Australia PM Morrison says country can confidently respond to COVID-19 as new cases emerge

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed confidence in the country’s plan to move ahead with easing restrictions while parallelly dealing with new coronavirus outbreaks. Speaking at a news conference, Morrison acknowledged the challenges in Melbourne after the recent spike in coronavirus cases but emphasised on maintaining status-quo on reopening.

“There will be outbreaks, there will be changes...we can't go, stop-go, stop-go. We can't flick the light on-and-off and on-and-off and on-and-off,” said Morrison.

The Australian military has been called in to help tackle a sudden rise in coronavirus cases in Victoria’s capital, Melbourne, as the state recorded double-digit increases in daily news cases for the past few days. Australia had successfully curbed the virus spread but the recent surge has triggered fear of another wave due to apparent community transmission.

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First death in over a month

Australia has reported 7,558 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 104 deaths, first death on June 24 in more than a month, related to the contagious virus. Health Minister Greg Hunt reportedly said that the federal government had offered military support to help tackle the fresh outbreak and other four states offered to help with contact tracing.

During a press conference of June 22, Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy had said that the authorities always expected to see some continuing cases in Victoria, given the peak that occurred towards the end of last week. He said that it was still too early to predict the course of the outbreak but exuded confidence in Victoria’s public health response.

“There is substantial testing happening in those hotspot areas, they are tracing very large numbers of contacts...and are responding in a way that I have every confidence they are doing everything they can to bring these outbreaks under control,” added Murphy.

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