Australia’s most populous state has said that it will relax some restrictions on movement, as beaches reopened amid hopes a policy of widespread medical testing will help sustain a decline in new cases of the coronavirus.

Bondi Beach and two neighbouring beaches in Sydney were reopened to local residents after being closed a month ago due to large crowds breaking social distancing rules.

Australia recorded just one new case of Covid-19 from an unknown source in the past 24 hours, suggesting community transmission had almost stopped, Reuters quoted health minister Greg Hunt as saying.