Australia marks 12 days of zero cases of coronavirus

The Australian Health Ministry has disclosed that for nearly two weeks, the country has recorded no cases of coronavirus.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said at a news conference on Friday, “It’s been nearly two weeks Australia recorded a new local infection of the coronavirus.”

“Friday marked the 12th consecutive day of zero cases of community transmission,” he added.

Health officials report 84 active cases of COVID-19 in Australia, with six new internationally acquired cases in the last 24 hours.

Twenty people are hospitalized with the virus, according to the country’s health ministry, but Hunt said no patients were in the intensive care unit.

The country did not record any coronavirus-related deaths in the previous 24 hours.

“That’s a testament [not just] to the work of our medical professionals, our public health teams, but Australians everywhere for the way in which they’ve observed the distancing requirements, the way they have protected each other, the way that they’ve come out for testing,” Hunt told reporters.

Since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Australia about a year ago, the country has seen 28,800 total cases and 909 total deaths.

Over the last 24 hours globally, Hunt said there were approximately 630,000 new virus cases and 17,422 lives lost. The worldwide tally is more than 101.56 million cases and more than 2.19 million deaths.

In the last two weeks, officials report 9 million new confirmed cases and more than 200,000 deaths.

“All of that puts into perspective the great challenges that we’ve had in Australia, and whilst it’s been difficult, we have been mercifully spared the trauma and agony on such a massive scale from around the world,” Hunt said.

“There’s been loss, there’s been heartbreak, there’s been hardship and we acknowledge all of those.”

While many countries have already begun vaccinating their residents, Australia is anticipating beginning vaccinations late next month and has reached agreements with five vaccine manufacturers: Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novavax, the University of Queensland, and the COVAX Facility, an international facility, Hunt said.

He expects a strong vaccine supply with completion on track before the end of October.