An update to this story has been posted on 30 April.
Just two active cases of COVID-19 remain in the Canberra, with no new cases being recorded in the Territory overnight.
The ACT’s total remains at 106 confirmed cases; 101 cases have recovered from COVID-19 and have been released from self-isolation, while the ACT has recorded three deaths.
There are currently no COVID-19 patients in Canberra hospitals.
The number of negative tests in the ACT is now 8,336.
As at 6.30am today, 29 April, there have been 6,738 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. There have been 13 new cases nationally since 6am yesterday.
Of the 6,738 confirmed cases in Australia, 88 have died and 5,649 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19. More than 536,000 tests have been conducted across Australia.
Flagging it as “the ticket” to easing restrictions, Prime Minister Scott Morrison told a press conference today that approximately 2.8 million Australians have downloaded the COVIDSafe app to date.
“This is an important protection for a COVID-safe Australia. I would liken it to the fact that if you want to go outside when the sun is shining, you have to put sunscreen on,” he said.
“If you want to return to a more liberated economy and society, it is important that we get increased numbers of downloads when it comes to the COVIDSafe app.”
Messaging from the Commonwealth, as well as Australian states and territories, has been flagging the easing of COVID-19 health directions and restrictions.
The Prime Minister said Australia-wide baseline restrictions would be looked at by National Cabinet in the week beginning 11 May.
“States are already moving back from where they were ahead of those baselines and you have seen those announcements. That is welcome and I think that demonstrates to Australians that there is a dividend for them, for the way that they have been conducting themselves,” Mr Morrison said.
The ACT Government is currently assessing the Territory’s health directions and restrictions, with an announcement on the matter expected this Friday, 1 May.
The sentiment expressed by the Barr Government has been that they won’t be “racing” to wind back any COVID-19 restrictions here in Canberra.
“Every day we have these conversations about what we are seeing in our own community … Just as it wasn’t a race to take other measures earlier on, it’s not a race to ease restrictions,” ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said yesterday.
“No one should get their hopes up that we’ll be gathering in large numbers any time soon, but of course we will continue, as other jurisdictions have, to look at some of the measures we have in place, and look at how we will ease restrictions going forward,” she said.
