NSW has just hit a milestone in flattening the curve: the state has gone 24 hours without reporting a single new COVID-19 case.
This is the first time this has happened since the daily tally started in February. While it doesn’t mean we’re in the clear, it’s still a sign of progress.
“That shouldn’t give us a false sense of security or a false sense of complacency,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Monday morning.
“We know unfortunately there are people currently in NSW walking around with the virus who don’t know they have it.”
In fact, coming in to winter, the premier urged people to me more vigilant than ever. This is particularly important as the state will ease lockdown restrictions on Friday.
“As the winter months are approaching, and people will be developing flu-like symptoms, please assume you have the coronavirus, don’t assume it’s just a cold,” she said.
“We desperately need to maintain a high level of testing as restrictions are eased.”
On Sunday, 6,048 people were tested for the virus in NSW. This is short of the state government’s goal of 8,000 tests per day, but it’s still an improvement from the early days of the pandemic.
“We were literally being compared to New York and Italy when we had 216 cases a day on average, and now we’re literally down to a couple every night,” Berejiklian added.
Berejiklian’s comments were echoed by the state’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Jeremy McAnulty.
“We know the virus will be bubbling around beneath the surface in the community,” he said.
“Testing is really the key — we need to find every person who may have infection and we can only do that by people coming forward for testing.
“The enemy is complacency, if people drop their guard, think it’s just a cold or the flu, that will be a mistake.”
