RECORD LOW FOR SPREAD OF CORONAVIRUS
The latest figures show the coronavirus has stopped spreading as fast as it did for the first few weeks. We had daily rates of increase of between 25 and 35 per cent. In the last four days of last week it slowed to between 13 and 15 per cent. In the last 24 hours, even better: 9.1 per cent. UPDATE: It's slowing fast in Italy, too.
The latest figures show the coronavirus has stopped spreading as fast as it did for the first few weeks. We had daily rates of increase of between 25 and 35 per cent.
In the last four days of last week it slowed to between 13 and 15 per cent. In the last 24 hours, even better: it's slowed dramatically to 9.1 per cent.
As at 3:00pm on 29 March 2020, there have been 3,966 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia. There have been 331 new cases since 3:00pm yesterday.
I suspect it will fall even further for these reasons: the government has finally shut the door to the main source of infection, forcing everyone coming from overseas into mandatory and supervised quarantine; Australians taking more precautions; nursing homes going into almost lockdown; better tracing of people who were exposed to the virus; these shutdowns (even if I think them too broad).
UPDATE
In Italy, too. Deaths are still very high as people finally succumb, but the rate of spread is now dropping to new lows:
Italy on Sunday reported 756 new deaths, taking its total to 10,779. The rate slowed for a second day, while new confirmed cases rose by 5.6% to 3,815. This was the lowest increase of the epidemic so far, offering some hope that it may be nearing its peak there.
All such figures should be treated with caution, however. They crucially rely on the number of tests taken, and how they are taken.