Australia starts new year with record high in COVID-19 cases

The new year started on a grim note for Australia as the country witnessed a record high in its COVID-19 cases today.

Australia reported 35,326 new cases on Saturday, surpassing Friday’s tally of 32,000. New South Wales and Victoria recorded a daily high of 22,577 cases and 7,442 cases respectively, the health department data showed. Further, four deaths due to COVID were recorded in the former and nine in the latter, taking the total national death toll to more than 2,250. 

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In response to the surge and increasing rates of hospitalisation, New South Wales, the most populous state in the country, eased its isolation rules for asymptomatic healthcare workers.

Cases in the state more than tripled from the 6,288 recorded over the week since Christmas, and hospitalisations have doubled from 388 to 901. The number of people admitted in Intensive Care Units rose by almost 50%, reported CNN.

The record spike in daily cases came just days after the country surpassed the 10,000-mark for the first time, with experts saying the surge is being driven by the more transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus.

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Despite the record surge, Prime Minister Scott Morrison had wished people to “enjoy the evening”, while NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet urged everyone to “head out and enjoy New Year’s” on Friday.

Perrottet had also reiterated that NSW is “in a very strong position” due to higher vaccination numbers and that hospitals were coping with the Omicron wave.

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“While case numbers are substantially increasing, compared to where we were with the Delta variant, our position remains incredibly strong,” Perrottet told reporters, according to a Reuters report.