Overview
Live in New South Wales, Victoria or Queensland? Craving a doughnut right about now? There's a very good reason for those hunger pangs. All three states have been affected by Melbourne's latest COVID-19 cluster — the one that saw the city go into lockdown for two weeks, and only just ended — but today, Friday, June 11, the country's entire east coast has recorded zero new locally acquired cases.
Yes, it's a doughnut day across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and across the rest of their states as well. Twelve months or so ago, if you uttered that term, you were probably using it in the literal sense between mouthfuls. Thanks to the chaos of the past year, however, the term now refers to this welcome COVID-19 milestone.
All three states use slightly different timeframes when it comes to their 24-hour reporting periods — NSW cuts off at 8pm the previous day, for instance, while Victoria counts up until midnight — but the results are the same regardless. In Melbourne, it's the first zero day since the current cluster began. So, it's the first since Monday, May 24. Obviously, with lockdown just finishing last night, that nice round figure is very happy news.
While neither Queensland or NSW have had big case numbers lately, the big fat zero is still significant there as well. On Wednesday, it was revealed that two people from Melbourne had driven through NSW and Queensland to the Sunshine Coast, with one then testing positive. The second person then tested positive on Thursday.
At the moment, Victoria has 75 active cases, which includes both locally acquired and those in hotel quarantine. NSW has 26 cases being treated at present — and in Queensland there is currently 15 cases.
Of course, this doesn't mean the war is over in any of the three states, or around Australia — but it is a very welcome development after the past few days and weeks.
For more information about COVID-19 in NSW and current restrictions, head to NSW Health. For more information about COVID-19 in Victoria, head over to the Department of Health website. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in the Queensland, visit the Qld COVID-19 hub and the Queensland Health website.