There are 5687 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia with an increase of 139 cases since 3pm yesterday but “that is probably the lowest rise we’ve had for a few days,” said Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy at a press conference today.

“And it does tend to continue the trend we’ve seen of the flattening of the curve.”

Sadly 35 Australians have now died of the virus.

“And there are still 91 people who are in intensive care, 33 of whom are on ventilators but we estimate that over 2000 people have fully recovered from the virus already in Australia,” said Professor Murphy.

Professor Murphy said he was ‘increasingly confident’ Australia could avoid the devastation that COVID-19 was causing in places such as New York, and other parts of the world, if everyone continued to do what we’re being asked in terms of following social distancing measures and other restrictions.

“I may sound like a broken record at times but community transmission is what worries me most of all,” said Professor Murphy.

“About 10 per cent of our cases across Australia are those cases where there is no known contact with another case.

“They have appeared from the community.

“Those are the reason we have brought in the social distancing measures and all of those measures to stop the spread.

“We all know just how infectious this virus can be – just look at what it did on some cruise ships,” added Professor Murphy.

Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy held a press conference earlier today.

#LIVE: Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy with an update on coronavirus

Posted by Australian Government Department of Health on Saturday, 4 April 2020

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