Australia announced Monday, July 27, 549 new cases of Covid-19, a record since the start of the pandemic which shows how the authorities are struggling to contain the sources of contamination in the state of Victoria.
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This southern state of which Melbourne is the capital is the epicenter of a second epidemic wave larger than the first. Authorities acknowledged Monday that this second wave was taking longer than expected to ebb.
But the head of health services in Victoria, Brett Sutton, has said he is optimistic about the effectiveness of a partial containment ordered two weeks ago in Melbourne and surrounding areas. " We should be at the peak, " said Brett Sutton, admitting, however, that the number of cases should continue to fluctuate and that new records could be set in the days to come.
The number of cases identified in 24 hours has already three times exceeded the record figure (459) of the first wave, which was recorded in March, according to data compiled by AFP. The country, which had been praised for its initial management of the epidemic, has 15,000 cases of Covid-19, a disease that has left 161 people dead on the island-continent.