Covid cases Victoria: "Mystery" aged care case of concern, after five new infections detected on Sunday. No confirmation of lockdown extension as of yet.
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May 31 (Reuters) - Australian shares retreated on Monday after hitting a record high earlier in the session, as COVID-19 cases in the populous state of Victoria continued to swell while investors awaited signs of hawkishness in the central bank meeting due this week.
The S&P/ASX 200 index, which crossed the 7,200 mark for the first time ever, closed 0.3% lower at 7,161.6. The index secured an eighth straight monthly gain in May.
Victoria, the epicentre of Australia’s latest coronavirus hotspot, reported 11 new cases of community transmission, taking the current cluster to 51. The state’s Acting Premier James Merlino warned that the next few days will be “critical”.
Victoria’s Acting Premier James Merlino has warned the state’s COVID-19 outbreak could get worse before it improves and the next couple of days will be “critical”.
The state announced six new cases on Monday afternoon in addition to the five reported in the morning.
“I want to be clear with people the next few days are going to be so critically important and that includes the possibility that this outbreak will get worse before it gets better,” Mr Merlino said.
“That's the situation that we're in right now, and I want to be up-front with people to let them know that's the case.”
Mr Merlino said Victoria had a public health team 2,400 people strong and the contact tracers were working “faster than they have ever worked before”.
“They are doing a brilliant job, within a very short space of time, identifying and locking down generations of cases,” he said.
“But we are seeing today, via the number of cases, the number of exposure sites, we are