‘TikTok guy’ Jon-Bernard Kairouz hospitalised in Covid-19 ward

Jon-Bernard Kairouz, the TikTok comedian who shot to fame for correctly “predicting” NSW’s daily case numbers, has been hospitalised with Covid-19.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz, the “TikTok guy” who shot to fame for correctly “predicting” NSW’s daily cases numbers for five days in a row, has been hospitalised in a Covid-19 ward.

The 24-year-old is in the ward at Kogarah’s St George Hospital along with his father, Richard Kairouz, who is believed to be in ICU fighting for life, The DailyMail reports.

Richard has reportedly been battling the virus at the hospital since September 4, and has been placed into an induced coma in the intensive care unit, sources told the publication.

“He was symptomatic … and kept deteriorating,” a source close to the family said last week, referring to Mr Kairouz’s father.

“(He) decided to go to hospital on the Saturday afternoon. The whole family is at home in isolation.

“After predicting the Covid-19 numbers daily, (Jon-Bernard) couldn’t predict that (his dad) would contract it.”

Jon-Bernard Kairouz is yet to comment on his condition.

Jon-Bernard Kairouz shot to fame for correctly ‘predicting’ NSW’s daily case numbers. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

Mr Kairouz pictured at a July 24 anti-lockdown protest in Sydney. Picture: Twitter

The news comes after Bankstown Local Court on Tuesday heard that Mr Kairouz will plead not guilty to inciting others at a July 24 anti-lockdown protest in Sydney, which was held in defiance of public health orders.

Mr Kairouz is charged with two counts of not comply with noticed direction/Covid-19 and encourage commission of crime.

The comedian allegedly spoke to a crowd of thousands during the protest.

He had even dubbed himself “the people’s premier” as he spoke to a cheering sea of people waving Australian flags and holding signs decrying masks and vaccines during the protest.

“I must say I’ve crunched the numbers, I don’t think the cases are going to go up tomorrow,” he told the crowd.

“But from what I’ve calculated there’s over 50,000 people here today.”

He told the actual crowd of about 3500 in Sydney’s CBD that it was “time for freedom”.

The next day, NSW Police detectives attended Mr Kairouz’s home and issued him with a PIN (penalty infringement notice) for attending the protest.

Footage released by police showed him dressed in a blue NSW Rugby League team T-shirt with the name of the club’s sponsor “Brydens Lawyers” emblazoned on it, while standing outside a home in Sydney suburb of Belmore.

Mr Kairouz, who appeared nonchalant and told the detectives to “take it easy”, later deleted footage taken at the CBD protest from his Instagram account.

He has been charged with two counts of not comply with noticed direction/Covid-19 and encourage commission of crime. Picture: NSW Police

He initially drew attention for successfully predicting the NSW daily case numbers. Picture: TikTok

He declared that a public servant had been wrongly sacked over his video “predictions”. Picture: TikTok

The “TikTok guy” initially garnered attention for his five-day streak of successfully predicting the NSW daily case numbers hours before Premier Gladys Berejiklian officially announced them.

Days before he attended the protest, Mr Kairouz’s winning streak came to a halt – leading him to spectacularly claim that Ms Berejiklian had changed a daily Covid case figure to discredit him.

He also declared that a public servant had been wrongly sacked over his video “predictions”.

“Some poor bastard’s been sacked and I feel for him because I was just doing arithmetic and they’ve set this high-level surveillance on him,” he told Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa at the time, calling Ms Berejiklian’s alleged attempts to discredit him “quite sad”.

Mr Kairouz claimed “simple maths” was behind his accuracy, but fell short on July 19, when he said there would be 109 new local infections – when there turned out to only be 98.

Reports swirled before that day’s press conference that a “trap” had been set inside NSW Health amid speculation someone was leaking the figures to the entertainer – which were quickly shot down by Health Minister Brad Hazzard.

“Can I say it was a disappointment that something as serious as our messaging to the community in a pandemic, clearly someone somebody in the system was feeling the need to disclose those figures to somebody who was not an appropriate person to be making commentary about it,” Mr Hazzard said.

“And so, Health looked at the issues around that, I saw someone saying on social media that it was a sting, no it wasn’t.”