US records 177,000 new cases, according to Johns Hopkins University; zero new infections in Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria
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More now on Australia’s success in handling the pandemic:
When the premier of Queensland held her regular Covid-19 update on Friday she couldn’t help letting a smile creep across her face.
“Now, here’s a good one,” Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters. “I think all Queenslanders are going to be happy about it.”
Related: Packed crowds and euphoric leaders: Australia revels in Covid-free days
In case you missed this earlier, Australia’s most populous state – New South Wales – has also recorded no new cases in the last 24 hours.
The state has reported nine cases in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine, which brings the total in NSW to 4,306 cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
With the weather becoming warmer and people starting to attend more social gatherings, NSW Health is calling on the community to maintain the COVID safe behaviours that have been key to stopping the spread of the virus. Though there have been no locally acquired cases in NSW in recent days, now is not the time to drop our guard. Everyone needs to continue to be alert to the ongoing risk of transmission of COVID-19, to keep practising physical distancing and good hand hygiene, and most importantly to get tested and isolate if they feel unwell.
