AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Some of the Australia’s major cities have been under lockdown for almost three straight months now to contain the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, the net result seems to be opposite of what the government aimed for.
The epicentre of the pandemic is Sydney – Australia’s most populous city and the financial powerhouse. The second most populous city of Melbourne comes a distant second when it comes to the number of COVID-19 infections.
As the Delta variant continues to spread its tentacles across the country of 26 million people, contact tracing – at which Australia was efficient till now – will become more and more difficult with every passing day. With lockdown getting stricter, it seems like the virus is also getting more and more vengeful.
The last seven days saw the weekly fresh infections in the country breach the 10,000 mark – for the first time since the onset of the pandemic in a country where population density is not a big concern. Australia has only 3 persons per sq. kilometre, a paltry figure when compared to the countries worst-hit by the pandemic have a far higher number: the US has a population density of 35.71 persons per sq. kilometre (3.5 times more than that of Australia) and India has a population density of 464 persons per sq. kilometre (150 times more than Australia).
The country reported 10,353 cases last week, a jump of 43% -- one of the highest across the world – on a sequential basis.
If we take population density into picture, with 401 cases per million people, the spread of pandemic in Australia is almost twice than that of India.
At 40 deaths, the number of weekly deaths in the country has gone up by 122% on a sequential basis.
Many experts have started calling out Australia’s continued lockdown and restrictions as a measure to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Australia will receive an additional four million doses of Pfizer vaccine this month after agreeing a swap deal with Britain, to help accelerate its vaccination programme.
The deal, which was announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday, will double the availability of Pfizer vaccines this month, with the first shipment of vaccines from Britain expected to arrive over the weekend.
