Australia’s coronavirus hotspot of Victoria has said its daily rise in new coronavirus infections fell to single digits for the first time in more than three months, as the state began winding back some restrictions.

Victoria, Australia’s second-most populous state, placed nearly five million residents of its capital Melbourne into a hard lockdown in early August but lifted a night curfew on Sunday thanks to a steady fall in new daily case numbers.

The southeastern state reported just five new cases and three deaths from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, after daily cases topped 700 in early August.

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