5 May 2020

The ACT becomes the first jurisdiction to be COVID-19-free

| Dominic Giannini
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Dr Kerryn Coleman

Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman, has confirmed that there are no active COVID-19 cases in the ACT as of Thursday (30 April). Photo: Michelle Kroll.

The ACT is the first Australian jurisdiction to have no known COVID-19 cases.

No new cases were recorded in the ACT today, and the last two people with the virus in the Territory have made full recoveries since yesterday.

In total, the ACT has recorded 106 cases, of which 103 patients have recovered and three have died because of the virus.

Testing criteria and clinics have been ramped up recently across the Territory. The total number of negative results in the ACT sits at 8,568 as of Thursday afternoon (30 April).

However, despite the good news, Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman has warned Canberrans against complacency, repeating that it only takes one new case to start a second wave of the pandemic.

“Today marks the first time in seven weeks our territory has no active cases of COVID-19 and this is because of the strong work the community is doing to stop this virus,” Dr Coleman said.

“I want to thank you for practising physical distancing and making these huge changes to your daily life. Today’s news is exactly why we have put these measures in place.

“However, it is important to stress that we should still protect the good work we have done. Please continue to follow ACT Health directives and practise good hygiene as we continue to help fight this virus together.”

Three more testing clinics, run by the Capital Health Network, have opened in the ACT at YourGP@Crace, Lakeview Medical Practice in Tuggeranong and the Winnunga Aboriginal Health and Community Service in Narrabundah.

The ACT Government has established a dedicated COVID-19 website for all information about the health and economic response to the pandemic in the Territory at www.covid19.act.gov.au.

Canberrans can also call through to the established helpline for assistance on the challenges of COVID-19 between 8:00 am and 8:00 pm daily on 02 6207 7244.

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Andrew Lancaster3:34 pm 30 Apr 20

Great. Now open the schools. The medical advice was always to keep them open. No justification for keeping schools shut. Teachers Union is no medical authority.

Dr Kerryn Coleman deserves a ticker tape parade! what an amazing job she and all her staff have done. Got on to it early, great tracing work, started random testing before anyone else did (since 6 April) and open testing for anyone else did (since 24 April). Well done ACT Health!

Agree! And she did such a great job all summer long with the bushfire response. I think she only started in the job in December too. She deserves a holiday at some point!!

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