The Latest: Cases drop by half in Australia's Victoria state

MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia’s Victoria state saw a marked drop in new COVID-19 infections -- from Friday’s record high of 428 to 217 -- a total that Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says was “a relief after yesterday’s numbers.”

The Health Department said Saturday that two more Victorians, a man and a woman both aged in their 80s, had died, taking the state’s death toll to 34 and Australia’s national total to 118.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the latest numbers were encouraging but warned it was just one day.

He says “we’d want to see a pattern where there’s stability and then a decrease.” He urged residents in metropolitan Melbourne to remain diligent during a six-week lockdown -- “being bored is much better than being in intensive care.”

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HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Reality shows shortfalls of Trump’s claim to ‘best testing’

— Millions of kids told full return to school in fall unlikely

— Republicans eye sweeping shield from coronavirus liability

— Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is urging Congress to quickly enact a new pandemic relief package targeting hardest-hit swaths of the economy, as lawmakers race to stand up federal aid in the face of the latest spike in coronavirus cases across much of the Sun Belt and persistent severe unemployment.

— Evidence behind what role children play in the coronavirus pandemic and how it affects them is inconclusive, despite the Trump administration’s position that the science is clear.

— Fresh studies give more information about what treatments do or don’t work for COVID-19, with high-quality methods that give reliable results.

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