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Australia suffers worst day yet in pandemic as 10 die of coronavirus

Australian Defense Force personnel work at a vehicle checkpoint along the Princes Freeway outside of Melbourne, Australia - Shutterstock 
Australian Defense Force personnel work at a vehicle checkpoint along the Princes Freeway outside of Melbourne, Australia - Shutterstock

Australia has been hit by its worst day yet for Covid-19 deaths, with 10 people dying in 24 hours on Sunday.

There were 459 cases reported in the state from a record-high 42,573 tests carried out in a single day.

Victorian health officials have now tested more than 1.5 million people.

One of the dead was a man in his 40s, but seven of the cases were linked to clusters in aged care centres.

From June until 23 July, 66 residential aged care services in Victoria have had at least one confirmed Covid-19 case, either a resident or care worker.

At least four people have died of the coronavirus from St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner in Melbourne’s north, where almost half the residents have tested positive to the disease. Last week federal authorities took over the facility and the regular staff were sent home to isolate.

381 Victorian health workers are among the state’s 4,233 active Covid-19 cases and state authorities have mobilised to cover the shortfall in staff, with 200 off-roster paramedics and third-year students helping with contact tracing, 20 defence force personnel joining Ambulance Victoria paramedics in joint crews as of Monday, and 4,000 current and retired nurses and midwives have volunteered to assist 800 extra health professionals who have already been deployed.

Some 16,000 health workers have contacted the state’s health authorities to express interest in volunteering.

North of the Victorian-New South Wales border, which was recently closed for the first time in over 100 years, six new cases were linked to the Thai Rock restaurant on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases linked to the venue to 67.

Last week New South Wales had a total of 81 known locally-acquired Covid-19 cases out of a total of 99 cases for the week.

On the other side of the country, the government of Western Australia launched a A$2.7billion (£1.5billion) economic stimulus plan on Sunday.

The state has had no cases of community transmission for many weeks but its closed border is taking an economic toll, with its current official unemployment rate at 8.7%.