At the height of last year’s Delta outbreak in Australia and with most of the country under strict lockdown, the State of Victoria recorded 2,397 new infections – the nation’s highest number of new cases reported in a single day.
But with restrictions now lifted in most jurisdictions, the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly around the country with the State of New South Wales today reporting a record 21,151 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Victoria has the second highest number of daily cases with 5919 new infections.
Around the country the daily figure now sits at 28,000 infections.
Case numbers in NSW have doubled every few days over the past week. Last Friday the State recorded only 5,600 new infections.
However the Australian experience is showing that this highly transmissible strain is proving less severe than previous strains such as Delta and health authorities are cautiously optimistic that the Omicron coronavirus strain will not overwhelm the nation’s health system.
Consistent with data from other parts of the world, hospitalisations and deaths from the Omicron variant have not increased in Australia at nearly the same rate as the massive spike in infections.
NSW Health has reported that 86 new people required hospitalisation in the past 24 hours, suggesting that less than 1 person has required hospital treatment for every 250 new infections.
A UK study published in the Lancet in September estimated that the number of people requiring hospitalisation after contracting the Delta variant was about 1 in 50.
Despite the rapid uptick in new infections, the total number of people presently in hospital in NSW stands at 832, still well short of the 1268 in hospital at the height of the Delta outbreak. The number of people in ICU or requiring oxygen is also well below the Delta peak.
While Australia has managed to double vaccinate over 76% of it’s population, the vaccination rate in NSW is over 93%.
Health authorities believe that this high vaccination uptake is a major reason why the population is experiencing less severe infections.
Indonesia has yet to see a spike in cases of the Omicron variant although health authorities are bracing for a massive surge as the country emerges from the Christmas and New Year holiday period.
So far, only 47 cases of Omicron have been detected in Indonesia, with the first locally acquired case being reported only two days ago.
To date, 271 million doses of vaccine have been administered throughout the island nation. Although there is no specific data available on the number of people who have been double vaccinated, the dose count suggests an average vaccination rate of around 50%.
However, available data for specific regions suggests that up to 90% of people in Jakarta and 70% of people in both Yogyakarta and Bali have been double vaccinated.
While heavily populated regions such as these are better equipped to manage a potential surge in case numbers, there are fears for people in more remote parts of the country with lower vaccination rates and limited access to medical facilities and care.
In one hopeful note, Omicron case numbers in South Africa, where the virus was first detected, have receded as quickly as they first surged.
The way the pandemic unfolds in Australia over the coming weeks may give some indication as to what Indonesia could expect to experience in the first months of the New Year.
Source – ABC News Australia, Reuters