SYDNEY: Australia’s daily COVID-19 cases hit a record high for the third consecutive day on Wednesday (Jan 5), further straining hospital resources and testing facilities as public anger grows over the handling of the fast-moving Omicron outbreak.
Many Australians, already unhappy about long queues at public testing centres and a shortage of at-home tests, were further incensed when news broke that tennis world number one Novak Djokovic had been given a medical exemption to enter the country.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under pressure at the start of an election year, has sought to reassure voters that his centre-right Liberal-National Party coalition has the situation under control, while keeping tight control on the purse strings.
“There are no silver bullets here,” Morrison told reporters ahead of a meeting of national cabinet, the group of federal and state and territory leaders tasked with handling the pandemic.
“You’ve just got to work the problem, work it together and push through.”
Officials reported a record 64,774 new cases, the majority in New South Wales and Victoria, the country’s most populous states. That easily exceeded the previous day’s national tally of around 47,800.
Total infections have surged more than 50 times from about 1,200 since late November, when the first Omicron case was detected in the country.
People admitted to hospitals in New South Wales and Victoria rose 10 per cent over the previous day, and authorities warned those numbers would rise further over the next several weeks.
“We have got some challenging weeks ahead of us,” New South Wales Deputy Health Secretary Susan Pearce told reporters.
The rapid surge in cases in recent weeks has led to long lines at publicly-funded PCR testing centres. That prompted authorities to ask people to only seek PCR tests if symptomatic, which in turn led to a shortage of rapid antigen tests, which can be used at home but must be purchased privately.
Morrison, who must call a federal election before May, has ruled out subsidising the majority of the at-home testing kits, citing a heightened role for “personal responsibility”.
Some state leaders are expected to press Morrison at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting to subsidise rapid antigen tests.
“TAKEN FOR FOOLS”
Authorities also fielded sharp criticism about the decision to grant Djokovic, who has declined to reveal his vaccination status but has previously stated his objection to mandatory vaccines, a medical exemption to play in the Australian Open tennis Grand Slam tournament.
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