Australia's Victoria reports 64 local COVID-19 cases

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, reported 64 new locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the 24-hour period to Friday evening, health officials said on Saturday.

Australia, still largely unvaccinated, has been battling a surge of cases involving the highly infectious coronavirus Delta variant. More than half of all Australians have been in weeks-long lockdowns as officials in Sydney and Melbourne, the country’s largest cities, and the capital Canberra struggle to quell the virus.

New South Wales, where the outbreak is the largest, on Friday recorded 882 new cases, most of them in the state capital Sydney, down from the record 1,029 on Thursday..

Still, with some 48,800 cases and 991 deaths recorded since the start of the pandemic, Australia has kept its COVID-19 numbers relatively low. So far, 32% of people above age 16 have been fully vaccinated, although the pace of vaccinations has picked up significantly in recent weeks. Based on current rates, Australia should hit 80% by mid-November.

The federal government announced last month a plan that envisaged lockdowns as a key strategy to quell outbreaks until 70% percent of the population gets vaccinated and a gradual re-opening of Australia’s borders when that number reaches 80%.

Of the new cases reported on Saturday in Victoria, 36 people were in quarantine during their infectious period, the state’s health department said on Twitter. While most cases are linked to existing outbreaks, 15 were of unknown origin.

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