Covid-19, the pandemic that swept the world and brought the travel industry to its knees, is becoming rarer in Australia and the emergency pandemic response will end this month.

Australia will, from 14 October 2022, scrap rules forcing people to isolate themselves for five days if they test positive for Covid. Support will be provided for some workers to continue isolation if they need to.

Mask mandates have been dropped from most places, including airlines and public transport.

Key points:

• Mandatory Covid isolation will end from 14 October 2022.
• Australia’s chief medical officer says it marks the likely end of the emergency pandemic response.
• Financial support will continue for casual workers in high-risk settings – such as aged care, disability care, Aboriginal health care and hospital care – so they can isolate themselves if they need to.

Latest graphs, issued by the Australian Government department of Health and Aged Care, speak for themselves. They show a seven-day rolling average of Covid-19 cases, from 1 January 2022 to 20 September 2022 – and they are all plummeting.

See examples on this page, or check them all out on https://www.health.gov.au/health-alerts/covid-19/case-numbers-and-statistics

Not that Covid has disappeared. Over the past week, 45,800 cases of Covid were reported across Australia, an average of 6543 cases per day. Other waves and new variants may arrive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New South Wales recorded no fewer than 12,592 new cases of Covid, with 82 deaths, in the seven days to 4 pm last Thursday (29 September 2022).

When considering those deaths, however, it’s worth remembering that about 1084 people die in NSW in any week, of all causes. The number of deaths from (or with) Covid has been trending down steadily since July.

Explaining the decision to drop mandatory Covid isolation (which also means the government no longer needs to pay pandemic leave) Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “The flu has existed, and health issues have existed, for a long period of time, and the government hasn’t always stepped in to pay people’s wages while people have health concerns.”

Not everyone thinks the move is a good idea, however. Epidemiologists Raina McIntyre, Brendan Crabb and Nancy Baxter argue that Covid and the flu cannot be compared – given that the former has killed over 12,000 people this year and the latter only 288. They outline their case in The Conversation, here. 

The fact remains that Covid is decreasing in all states and territories – except for the Northern Territory, which registered a 1.5% increase.

Here are the average daily cases of Covid (as on 20 September 2022) along with the change compared to the previous week, as a percentage.

 

National   6543          – 14.5%

NSW        2251           – 17.3%

Vic           1534           – 15.9%

Qld           1174           – 10.2%

WA            802           – 14.5%

SA              485           – 9.1%

Tas             130           – 14.3%

ACT           111           – 5.1%

NT                57           + 1.5%

People are still getting vaccinated and 93% of the Australian population have received at least one dose of an anti-Covid vaccine. Some 72,000 doses of vaccines against Covid were administered over the past seven days.

Written by Peter Needham

 

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