Australia Coronavirus Second Wave: Victoria Records Second Deadliest Day With 19 Deaths

Victoria state has recorded its second deadliest day in a row, tallying 19 deaths over a 24-hour period ending on Tuesday. There were 18 deaths on Monday.

Australia’s second most populous state continues to see a disheartening surge in COVID-19 cases and now deaths in the wake of the coronavirus second wave. Aside from the death toll, new infections have also climbed from 322 reported on Monday at 7:49 a.m. AEST, to 331 reported Tuesday.

Victoria is the hardest region affected by the coronavirus in the country.

“That nation has a second wave, and has great difficulty in containing this virus. I think that difficulty is well understood and tragically it’s been experienced in a number of second waves around the world,” Premier Daniel Andrews said during a video conference, The Guardian reported.

“This is something that is a great challenge for communities and economies and health systems right across the world.”

Andrews said the state has over 2,500 people working on contact tracing, including ambulance officers, Australian defence force and health physicians. When asked whether lockdowns are curbing the spread of the virus, the premier admitted that it’s “very difficult” to measure the success of these restrictions, but should transmissions continue, death tolls will also continue to rise.

“When you have mass transmission, and you have not hundreds of cases a day but many thousands, and you will finish up with a fatality right that is exponentially higher than the terrible tragedy that we’re dealing with.”

Based on data from the Australian Department of Health, there are now 21,297 total COVID-19 cases and 313 deaths in the country as of August 10, 3:00 p.m. AEST. There are 664 cases admitted to hospitals and 54 patients in intensive care. Of this number, 46 are in Victoria. The state also accounts for 14,957 cases and 228 deaths.