Asia Today: Victoria adds 21 deaths, curfew breakers fined

By Associated Press 12 August 2020, 12:00AM

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian state of Victoria on Wednesday reported a record 21 virus deaths and 410 new cases from an outbreak in the city of Melbourne that has prompted a strict lockdown.

State Premier Daniel Andrews said 16 of the deaths were linked to aged-care facilities. The number of new cases in Victoria is down from the peak, giving authorities some hope the outbreak is waning.

Meanwhile, three Melbourne vloggers were fined after posting social media videos showing them breaching nighttime curfews for a McDonald’s run, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.

The five-minute video, since deleted, showed the students walking through alleys, dodging police officers and dancing inside the restaurant, ABC said.

Victoria police confirmed each student was fined 1,652 Australian dollars ($1,178).

And the state of New South Wales on Wednesday reported 18 new cases, including two connected with a private school cluster in Sydney.

In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:

— South Korea reported 54 new cases of COVID-19 as health authorities scramble to stem transmissions amid increased social and leisure activities. The figures announced by South Korea’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought the national caseload to 14,714 infections, including 305 deaths. The KCDC says 35 of the new cases were local transmissions, all but three of them reported from the Seoul area. The other 19 cases were linked to international arrivals. Health authorities see those as less threatening to the community since people arriving from abroad face mandatory tests and two-week quarantines.

— China’s new domestic coronavirus cases fell into the single digits on Wednesday, while Hong Kong saw just 33 new cases. The National Health Commission said all nine new cases were found in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, whose capital Urumqi has been at the center of China’s latest major outbreak. Another 25 cases were brought by Chinese travelers arriving from abroad. China has largely contained the local spread of the pandemic that is believed to have originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year before spreading worldwide. Hong Kong, a densely populated semi-autonomous southern Chinese city, also recorded another six deaths to bring its total to 58 fatalities among 4,181 cases. Authorities have ordered mask wearing in public settings, restrictions on indoor dining and other social distancing measures in a bid to stem its latest outbreak.

— Health authorities in New Zealand were scrambling to trace the source of a new outbreak as the nation’s largest city went back into lockdown. The four cases reported from one Auckland household are New Zealand's first locally transmitted cases in 102 days. The 22 others were in mandatory quarantine after traveling abroad. Two of the infected people had traveled to the tourist city of Rotorua last weekend while suffering symptoms, and authorities were trying to track their movements.

___

This story has been edited to correct the number of new cases reported in Hong Kong to 33 instead of 102.

By Associated Press 12 August 2020, 12:00AM

Trending Stories

Samoa Observer

Upgrade to Premium

Subscribe to
Samoa Observer Online

Enjoy unlimited access to all our articles on any device + free trial to e-Edition. You can cancel anytime.

>