Canberra [Australia](ANI/Xinhua): Australia has reported a record number of daily coronavirus cases for several times recently as the country continued to battle the third wave of COVID-19 infections.
There were 1,125 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 reported across Australia on Saturday morning, beating the previous record of 1,123 reported on Thursday. It was the second time since the start of the pandemic that Australia reported more than 1,000 new cases in a single day.
The total number of confirmed infections in the country increased to more than 49,000. Of the news cases, 1,035 were from New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state with Sydney as the capital city.
Australia’s pandemic death toll is on the brink of surpassing 1,000 after two deaths were reported in NSW, where 83 COVID-19 related deaths have been reported since June 16 this year.
Victoria, the second-most populous state with Melbourne as the capital city, reported a further 64 new local cases, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) recorded another 26, which takes the number of active cases associated with this outbreak in Canberra to 233.
Of the new cases in ACT, 20 were linked to other known infections and 15 were in quarantine for their infectious period.
More than 1,800 close contacts of confirmed cases remained in quarantine in Canberra. Kerryn Coleman, the ACT’s chief health officer, said that transmission was occurring between family members.
“That’s why it’s really really important that we all continue to quarantine, if required,” she said.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the outlook for Canberra would depend partly on Sydney as the number of new cases across the neighboring border in NSW reached a new high on Saturday. (ANI/Xinhua)
