Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison dismissed COVID-19 concerns Tuesday, three days before federal elections, stating that many recorded deaths were not caused solely by the virus and promised not to interfere in people’s lives.

In the past 24 hours, Australia recorded 66 COVID-19-related deaths and almost 53,000 illnesses.

“What you see when you have case numbers at that level is that people, when they pass away for many other causes, that they will die with COVID,” Morrison said. “And the deaths are recorded as COVID deaths, but that does not necessarily mean … that they passed away because of COVID. That’s a very different proposition.”

Unless there is a “clear alternative” cause of death, Australia records a COVID-19 death for anybody who dies with a confirmed or suspected infection with the virus.

“We’re living with COVID,” Morrison said. “We’re not going back to those daily press conferences of people talking about COVID every day, and putting the threat of shutdowns and lockdowns and interfering in people’s lives again.”

“That’s not what I am going to do if I am re-elected on Saturday,” Morrison told reporters. “I am not going to drag Australia back into those times again.”

Opposition Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese, whose party is still marginally ahead in the polls despite a recent tightening, said the pandemic remained a possibility.

“We need to step up the national strategy. We need look at not just the number of deaths, but also the number of people who are in hospital, and the number of infections,” Albanese said.

In Australia, more than 95 percent of people over the age of 16 are completely vaccinated, according to the opposition leader, which has helped to lessen the disease’s impact.

However, Albanese told the National Press Club in Canberra that “it’s still a major issue.”

Morrison is largely praised for investing massive amounts of money to protect jobs and the economy throughout the outbreak.

The opposition, however, has chastised the prime minister for the slow implementation of vaccines and self-administered quick antigen tests.

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