COVID-19 in Australia: How the pandemic has worsened in last two months

By - Furquan Moharkan

Highlights 

  1. Last two months have witnessed 71% of Australia’s fresh infections.
  2. 33% of total deaths in the country have been recorded during last two months.
  3. COVID-19 has been 21x more brutal in last two months.

There seems to be no letup in the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, as the virus has been travelling from one city to another. After loosening its grip on New South Wales, it has now engulfed Victoria.

But how brutal has the wave been? To put things in perspective, let us take a look at the numbers. Since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Australia has seen roughly 120,000 COVID-19 infections. But to put it in perspective, just two months back, the same number stood 35,384 cases.

The last two months have seen Australia record 84,659 fresh cases of COVID-19. This implies that 71% of the Australia’s COVID-19 infections have come in just last two months.

Some more mind-boggling statistics? In the last two months, the average daily cases in the country – a data point which had never breached 1,000-mark till then – stood at a whopping 1,411 cases a day. Prior to that, since the onset of the pandemic, the average daily cases in the country stood at 66 cases. This implies that, in the last two months the wave has grown 21 times as brutal as it was before.

The wave has intensified in the last one month as the fresh daily cases now average near 2,000-mark.

However, like any dark cloud, this situation too has a silver lining – vaccination, which now stands over 70%! Despite last two months accounting for 71% of COVID-19 infections in the country, the deaths during this period make up only 33% of the deaths seen during the pandemic.

The deaths per day have increased to almost eight lives lost per day, from two deaths a day. Although this is four times a jump, but its still lower than the jump in fresh infections.