Australia recorded just seven new cases of coronavirus on Monday, as the country’s chief medial officer shed light on the ‘problematic’ issue of when to allow pubs and restaurants to reopen.
A total of four states and territories recorded no new cases as Australia’s lockdown restrictions continue to smash the COVID-19 curve.
Australia’s reduction of new infections is the envy of the world, with the global number of cases rising to more than three million globally on Monday night.
Western Australia, South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory all had no new cases on Monday.
Victoria recorded one new infection but had a separate case reclassified to New South Wales – leaving the state’s total unchanged at 1,349.
New South Wales and Tasmania had two new cases each while Queensland had three.
Australia now has a total of 6,721 confirmed cases of which 83 have died and 5,588 have recovered.
Of the 1,050 active cases, 43 people are in intensive care and 27 are on ventilators.
Travel bans, closed borders and business shutdowns have slashed the number of new daily cases from a peak of 460 on March 28.
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy said on Monday the government’s ‘suppression’ strategy was working.
He said that if the progress continued, restrictions may soon be gently relaxed – meaning people would be able to sit on a park bench or possibly hold small gatherings.
Prof Murphy said if there were no outbreaks as a result of easing those restrictions, further shutdown measures would be relaxed.
Prof Murphy said a major concern is that Australians would become complacent with social distancing as the curve continues to flatten.
‘That’s an ongoing worry. Obviously it’s much better to be in the position we are now than the one we were in a month ago,’ he told the ABC’s 7.30.
‘Particularly in some states that have had no cases for some days, it is hard to keep that message. That’s why the National Cabinet wants to look at whether there are some safe measures that could potentially be relaxed in two or three weeks.
‘But they want to be able absolutely before we do that that we are really well prepared in our public health response for any outbreaks that can occur. We’ve seen already how infectious this virus is.’
Prof Murphy said the priority is getting children back to school.
Northern Territory schools have resumed classes already while Western Australia and South Australia were on the way, he said.
Restaurants are likely to reopen with restrictions sooner than pubs and clubs which would be more ‘problematic’, Prof Murphy said.
Almost two million Australians have downloaded the coronavirus tracing app within a day of its release, far exceeding expectations.
The COVIDSafe app is designed to help health officials identify people who have come into contact with somebody infected with the disease.
The voluntary app became available for download on Sunday evening and has the backing of doctors, nurses, businesses, bankers and travel agents.
By Monday afternoon 1.89 million people had downloaded the app, far exceeding the one million within five days that was initially expected.
The government ultimately wants at least 40 per cent of the population on board.
The tech community has swung behind the new contact tracing software after analysing it with privacy concerns in mind.
Associated Newspapers Ltd