A man wearing a protective face mask walks past a closed Luna Park in Melbourne.
MELBOURNE: Australia’s second-most populous state, Victoria, reported its deadliest day of the COVID-19 outbreak on Sunday (Aug 9), with 17 people dying in the past 24 hours, although new infections showed signs of easing.
Victoria, at the centre of a second wave of infections in Australia, reported 394 cases of the new coronavirus, compared with a daily average of 400-500 over the past week. The new deaths bring the state’s total to 210.
The southeastern state, with infections concentrated in the capital Melbourne, accounts for more than two-thirds of the national tally of nearly 21,000.
In an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus, Victoria has imposed a night curfew, tightened restrictions on people’s daily movements and ordered large parts of the local economy to close.
