Number of COVID-19 cases in Australia jumps to 41
Sydney/Xinhua/UNI: The number of COVID-19 cases in Australia on Wednesday jumped to 41, with a woman aged care worker in Sydney becoming the third person infected while on Australian soil.
It is not known exactly how the woman, who is in her 50s, contracted the virus and authorities said that the aged care residents she had been in contact with had been placed in isolation.
One of the residents, aged 95, had subsequently passed away, however experts are not certain her death was related to the virus.
"Whether or not it was related to corona, we don't know at this point," New South Wales (NSW) Health Minister Brad Hazzard said.
Official deaths figure from COVID-19 in Australia remained at one, after a 78-year-old man passed away in Perth on Sunday having been evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship which was docked in Japan.
Health authorities in NSW recorded 11 new cases of the virus since Sunday, taking the total number to 15, and said they were continuing to isolate all those who have been in contact with the infection.
NSW Chief Medical Officer, Dr Kerry Chant emphasised that aside from the three people who contracted the disease within Australia, the majority of cases were still those people travelling from overseas.
A 20-year-old Chinese man was confirmed to have COVID-19 by health authorities in the State of Queensland on Tuesday, taking the total number of cases there to ten.
He arrived in Australia on February 23 and had been in Dubai for at least 14 days before entering the country, after which he became ill.
The man was in a stable condition in hospital isolation while officials attempted to determine where he contracted the disease.
Meanwhile the number of cases in the State of Victoria also rose to 10 after a man in his 30s arrived in Melbourne from Iran and was later diagnosed with the disease.
"We have obviously had an increased number of cases reported from travellers returning from overseas. In some of those cases, we... have commenced, contact tracing procedures in relation to the plane," Chant said.
"People seated in the same row as a case, or in the two rows in front or the two rows behind a confirmed COVID-19 case are defined as close contacts and are advised to self-quarantine at home for 14 days of the flight."
Chant said that health authorities were attempting to contact passengers on affected flights.
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