Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McGrath for his question. In what has been one of the most intense periods in Australia's history, our health system has performed remarkably well. It has been by all assessments the envy of the world in the way that it has been able to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The way that our primary-care system has responded to COVID-19 has been outstanding. Our doctors, our nurses, our pharmacists—supported of course now by telehealth—our hospitals, our hospital workers, our carers, our cleaners, our administrators: they have worked tirelessly to manage the cases that have arisen and increase our capacity to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

I am pleased to advise in relation to the aged-care network that, as of yesterday, there are no active cases of COVID-19 in any aged-care facilities in Australia. As of yesterday, we have now reduced the number of people in hospital because of COVID-19 to 17 and the number in ICU is now at four.

Australians have also seen the positive results of our testing regime and our collective success in flattening the curve. Our testing regime has now seen over 1.8 million tests conducted across Australia. Of those, approximately 7,335 Australians have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and, sadly, as we know, 102 have lost their lives. The rate of positive returns has now dropped to 0.4 per cent across the 1.8 million tests, and, of those, 62 per cent of cases have come from overseas.

As a result of Australians working together to suppress COVID-19, our health system and those who work tirelessly in it— (Time expired)