Australian govt expands COVID-19 hospital bed availability by over 30,000

CANBERRA - An extra 34,000 hospital beds will be provided to Australians following a deal between the federal and state governments and private health sector.

Health Minister Greg Hunt on Tuesday afternoon announced that the government has agreed to guarantee the viability of Australia's 657 private hospitals, which will boost the number of publicly available hospital beds during the pandemic by 34,000.

Australia's COVID-19 death toll has reached 19 as the spread of the virus continues to slow.

Health authorities in Tasmania on Tuesday confirmed the death of an elderly man at the Royal Hobart Hospital overnight, bringing the state's death toll to two.

According to the latest data from the Department of Health, there had been 4,359 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia as of Tuesday morning - an increase of only 6.5 percent from Monday compared to an average increase of approximately 10 percent in the four previous days.

New South Wales (NSW) has become the first Australian state to reach 2,000 confirmed cases - reaching the number before any other state or territory surpassed 1,000.

"A third of intensive care units are within the private hospital system and will be made available," Hunt said.

"The activities are broad and they will work together; the hospitals have committed to be fully flexible. They may be taking public hospital services; they will be making their ICUs available."

The number of available ventilators has increased to 4,400 with the government planning to add an additional 3,100.

According to Hunt, there are 50 people with COVID-19 being treated in ICUs across Australia, and 20 are on ventilators.

He said that more than 230,000 tests for COVID-19 have been undertaken across Australia.