Worst-Hit Australian State Marks 28 Days of No New Virus Cases
The state at the center of Australia’s worst coronavirus outbreak has gone 28 days with no new cases of the virus, an enviable record as the U.S. and many European countries grapple with surging infections or renewed lockdowns.
One of the world’s strictest and longest stay-at-home orders enabled Victoria to crush community transmission after a daily peak of about 700 cases in early August. The success means Australia will be among a handful of western nations that can look forward to Christmas with limited restrictions on family gatherings and what authorities are calling a Covid-normal summer.
City Locked Down for Three Months Has Bleak Lesson for World
The 28-day run is “an extraordinary achievement psychologically as well as practically, in terms of opening up the economy,” said Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious diseases physician and associate professor of medicine at the Australian National University in Canberra. But there’s no room for complacency, he warned, and Australia faces on an ongoing risk of the virus entering the community from returned overseas travelers — despite a mandatory system of hotel quarantine.
181,490 in U.S.Most new cases today
+8% Change in MSCI World Index of global stocks since Wuhan lockdown, Jan. 23
-0.8509 Change in U.S. treasury bond yield since Wuhan lockdown, Jan. 23
4% Global GDP Tracker (annualized), Oct.