Victoria has just recorded 374 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours – the second-highest daily total for any part of Australia to date.
Three women in the state have also passed away. They were aged in their 80s, 90s and 100s.
Premier Daniel Andrews said that while the figure was still high, it was a good sign to see numbers no longer increasing as rapidly last week.
“It’s always challenging to analyse any one day’s results,” he said.
“You’d like to see numbers coming down at the end of the day, though we’re not seeing the doubling and doubling again.
“So what that says to me […] is that the sorts of measures we’ve put in place are having a direct impact.”
Out of the 374 new cases, 62 have already been linked to known outbreaks while most of the remainder are under investigation.
By Thursday, face masks will be mandatory in public across Melbourne in an attempt to slow community transmission.
As a handful of people in the community continue throw a tantrum over the new rules (and medical advice), Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton didn’t mince his words, saying that he hopes mandatory face masks will keep transmission numbers down in future.
“Masks are to coronavirus like speed limits are to our road [death] toll,” he said.
“There is no greater loss of liberty than the loss of your life.”
More to come.
