Australia has recorded “continual reduction in the number of new cases each day,” said the Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy on Easter Sunday but was quick to add that there is no room for complacency with community transmission still present.

The country is “in good place” compared to the world, Professor Murphy stated, predicting that most likely next week’s new COVID-19 cases will be from returning travellers.

“There is no place in the world I would rather be than Australia at the moment. Having said that, as my colleagues have been saying for the past few days, we cannot become complacent.”

Indeed, in Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed on Sunday that there had been just three cases recorded overnight, taking the state total to 1,268.

But Mr. Andrews also announced that the state of emergency in the state, which was due to expire at midnight on Monday 13 April, has now been extended to Monday 11 May, and “may well continue beyond that.”

In New South Wales there were seven new cases recorded overnight, and 12 more in Queensland, while ACT and SA recorded zero new coronavirus patients in the past 24 hours.

While numbers keep changing, according to the latest available data on Sunday afternoon, Australia in total had 6,311 cases with the death toll reaching 59, following the death of an 82-year-old man in NSW, as well as a man and a woman in their ’70s in SA and Tasmania respectively.

Highlights from the global COVID-19 situation

  • Greece also recorded three new deaths in the past 24 hours, raising the number of deceased patients to 93.
  • Worldwide, there have been more than 108,000 deaths, while cases across 193 countries have surpassed 1.795.000.
  • With more than 20,000 casualties, the United States has now the highest coronavirus death toll globally overtaking Italy, with Spain and France next on the grim list. However, Spain had a slowdown on the number of deaths for the third consecutive day on Saturday.
  • Meanwhile, North Korea has reported zero coronavirus cases so far, and while restrictions are in place to fight a potential spread, there is scepticism over the claim due to lack of independent media and widespread censorship in the country.

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