Once Australia’s COVID-19 hotspot, Victoria state records 28 days without an infection

FILE PHOTO: People walk past a cafe after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased for the state of Victoria, in Melbourne, Australia, October 28, 2020. (Reuters)

SYDNEY — Australia’s second-largest state, once the country’s COVID-19 hotspot, said on Friday it has gone 28 days without detecting any new infections, a benchmark widely cited as eliminating the virus from the community.

Victoria state also has zero active cases after the last COVID-19 patient was discharged from hospital this week, a far cry from August when it recorded more than 700 cases in one day and active infections totalled nearly 8,000.

The spread of the virus was only contained after a lockdown lasting more than 100 days, leaving some 5 million people in Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city, largely confined to their homes.

While the lockdown has seen infections wane, it slowed Australia’s economic recovery from its first recession in three decades after large swathes of the country’s economy was shut down in March.

Australia’s economy shrank 7% in the three months to the end of June, the biggest quarterly decline since records began in 1959. The unemployment rate hit a 22-year high of 7.5% in July as businesses and borders closed to deal with the coronavirus.

Still, Australia’s nearly 28,000 COVID-19 infections recorded to date, according to health ministry data, are far fewer than many other developed countries. Victoria accounts for more than 90% of the country’s 905 deaths.