Australia sees biggest increase in average daily Covid-19 cases compared with prior peak

New data shows Australia leading the world in one grim Covid-19 stat amid the current Omicron outbreak sweeping the globe.

Australia has experienced the biggest rise in daily average cases compared with its previous peak out of any country in the world, according to The New York Times.

The newspaper has ranked Australia number one when comparing the current Omicron outbreak to earlier Covid-19 waves.

Looking at average daily cases, Australia is now seeing 50 per 100,000 people, a 446 per cent increase from the previous peak of nine.

By that ranking, Australia is followed by Denmark, Iceland, Malta and Canada.

However, Australia’s case numbers are nowhere near as high as other nations.

The US has a daily case average of 301,475, followed by the UK with 130,350, France with 105,224 and Spain with 69,709. Australia’s is 12,609.

On a per capita basis, the tiny country of Andorra leading with 269 cases per 100,000 people, followed by the Channel Islands with 259, Denmark with 246 and Ireland with 217.

The number of new coronavirus cases globally has passed one million per day on average for the first time.

Countries with record case rates in December. Picture: The New York Times

Cases in Australia

The states leading the increase in cases for Australia are NSW, Victoria and Queensland.

NSW recorded 21,151 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm midnight on Thursday. The day before, there were 12,226 new cases, making it a 73 per cent increase overnight.

At the same time last week, NSW recorded 5612 new cases.

In Victoria, 5919 new cases were recorded on Thursday, up from 5137 the day before. At the same time a week ago, 2095 were recorded.

Queensland recorded 3118, up from 2222 the day before. The state recorded 589 at the same time last week.

The majority of Australian states, including NSW, Victoria and Queensland, agreed to change testing and isolation rules on Thursday.

It involves more use of at-home rapid antigen tests over PCR tests, in an effort to alleviate pressure on an overwhelmed testing system.

The New York Times reported that the Covid-19 case numbers in its data could likely be an undercount as at-home test results may not be reported.

The numbers may also be affected by asymptomatic cases, reporting lags due to the holiday season and lack of test availability in many places.

Australians will now be doing more at-home Covid-19 tests. Picture: David Geraghty/NCA NewsWire

Hospitalisations in Australia

Australian leaders, particularly in NSW, have urged residents to focus on hospitalisations rather than case numbers in this wave.

There are 832 people with Covid-19 in hospital in the state and 69 in ICU.

Professor Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, told news.com.au on Friday hospitalisations were rising, but not at the same rate as newly reported cases.

“Importantly, fewer hospital admissions might also end up in intensive care now — in the Delta outbreak in NSW, up to one 1/4 of hospitalised patients were in ICU; currently, it is less than 1/10,” she said.

South Africa, which alerted the world to the new Omicron variant just over a month ago, has announced it has passed the peak of its Omicron wave.

Fareed Abdullah of the South African Medical Research Council said Covid-19 hospitalisations at the peak of this wave were half of what they were with the Delta wave.