This morning Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton told the 3AW that two men in their 70’s have died “tragically” overnight. The national COVID-19 death toll now stands at 11.
“They’re our first deaths, but in a sense they’re not unexpected,” Dr Sutton said.
“We’re now up to 520 cases, so two deaths amongst 500 is relatively small looking at the global figures.”
Australian testing rates are 10 or 20 times the US per capita, which is why Australia has been praised for its approach to targeting COVID-19. According to research, Australia is the fourth largest country to have tested the number of individuals.
“Pretty much all of Australia is way up there globally for the number of tests that we are doing per capita,” Dr Sutton said.
This comes a day after Premier Daniel Andrews warned he may implement “stage 2” to fight the spread of the coronavirus, after the “stage 1” shutdown was announced by the Victorian government on Monday.
Dr Sutton urged Victorians to follow advice to practice social distancing and made further comments on the lock-down.
“It’s more powerful to make those social distancing measures now, to change the trajectory of this epidemic.”
Photo: COVID-19 CORONAVIRUS particle Computer Generated By Felipe Esquivel Reed available HERE
