Melbourne Lockdown Might Need to Be Tightened, Premier Warns
Australia’s Victoria Records 627 New Virus Cases
(Bloomberg) -- Australia’s second-most populous state has recorded 627 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours as public health officials examine data from the first half of Melbourne’s six-week lockdown to determine what’s going wrong.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said Friday that over the next two days public health experts would analyze trends in the data and warned they may recommend more stringent measures.
On Thursday, Australia suffered its worst day of infections with Victoria recording 723 new cases and Andrews held emergency talks with Prime Minister Scott Morrison to discuss whether further restrictions were needed.
“It is important that all of us acknowledge these numbers are far too high,” Andrews said. “We could not open up with these numbers. We could not even open up with significantly less numbers.”
Neighboring New South Wales State recorded a further 21 infections while its northern neighbor Queensland added a case. In Victoria, half of the latest eight fatalities were in aged-care facilities.
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