On Wednesday (July 20), the number of Australians admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 was close to a new high. Over the last seven days, over 300,000 cases of highly transmissible new subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported in the country. On Tuesday (July 19), nearly 50,000 cases were reported, the most in the last two months. In response, the government urged employees to work from home, advised people to wear masks, and urged them to get booster doses as soon as possible. According to Reuters, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese tweeted to ‘protect yourself and protect others.’
According to official data, there are currently 5,300 Australians admitted to hospitals with COVID-19, which is not far from the January record of 5,390 patients admitted with BA.1. Queensland, Tasmania, and Western Australia have already seen the highest pandemic-related mortality rates. The Therapeutic Goods Administration recently granted preliminary approval for a Covid vaccination for infants aged 6 to 5 years, stating that the vaccine is safe and effective, and the prime minister announced this on Twitter.
In an interview with ABC radio, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly stated, ‘We need to do some things differently, at least for a short period of time. We know that working from home is a very important component of stopping what we call macro spreading,’ he added. However, the chief medical officer expressed reservations about reinstating mask mandates or any other restrictions.
So far, 95% of adults over the age of 16 have received two doses, limiting Australia’s overall Covid cases to less than 9 million and its Covid deaths to 10,845, far lower than any other nation. However, only 71% of people have received three or more doses.
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