Australia doubles Covid cases in weeks

It was just last Monday that the nation hit the one-million case mark.

Now one-in-10 New South Wales and Victorian residents are infected, according to Provocate’s latest VaxEnomicTM Forecaster.

The data revealed there has been more than an 800 per cent increase in the number of recorded cases in less than seven weeks, where about 90 per cent of the Australia’s total cases have been reported.

Provocate Managing Director Troy Bilsborough, who is a former senior advisor to Federal Health, Aged Care and Child Care Ministers, said healthcare influenced more votes than any other issue at the last Federal election.

“It took Australia two years to reach its first one million Covid cases and under two weeks to reach its second,” he said.

“This week’s negative polling on the Federal Government’s handling of the pandemic and economy continues to support our prediction that Covid and health will likely sway votes – and even the result – at May’s election.“

Mr Bilsborough said there was a good chance Australia would face another outbreak from another new variant heading into the federal election campaign seeing as Omicron came within five months of Delta.

But he said the biggest threat to business and voter confidence was politically-opposed state and federal governments making decisions against epidemiology or the economy.

“The big unknown is whether Covid continues to matter when Australia is predicted to go to the polls in May – and whether opposition parties can continue to maintain voter dissatisfaction for that long.

“Much of this will hinge on how the longer-term impacts of Covid for the millions of Australians who now caught the virus, and how much onus attention medical, patient and worker representations place on having them recognised as chronic illness.”