Australia’s toughest lockdown pays off with no Covid-19 cases for 28 days

The state on the heart of Australia’s worst coronavirus outbreak has gone 28 days with no new circumstances of the virus, an enviable file because the US and plenty of European international locations grapple with surging infections or renewed lockdowns.

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One of the world’s strictest and longest stay-at-home orders enabled Victoria to crush neighborhood transmission after a each day peak of about 700 circumstances in early August. The success means Australia shall be amongst a handful of western nations that may look ahead to Christmas with restricted restrictions on household gatherings and what authorities are calling a Covid-normal summer time.

The 28-day run is “an extraordinary achievement psychologically as well as practically, in terms of opening up the economy,” mentioned Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious ailments doctor and affiliate professor of drugs on the Australian National University in Canberra. But there’s no room for complacency, he warned, and Australia faces on an ongoing threat of the virus getting into the neighborhood from returned abroad travellers — regardless of a compulsory system of resort quarantine.

“The reality is, no matter how careful people are, there can always be that accidental breach or a breach where you can’t even identify the source,” Senanayake mentioned.

More than 30,000 Australians, many residing in Europe and the US the place the virus is rampant, are ready to return dwelling.

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Bungled safety at quarantine lodges in Victoria, which reportedly included guards sleeping with company, noticed the virus escape into the neighborhood — resulting in the three-month lockdown in Melbourne. Meanwhile, in neighboring South Australia, authorities are investigating how two safety guards, a cleaner and two returned travellers contracted the virus whereas in resort quarantine — seeding a cluster of infections within the state that’s grown to a minimum of 31.

While 28 days with no thriller circumstances of Covid-19 is the working definition for eliminating neighborhood transmission, the Victoria authorities stays cautious.

“Now is not the time to be complacent,” Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton mentioned in an announcement. “Recent wastewater testing demonstrates there may still be virus in the community and a real risk remains with arriving interstate travelers or the emergence of new local cases. Our fight against Covid-19 is not over.”