Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Chandler for her question. Over the last few months Australians have worked together to suppress COVID-19, giving us time to prepare our health system to live with the virus. As a country, we have used this time well, sourcing additional ventilators and personal protective equipment and making plans for our hospitals to respond to a surge in cases. We have, as you know, expanded our testing regime, developed our capability to respond quickly to new cases and outbreaks, and improved our ability to quickly identify people who may have been exposed to the virus.

Working together, we have now reduced the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 to 20. And the number of people in ICU because of COVID-19 has now been reduced to three. Yesterday there were only seven new cases reported across the whole of Australia—four new cases in Victoria and three new cases in New South Wales.

As we know, on 8 May the national cabinet agreed to a three-step plan to gradually remove the COVID-19 restrictions and for all of us to move towards the new COVID-safe economy. While Australians can, of course, see that road back, it does not mean that we must not remain vigilant—we need to, in particular, be observing social-distancing practices.

We now have seen 1.6 million tests conducted across Australia. Of those, 7,276 Australians have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and, sadly, 102 have lost their lives. But the rate of positive returns has now dropped to 0.4 per cent across those 1.6 million tests.