There are currently more than 207 people in hospital for every million Australians – similar numbers to Belgium, France, Spain and the UK
People wear face masks in Brisbane on Wednesday. Australia is one of many countries experiencing a dramatic spike in Covid infections and hospitalisations.People wear face masks in Brisbane on Wednesday. Australia is one of many countries experiencing a dramatic spike in Covid infections and hospitalisations.Last modified on Wed 20 Jul 2022 18.31 BST
Australia is nearing the numbers of Covid hospitalisations and daily deaths it saw in the January peak. But Australia is just one of many countries that appear to be caught in a series of rolling Covid waves. There are currently more than 207 people in hospital for every million Australians. Belgium, France, Spain and the United Kingdom all have similar numbers, and many other countries are seeing increasing hospitalisations. Most of the OECD appears to be either coming off a recent wave or in the midst of one. And only a few of them are currently in winter.
There are many reasons why Covid is spreading more “successfully”, according to Professor Maximilian de Courten, director of the Mitchell Institute at Victoria University. These include the virus mutating to spread better, the timing of vaccination drives, alongside fatigue among the public, politicians and media for preventative measures such as wearing face masks.For most of the pandemic, Australia had far fewer hospitalisations and deaths than comparable countries.
Comparing data across countries and even time can be problematic as policies and definitions aren’t uniform. Queensland, for instance, previously had a policy of admitting all positive coronavirus cases to hospital. De Courten says hospitalisations are a far more reliable indicator than case numbers. They are also more pertinent to policymaking.At over 5,300 people currently in hospitals with Covid, De Courten says the Australian health system is “being overrun”.
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