An update to this story was posted on 22 April.
The curve remains flat in the ACT with no new cases of COVID-19 recorded in the ACT in the past 24 hours. The ACT’s total remains at 104. Only one new case has been confirmed in the Territory in the past eight days.
A total of 92 cases have recovered from COVID-19 and have been released from self-isolation.
There is currently one COVID-19 patient in the Canberra Hospital. The remainder are isolating at home with ACT Health support.
The ACT has recorded three deaths.
The number of negative tests in the ACT is now over 7,000.
As at 6am on 21 April 2020, there have been 6,625 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. There have been 13 new cases since 6am yesterday.
Of the 6,625 confirmed cases in Australia, 71 have died and 4,258 have been reported as recovered from COVID-19. More than 434,000 tests have been conducted across Australia.
Barr says government won’t let their guard down
While no news has been good news with COVID-19 in the ACT lately, Chief Minister Andrew Barr said his government will continue to prepare for more cases given “past history shows that pandemics come in waves”.
“This virus will continue to circulate; even if it stops in the ACT it will continue to circulate around Australia and all it takes is one person to begin another chain of infection that could potentially lead to a much larger outbreak,” he said.
“If you extrapolate being able to eliminate the virus from Australia … then you can’t have anyone come into Australia, or anyone being able to leave Australia and then come back without running the risk of reintroducing the virus again.”
Yesterday, ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman said with the ACT COVID-19 curve flattening, complete eradication of the virus in the ACT is an achievable goal. However, the main aim of ACT Health moving forward is to ensure “our surveillance and our testing of our population continues to keep us confident that were identifying any cases and any transmission that is occurring out there”.
“Clearly when and if we start relaxing some of our social distancing measures, and in particular start seeing further movements around the country, that is when our risk will re-raise because we are at a much lower risk than other jurisdictions in the country,” she said.
Stay at home this long weekend
Dr Coleman is reminding everyone “to do the right thing” this long weekend and to stay at home in Canberra and to avoid gatherings.
“I encourage you to find new ways of commemorating Anzac Day this year that are consistent with the rules around physical distancing,” Dr Coleman said.
“Canberrans have been incredible in their response so far and I thank them for the efforts; however, this pandemic is still ongoing and large gatherings and trips away over the Anzac Day weekend are simply not possible this year.”
The ACT Government has established a dedicated COVID- 19 website for all information about the health and economic response to the pandemic in the ACT. For further information, visit covid19.act.gov.au.
The ACT Government’s COVID-19 Helpline is live on (02) 6207 7244 between 8am and 8pm daily.
People who are concerned and want further information on the virus can also call the Australian Government’s Coronavirus Health Information Line on 1800 020 080. The line operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
For details on how the ACT stats compare to other jurisdictions across Australia, visit the Australian Government Department of Health website. This information is updated daily.
