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Spread of COVID-19 in Australia continues to slow

Xinhua News,CANBERRA
2020-04-17 15:28

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CANBERRA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- The spread of coronavirus in Australia has continued to slow, with 6,497 confirmed cases reported as of Friday morning, an increase of 0.6 percent from Thursday morning.

The number of cases increased by 5.6 percent in the last seven days compared to an increase of 17 percent in the previous week.

Victoria, the Australian state with the second-most cases, had only one new confirmed case between Thursday and Friday.

"We continue to be having less cases per day than in previous weeks," Paul Kelly, the deputy chief medical officer, told reporters on Friday afternoon.

"We had the peak of the epidemic towards the end of last month."

Australia has also reduced the mortality rate, with the national death toll rising by 11 to 64 in the last week, while the number of deaths almost doubled from 27 to 53 between April 3 and April 10.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday said the restrictions could be eased if the government can increase testing, improve contact tracing of the virus and boost capabilities to respond to localized outbreaks of the virus.

"The next four weeks gives us some time to increase the capacity we have to cope with this disease," Kelly said.

Improved contact tracing of the virus will be achieved via a smartphone application, and at least 40 percent of the Australian population would download the app.
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