Officials in "hotspot" suburbs in Melbourne are now carrying out a massive testing "blitz"
Australia is sending 1,000 army personnel to Victoria amid a surge in virus cases in the south-eastern state.
This comes after Victoria has seen a spike in Covid-19 cases in recent days, with 33 infections
reported overnight.
Melbourne, the state capital, has been the only source of community transmissions in the country for weeks.
Australia has so far been hailed as a global success story in suppressing the spread of the virus due to quick shutdown measures.
The country has reported just over 7,400 cases and 104 deaths, far fewer than many nations.
In an unprecedented move, the army is being deployed to help the authorities in the country's second most populous state contain the outbreak.
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More than 1,300 officials are now combing "hotspot" suburbs in Melbourne [...]
What is Australia? Australia, officially known as the Commonwealth of Australia. It is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. Australia is the largest country in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country by total area. The
population of 26 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard. Australia's capital is Canberra, and its largest city is Sydney. The country's other major metropolitan areas are Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide.
Who are BBC News? What is COVID? Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans, coronaviruses cause respiratory tract infections that are typically mild, such as the common cold, though rarer forms such as SARS, MERS, and COVID-19 can be lethal. Symptoms vary in other species: in chickens
they cause an upper respiratory tract disease, while in cows and pigs they cause diarrhea. There are yet to be vaccines or antiviral drugs to prevent or treat human coronavirus infections.