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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) – The once-hard-hit Australian state of Victoria went three weeks without a new case of COVID-19 for the first time since February.
There are two active coronavirus cases left across Victoria, according to figures released by the Department of Health on Friday.
And after other states in Australia closed their borders to Victoria, the state decided to close its border with neighboring South Australia, which is seeing a new spike in cases.
Victoria has been through a prolonged wave of the virus in which the city of Melbourne has been locked down, nighttime curfews imposed and bans imposed on family reunions and extended trips out of the city.
Of the 907 coronavirus deaths in Australia, 819 have occurred in Victoria.
Friday’s milestone came when Victoria established a “hard border” with South Australia that will only allow emergency or medical cases and truck drivers carrying goods. This is the first time that Victoria has closed its border to a state.
South Australia were on their second six-day blocking day on Friday to ward off a potential new wave.
South Australian Prime Minister Steven Marshall said the state learned from watching Victoria and other parts of the world.
“COVID-19 is very difficult to eradicate once it takes hold in a community,” Marshall said. “So we need this circuit breaker, this breathing space for a contact tracing blitz.”
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
– The total number of coronavirus cases in India since the start of the pandemic has exceeded 9 million. Nonetheless, the country’s daily new cases have been steadily declining for weeks. The health ministry reported 45,882 new infections and 584 deaths in the past 24 hours on Friday. The death toll since the start of the pandemic is more than 132,000 people. Authorities in the capital New Delhi are struggling to prevent nearly 7,500 new cases a day while ensuring the declining economy does not capsize again.
– The South Korean prime minister urged the public to avoid social gatherings and stay at home as much as possible, as the country has recorded more than 300 new cases of the virus for a third day in a row. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said on Friday that the 363 cases reported in the past 24 hours brought the country’s total to 30,017 with 501 deaths. South Korea’s cases have been steadily increasing since it relaxed physical distancing rules last month. Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun on Friday urged people to minimize holiday parties and year-end gatherings and called on businesses to let employees work from home. Local authorities on Thursday tightened distancing guidelines in the greater Seoul area, the southern city of Gwangju and parts of eastern Gangwon Province.
– Hong Kong has suspended in-person classes for lower elementary school students after the city’s senior health official said the city’s coronavirus situation was rapidly deteriorating. Classes for primary 1 to 3 students will be suspended for two weeks from Monday. The suspension comes just over a week after kindergartens were ordered to close following an outbreak of upper respiratory infections. Hong Kong confirmed 26 new coronavirus infections on Friday, including 21 local cases. “I call on people to end all unnecessary gathering activities because the situation is now dire in Hong Kong,” Hong Kong Minister of Health Sophia Chan said.
– Authorities in northern China’s Tianjin city cordoned off a hospital, residential complex and kindergarten after the city discovered four new local cases of the coronavirus on Friday. Three of the confirmed cases were a combination of parents and their son. The fourth was a person who worked in the same residential complex. As of Tuesday, the city found a case of COVID-19 in the same residential complex, bringing the total to five confirmed cases. China does not count asymptomatic patients as confirmed cases. Health officials said they were sealing the entire residential compound and classifying the area as high risk. They also cordoned off the hospital where one of the patients went for his diagnosis and the kindergarten attended by a patient’s granddaughter. Parents and kindergarten teachers are quarantined at home.
– Sri Lankan authorities suspend all passenger train services for two days as COVID-19 cases rise in the capital and its suburbs. Sri Lankan Railways chief executive Dilantha Fernando said on Friday that the trains would be stopped on Saturday and Sunday. Restrictions were also placed on public buses. Authorities have locked down many parts of Colombo and surrounding areas since last month and have closed key schools and public offices. The police strictly enforced the regulations and arrested more than 100 violators. The recent push came from two groups – one in a garment factory and the other in a fish market. Confirmed cases from both clusters jumped to 15,329 on Friday. The total number of confirmed cases in Sri Lanka since March reached 18,841 on Friday, with 73 dead.
– The governor of Hokkaido prefecture, the northernmost in Japan, where infections are rising rapidly and new daily cases have exceeded 300 for the first time, urged residents to stay home over the next weekend of three days. Japan has seen infections rise since the start of the month, with 2,383 reported on Thursday, prompting medical experts to urge the government to take more stringent measures than relying solely on the voluntary wearing of masks. Hokkaido Governor Naomichi Suzuki said the prefecture was at a critical stage in its ability to manage infections. “Please avoid non-essential outings if you are not sure you can fully protect yourself,” he said. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and other senior officials have resisted calls to halt a government-sponsored travel and meal subsidy campaign over fears of further damage to the economy affected by the pandemic. Suga said the government has no plans to restrict travel or business and urged people to keep their masks on at all times when they are not actively eating. But experts from a government task force on COVID-19 urged the government on Friday to take tougher measures. He said that individual efforts alone could no longer effectively curb the spread of the virus. Tokyo reported 522 new cases on Friday, the second day in a row with more than 500. Nationwide, Japan has more than 125,000 cases, with fewer than 2,000 deaths.
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