Australia reached an ‘exceptionally important’ milestone in the fight against COVID-19 today

Australia’s battle against coronavirus is far from over, but federal health minister Greg Hunt says today we reached an important milestone in the fight.

In the 24 hours to this morning’s national COVID-19 report, just 96 new cases were recorded across the country.

Mr Hunt said it’s an “exceptionally important development”.

“This is the first time in over three weeks that fewer than 100 people have been added to the list of those with coronavirus,” he said.

Nationally, there have now been 6068 confirmed cases of COVID-19.

There are 260 people in hospital, including 82 in intensive care and 35 on ventilators.

More than 323,000 tests have been conducted across the country.

Mr Hunt said the curve continues to flatten “very significantly”, but we haven’t beaten coronavirus yet.

“We still have a huge task,” he said.

“The virus does not take a holiday, therefore none of us can relax in what we do.

“This, in many ways, is the most important weekend we may face.”