Australia sees COVID-19 outbreak stabilize

MELBOURNE, October 4 (Reuters) – The Delta epidemic in Australia appears to have stabilized, with more than half of the country in extended lockdown and vaccination rates starting to move closer to national targets, the Minister of Justice said on Monday. Greg Hunt Health.

Hunt said 80% of Australians will have had their first COVID-19 vaccine this week, while the global battle against the virus has been reinforced by the arrival in recent days of 15,000 more doses of the treatment drug sotrovimab.

The Australian government wants all restrictions related to COVID-19, including travel bans, to be lifted when 80% of the population over 16 is fully vaccinated. He expects the target to be reached in mid-November.

“There are important reasons for hope,” Hunt told reporters at a televised press conference, noting a sharp drop in the number of new cases in the state of New South Wales, which is home to the Australia’s largest city, Sydney.

“Victoria, yes, it’s a big challenge … But we are starting to see the flattening of the curve in Victoria,” he said.

New South Wales reported 623 new cases and six deaths on Monday, up from more than 900 cases a day a week ago.

Victoria state reported 1,377 new COVID-19 infections, up from 1,220 on Sunday, but a record 1,488 on Saturday. There were four new deaths.

Officials blamed a recent spike in Victoria’s cases on Australian football final nights, in violation of strict lockdown rules the weekend before. Almost half of the new cases on Monday were people between the ages of 10 and 29.

The state capital Melbourne, in the midst of its sixth lockdown, reached a cumulative 245 days of restrictions on Sunday since March of last year, overtaking Buenos Aires as the city under the longest lockdown, according to the local media.

Despite the current downward trend, experts have warned that cases are expected to rise again once the country emerges from lockdown, replicating the experience of other countries that have vaccinated earlier.

New South Wales is expected to start easing restrictions from October 11, the first Monday after it expects 70% of its population over 16 to be fully vaccinated, up from 67% currently.

Victoria hopes to reach the 70% target, down from around 52% currently, by October 26.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) and Vir Biotechnology (VIR.O) sotrovimab has been shown to be effective in reducing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk COVID-19 patients when given early in illness. Read more

Hunt said he hoped another COVID-19 drug, a pill tested by Merck & Co Inc (MRK.N), would be available in Australia in the first quarter of 2022. read more

Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Richard Pullin

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