Australia yesterday announced a nearly US$100 million boost in funding to tackle domestic violence after support services reported a spike in coronavirus-related family abuse.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said there had been a 75 percent surge in Google searches for help during the ongoing nationwide shutdown of non-essential services to curb the spread of COVID-19.
Women’s Safety, a domestic violence charity in Australia’s most populous New South Wales state, has reported that more than 40 percent of workers had seen an increase in client numbers, with more than one-third of cases directly linked to the virus outbreak.
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In neighboring Victoria, women’s support service Wayss said that police requests for assistance with cases had almost doubled in the past week, as they dealt with a form of abuse “not experienced before.”
“Just having the people in the house, rather than having the pressure release of going to work, or being able to travel freely outside of the house are contributing factors,” Wayss chief executive officer Liz Thomas told public broadcaster ABC.
“We’ve also seen half a dozen examples in the past week where perpetrators have actually used COVID-19 as a form of abuse — telling their partner that they have the virus, therefore they can’t leave the house,” Thomas said.
Perpetrators have also invited “people into the house where the woman is self-isolating, saying that the visitor has COVID-19 and is going to infect them,” Thomas said.
Morrison said that A$150 million (US$92.5 million) — part of an additional A$1.1 billion in health-related spending announced yesterday — would be spent on telephone support services for domestic violence victims and abusers.
“We need to put more resources into supporting people who will be vulnerable and may be vulnerable,” he told reporters in Canberra.
However, Morrison said the daily increase in cases in the past few days was about 13 to 15 percent, down from 25 to 30 percent seen a week earlier, showing social distancing measures are working.
“These are still strong rates of increase, no doubt about that,” he said.
There were 3,809 confirmed cases in Australia early yesterday, 431 more than on Saturday, the Australian Department of Health said.
Sixteen deaths were attributable to the virus, health officials said.
Neighboring New Zealand yesterday saw its first death related to the coronavirus, with cases rising to 514 confirmed infections.
Two-thirds of the cases in Australia have been traced to contact with people returning from overseas, government officials said.
However, state leaders are worried about the recent rise in community transmission, especially in the most populous New South Wales and Victoria, where more than half of Australia’s 25.5 million people live.
Australia has introduced a series of measures to combat the spread of COVID-19, but state and federal governments have sent some mixed messages about social distancing and other containment measures, leading to widespread confusion.
Morrison yesterday said that all of Australia’s six states and two territories are working to keep actions consistent, but rising case numbers might require individual states to take additional actions “sooner than other states.”
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