The spread of coronavirus in Victoria seems to be unstoppable: 403 new cases were detected on Wednesday, while five more people died.
It has been a dramatic week in Victoria caused by an increase in the number of infections of approximately 400 new units per day, so much so that Premier Daniel Andrews announced that if the trend does not change, we will witness an increasing number of deaths.
Highlights
- Victoria records another bad day in terms of new infections and deaths.
- The federal government is in contact with many pharmaceutical companies that are currently developing a vaccine.
- The federal Treasurer has announced that the budget deficit will be $184.5 billion for financial year 2020-2021.
Contrary to what one might believe, even the younger part of the population seems to be strongly affected by this wave of coronavirus: 20% of the total number of people admitted to hospital are under 50 years old, while a quarter of all cases are diagnosed among people under 30. Only 6% of infections affect people over the age of 60.
Even in New South Wales the alert remains high after the recent expansion of some hotspots around the city of Sydney. New South Wales Treasurer Dominic Perrotet said the state cannot afford a further lockdown.
Meanwhile, the federal government has made public the fact that it is in contact with a number of pharmaceutical companies that are developing a vaccine. On this front, the U.S. government has just closed a contract with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to secure 100 million doses of a vaccine which is currently in the testing phase.
On the economic front, federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced yesterday that the government expects a budget deficit of about $184 billion for the financial year 2020-21, which would bring Australia's public debt to over $850 billion. These are dramatic numbers and the worst recorded since World War II.
While the lockdown is estimated to cost Victoria $3.3 billion, unemployment figures continue to hinder the economy: the Treasurer has predicted that the unemployment rate will peak at 9.4% in December before it begins to fall.
Over 700,000 jobs have been lost in the past 6 months. The government is also planning to anticipate the tax cut to personal income that it had planned for the coming financial years in an attempt to stimulate the economy.
We talked to our Australian policy expert Paul Scutti about these issues.
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Testing for coronavirus is now widely available across Australia. If you are experiencing cold or flu symptoms, arrange a test by calling your doctor or contact the Coronavirus Health Information Hotline on 1800 020 080.
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