The, which quickly became the go-to site to monitor the virus, has become an increasingly ominous image as its pulsing red dots have spread and grown like fire embers.
Above, we can see the total number of COVID-19 cases in Australia over time. It made slow progress throughout February and began to surge in March. It started with 15 travellers who had been to China; all of those cases were specifically linked to Wuhan. Here is a breakdown of total cases across states and territories. NSW clearly accounts for a significant part of Australia's growth in COVID-19 cases, however Victoria and Queensland have seen recent up-ticks. The key thing to keep in mind when looking at these graphs is that they are linear curves that show the number of cases over time. You cannot use these charts – especially the trajectories – to compare Australia to other countries. To do that, we need to look at the next graph.
South Korea's curve has a similar progression. The country arrested its exponential growth primarily through expansive testing and targeted isolation and quarantines.European countries such as Italy and Spain are on that exponential rise now. The hope is that their current measures – nationwide lockdowns – will start to flatten those curves.
Our health authorities say that, with only a handful of exceptions, these curves do not currently represent widespread community transmissions – such as when people are out shopping or at work. So far, the World Health Organisation reports about 20 per cent of cases become severe, requiring medical intervention for serious breathing difficulties and falling blood oxygen levels.Of those, 6 per cent have been pushed into critical care – as multiple organs begin to fail alongside the lungs or septic shock sets in.
juliette_io Also include the cruise ship that alighted at Circular Quay this afternoon...
bencubby juliette_io This is great. Can you delete the panic buying opinion piece? Cheers.
juliette_io It would be really good to see the current Contagion Mapping to understand where the initial contagion in each state started & the then cross contagion. An off the cuff expectation is that it would point very much towards OS Uni arrivals allowed thru
juliette_io “Australia's health authorities are at pains to point ... the vast majority of cases are people who caught it overseas or by a transmission that may be local, but is directly linked to that overseas travel.” Isn’t that because that’s the test criteria? They aren’t testing others