agencies
