Asia Today: Australia Victoria state daily cases drop to 216
MELBOURNE Australia (AP) — The beleaguered Australian state of Victoria received a small amount of good news Saturday with health officials reporting 216 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, down from the record 288 the previous day.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said a man in his 90s died overnight while 49 remained hospitalized, including 15 in intensive care. He warned of more difficult days ahead, saying, “We will see more and more additional cases, that’s the nature of this.”
Victoria has recorded 3,560 confirmed cases, and Australia overall has had more than 9,000 with 107 deaths.
Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state after neighboring New South Wales, has been cut off with border closures by other states. All states and territories except New South Wales had eradicated community transmission of the virus, but Victoria-linked infections are spreading.
Victoria hopes a second lockdown in Melbourne, Australia’s second-largest city with a population of 5 million, will curb the spread. It was imposed Wednesday and will last six weeks.
“As inconvenient and as challenging as it is, we cannot deny the reality of the situation we face, and we cannot pretend that doing anything other than following the rules will get us to the other side of this,” Andrews said of the extended lockdown.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration has given provisional approval to the drug remdesivir, an experimental medicine that has shown promise in the recovery time of the most seriously ill COVID-19 patients.
Authorities say remdesivir will be available only to patients who are severely ill, require oxygen or high-level support to breathe, and are in hospital care. It is the only drug licensed by both the U.S. and the European Union as...
