Australia 'performing much better' than most countries

There has been an increase of 18 new cases of COVID-19 across Australia over the last 24 hours, Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy has confirmed.

Professor Murphy said that while the nation's total coronavirus cases now stood at 6801, Australia was keeping the number of new infections identified to below 20 per day, and as such was performing "much better than pretty much any country in the world."

Community transmission of the virus continues to stay low in the lead up to a national cabinet meeting on Friday, where the government may decide to ease COVID-19 restrictions across the country.

However, Professor Murphy warned: "We cannot be complacent."

"While we are looking at relaxing measures, we need to continue to be incredibly cautious about the need to move slowly and get the testing done," he said.

Professor Murphy also stressed the need for Australians to continue downloading the government's COVIDsafe app. About 4.25 million people have already installed it.

Around the world, some other countries are beginning to emerge from serious quarantine restrictions, with the number of beds occupied by coronavirus patients in Italy continuing to decline, and Spain beginning to ease lockdown restrictions.

Around the world, some other countries are beginning to emerge from serious quarantine restrictions, with the number of beds occupied by coronavirus patients in Italy continuing to decline, and Spain beginning to ease lockdown restrictions.