Australia to 'significantly expand' COVID-19 testing: official

CANBERRA - Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy has flagged an expansion of the nation's COVID-19 testing regime.

Speaking after a meeting of the Health Protection Principle Committee (HPPC), Murphy confirmed that heath authorities are considering "significantly expanding testing" across Australia to include asymptomatic people.

"For the first time, we will start testing for asymptomatic people to try and be absolutely sure that we are capturing every case that we can and we are not missing cases," Murphy told reporters.

There had been 6,713 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia as of Monday morning, an increase of 10 from 6,703 on Sunday.

Murphy said that there were 113 people hospitalized with the virus as of Monday with 43 in intensive care units (ICUs) and 27 receiving support from ventilators.

State and territory governments are preparing to begin easing their coronavirus restrictions but Murphy urged Australians to continue practicing social distancing "for the foreseeable future".