ÌÇÐÄÆƽâ°æ

On September 30, 2020, there were 17 new reported confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. Australia's daily new confirmed coronavirus cases peaked on July 30 with 746 new cases on that day. This was considered to be the second wave of coronavirus infections in Australia, with the first wave peaking at the end of March at 460 cases before dropping to less than 20 cases per day throughout May and most of June.

 A second wave

Australia’s second wave of coronavirus found its epicenter in Melbourne, after over a month of recording low numbers of national daily cases. Despite being primarily focused within a single state, clusters of coronavirus cases in Victoria soon pushed the daily number of recorded cases over that of the first wave, with well over double the number of deaths. As a result, the Victorian Government once again increased lockdown measures to limit movement and social interaction. At the same time the other states and territories closed or restricted movement across borders, with some of the strictest border closures taking place in Western Australian.

 Is Australia entering into a recession?

After narrowly avoiding a recession during the global financial crisis, by September 2020 Australia had recorded two consecutive quarters of economic decline, hailing the country’s first recession since 1991. This did not necessarily come as a surprise for many Australians who had already witnessed a rising unemployment rate throughout the second quarter of 2020 alongside ongoing restrictions on retail and hospitality trading. However, thanks to welfare initiatives like JobKeeper and a government stimulus payment supplementing many household incomes, the economic situation could have been much worse at this point.