New cases of COVID-19 in Australia continued to decline as of Tuesday, as people returned from an unusually subdued Easter holiday weekend.
State and federal leaders thanked Australians for mostly abiding by social distances laws over the long-weekend, traditionally a time spent with friends and family.
On Tuesday, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly confirmed that with national case numbers rising slowly around 6,375, Australia had been "very successful" in flattening the curve.
"We have made great strides -- part of that is related to the Easter weekend and less testing than would normally be the case -- but there was testing yesterday and only found a small number of cases, so good signs," Kelly said.
The country's worst-hit State of New South Wales (NSW) recorded just seven new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, compared with 212 new daily cases three weeks earlier.
"I shouldn't be so pleased but I am," NSW State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
"Because if you look at other countries in the world, and you look at where they have gone compared to where we have gone, I think we should feel satisfied that we have contained the spread to the extent that we have."
Berejiklian also announced a same day negative result service for those being tested, which she described as a "huge step".
Meanwhile, the State of Victoria introduced the country's most widespread testing program, asking that everybody displaying symptoms be tested, which came as the state recorded just 10 new cases on Tuesday.
An exception to the national drop in new cases was the southern Island State of Tasmania, where on Tuesday authorities launched an investigation into an alleged illegal dinner party, supposedly linked to an outbreak in the state's northwest.
Over the weekend, two hospitals in the area were closed and around 5,000 people were forced into quarantine after a number of health workers tested positive for the disease, leading to an outbreak of 78 cases.
Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy flagged an illegal dinner party attended by medical personnel as a potential catalyst, however Premier Peter Gutwein said contact tracing had not yet proven any link, but confirmed that police would investigate the matter.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday ordered Defense Force personnel and Australian Medical Assistance Teams to Tasmania's northwest to help contain the outbreak.
In an interview on television show Sunrise, Morrison warned Australians not to become complacent when it came to lowering infection rates.
