More than 5.5 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted in Australia but the country’s top nurse has said those high testing rates need to continue as 17 new deaths in Victoria take the death toll past 500.
502 people have now died from COVID-19 in Australia since the nightmare coronavirus pandemic began.
The majority of those deaths (415 total) have been in Victoria, and within the past six weeks as the state was hit with a second wave of infections.
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A man and a woman aged in their 60s, three men in their 70s, six men and four women in their 80s and two men in their 90s made up the state’s new deaths.
11 of them have been linked to known clusters at aged care facilities.
At an update on Sunday afternoon, Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer Professor Alison McMillan urged people to keep getting tested if they have even the mildest of symptoms.
“We have been incredibly successful in promoting testing, and we have seen more than 5.5 million tests conducted across the country … We continue to encourage anyone, if you have any symptoms whatsoever, however mild, it is really important that you get tested,” Prof McMillan said.
“Stay at home, get tested, and we will help across the country to prevent the transmission of this disease, and hopefully return at some point to a more normal life,” she added.
Australia recorded its first death from COVID-19 on March 1: a 78-year-old man who caught the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship.
The first cases of community transmission were detected the next day.
The country had a largely successful suppression of the virus until July, when case numbers began surging in Victoria.
Deaths returned too.
Only one person died throughout June from COVID-19.
On July 6 Australia reported two more deaths, and the death toll continued to rise throughout the month and into the next one.
On August 17 Australia reported what remains its deadliest day of the pandemic, with 25 new deaths announced that day.
Harsh restrictions have been active in Victoria for three weeks now and are set to continue for three more.
The state’s new case numbers have begun trending downwards but have plenty of room to decline further.
Health and Fitness | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site