MELBOURNE, Australia — The COVID-19 figures in Victoria continued to show improvement on Saturday but officials are concerned about an outbreak at the country’s largest shopping center.
Victoria reported three more COVID-19 deaths and eight more cases. The figures take the state toll to 805 and the national death count to 893.
Melbourne’s latest 14-day average stood at 12 cases, and there have been 11 cases with an unknown source in the past two weeks up to Wednesday.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said a recent outbreak linked to southeast Melbourne’s Chadstone Shopping Centre showed why it was unsafe to ease restrictions.
A cluster of cases at the 550-store shopping center grew to 11 and includes a family.
“If we were to open up now, just as our modeling tells us … it will be many hundreds of cases,” Andrews said.
Melbourne’s strict lockdown rules continue to be eased, and an overnight curfew ended last week.
(AP)
