Australia sees another day of rising COVID cases

Australia saw another day of rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations on Thursday amid fears that changes to testing requirements could mask the full scale of the outbreak.

The country reported 72,000 cases, up from 64,000 a day earlier, while hospitalisations jumped to 3,267 from 2,990 and patients in intensive care rose to 208 from 196. In neighbouring Victoria State, six deaths were recorded and 21,997 new cases. The Queensland, third most populous state, reported more than 10,000 cases.