Victoria has recorded 14,836 Covid cases and 29 deaths overnight, as the nation marks a grim pandemic anniversary.
Victoria has recorded 14,836 Covid cases and 29 deaths overnight, with hospital admissions also spiking.
The daily case tally is an increase on Monday’s 11,695 new infections, following four consecutive days where numbers dropped.
There are 1057 Victorians in hospital with Covid, an increase of 59 in 24 hours.
ICU cases remain unchanged, with 119 patients fighting for life.
Victoria’s pre-Omicron peak for Covid hospitalisations was 851 in October last year, when the state was battling a surge in Delta infections.
It comes amid a grim anniversary, with Tuesday marking exactly two years since Australia recorded its first Covid-19 case.
On January 25, 2020, a man who had flown into Melbourne from China tested positive for a virus that was so new it didn’t have a name.
The case was a man from Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated, who travelled to Australia on January 19 from Guandong.
Hours after Australia’s initial case was recorded, three more Chinese travellers were confirmed to have tested positive in NSW.
There was no hotel quarantine, no Covid screening at airports and no vaccinations, which wouldn’t be rolled out widely in Australia for some 18 months. It was before public health officials and epidemiologists entered the limelight, premiers closed their borders and millions of Australians spent months in and out of lockdown watching daily press conferences and hearing the word “unprecedented” multiple times.
By the end of February, the Morrison government had announced the novel coronavirus would become a global pandemic and extended its travel ban on visitors from China.
A few days after that, Australia saw its first community transmission of Covid when there were still just 33 confirmed cases in the country.
On March 11, the World Health Organisation, which had already declared a public health emergency of international concern, “rang the alarm bell loud and clear” and declared a pandemic.
Covid has gone on to infect almost two million Australians and more than 3000 people have died after contracting it.
It’s estimated there are some 411,875 active cases in the country, with 5173 people in hospitals including 404 patients in intensive care units and 146 people on ventilators.
Australia’s total cases skyrocketed from 300,594 on Christmas Day to more than 2 million confirmed infections on Tuesday, which is likely to be an underestimate as authorities rely on at-home testing.
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