An overnight curfew in Australia’s second-largest city would be lifted this week, officials said yesterday, even as the global coronavirus toll inched toward 1 million dead.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said Melbourne residents would be free from today to leave their homes for work, exercise, shop for essentials, or provide care after active cases in the state fell below 400 for the first time since June 30.
The relaxation of the curfew, imposed on Aug. 2, comes after 16 new infections and two deaths were reported yesterday.
Photo: AFP
People would still be confined to within 5km of their homes, and fines for breaching other restrictions will be increased to almost A$5,000 (US$3,515).
Public gatherings of up to five people from a maximum of two households will be allowed, and a further easing could take place on Oct. 19 if the average falls below five new cases per day.
Andrews said several other restrictions, including on religious services and childcare centers, would also be lifted.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison yesterday said that the federal budget, to be delivered on Tuesday next week, would be a “titanic effort” to return the country to economic growth amid the pandemic.
Morrison told reporters that the budget would the “most unprecedented investment in Australia’s future.”
Australia’s GDP shrank 7 percent in the April-June quarter, the largest contraction since record-keeping began in 1959.
That followed a 0.3 percent decline in the first quarter, meaning Australia was technically in recession for the first time in 30 years.
Meanwhile, in India, infections yesterday closed in on 6 million as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on people to keep wearing face masks in public.
“They are potent tools to save the life of every citizen,” he said.
Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare figures showed that the total number of cases had risen to 5,992,532, but only 88,600 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, a declining trend with recoveries exceeding daily infections.
The ministry yesterday reported additional 1,124 deaths for a total of 94,503.
The average of new cases has fallen by around 7,000 daily in the past week after reaching a record number of 97,894 on Sept. 16
India is still expected to surpass the US — which has reported more than 7 million cases so far — as the worst-hit nation in the next few weeks, but it also has the highest number of recovered patients in the world, Johns Hopkins University data showed.
Its recovery rate stands at about 82 percent.
Indonesia yesterday reported 3,874 new coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases to 275,213, official data from the COVID-19 task force showed.
It reported 78 new deaths, bringing the total number of fatalities to 10,386.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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