Australia reached zero coronavirus infections | T …

Australian authorities reported on Thursday that they had achieved zero coronavirus infections throughout its territory this week, which opened up the possibility of starting a travel bubble with the Pacific Islands.

“Today we have six out of seven days with zero cases (of Covid-19) in AustraliaHealth Minister Greg Hunt told reporters in Melbourne.

These results are given after Australia’s most populous state of New South Wales, which has not been infected for four days, may overcome regrowth detected in mid-December on beaches in northern Sydney, leading to a quarantine that affected some 250,000 residents for at least two weeks.

For its part, Victoria state, epicenter of the second wave of Covid-19 which erupted at the end of June last and forced some 5 million inhabitants of the city of Melbourne to confine themselves for the second time between July and November, accumulates 15 days without infections after a contagion of Sydney.

Meanwhile, the state of Queensland has been infection-free for ten days after the three-day lockdown of Brisbane’s 2.8 million residents, the third most populous city in the country after Sydney and Melbourne, after a worker at a quarantine center was infected with a new, highly contagious strain.

Although part of interstate travel remains prohibited, it is starting to be moderately lifted. International borders, closed since last March with a few exceptions, will likely continue to be so until the end of the year, even though the majority of the population is vaccinated.

This situation led the authorities to discuss with their medical advisers create a travel bubble with the Pacific. “If the Pacific countries are able to show that they are at the lowest risk level – and they are doing extraordinarily well – and that we are able to put the right protections in place, then we might well expand this bubble, ”said Minister Hunt.

Currently, Australia has only one travel agreement allowing New Zealand residents to enter freely since last October, although on their return they must undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine.

New South Wales Head of Government Gladys Berejiklian recently said that “there is no reason why we should not aspire to visit New Zealand or some of the Pacific Islands in the months to come, ”according to the Sydney newspaper. Morning Herald.

Australia has accumulated some 28,750 infections since the start of the pandemic, including 909 deaths and less than 200 active cases.