CNN blasts ‘hot mess’ Australia over its latest Covid wave

Australia was once the envy of the world when it came to Covid, but one of America’s biggest media outlets says we’re now a “hot mess”.

American media giant CNN has taken aim at Australia in a lengthy analysis piece which says we’ve gone from the envy of the world to a Covid basket case.

In it, the reporter writes Australia’s famous summer vibe has been plagued by a “hot mess of rising Covid cases and a national shortage of rapid antigen tests”.

The US is recording an average of 2200 Covid deaths a day, compared to Australia’s average of 65, and it has been recording nearly 800,000 cases on average each day this month.

However, the CNN reporter pointed to supply chain issues – which the US is also experiencing – as evidence of how badly the latest Omicron wave has hit Australia.

“Last week, worker absences due to Covid isolation and illness became so severe that the national cabinet considered lowering the age limit for forklift licenses so that minors could pitch in to smooth supply chains,” the reporter wrote.

CNN said Australia had become a ‘hot mess’. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA NewsWire

“Ministers ultimately decided not to go ahead with the plan. But the idea that Australia, a country once lauded for its Covid-19 response, was considering such a move appeared to show how much the country’s leaders were struggling.”

As the author points out, this image is a far cry from how the rest of the world saw Australia in the earlier stages of the pandemic.

“After spending much of the pandemic shut off from the world, Australia is now attempting to navigate a new approach of living with Covid,” she wrote.

“But that shift has coincided with the emergence of Omicron, which has seen case numbers surge. Most of Australia’s 1.5 million Covid infections were acquired in the past three weeks, and on Friday the country reported a record single-day total of 88 deaths.”

She admits that these figures do not represent a “health disaster” when compared to other parts of the world, and that government’s quick move to “shut borders, impose lengthy lockdowns and promote vaccines” had been a success.

However, the article suggested we may have some damaged pride from the latest series of events.

The author spoke of the lack of rapid tests in Australia. Picture: Sarah Matray/NCA NewsWire

“While the new course isn’t causing a health disaster on the scale seen elsewhere, it is leading to widespread disruption in a country that once prided itself as an exemplar of action on Covid,” the author wrote.

“Australia’s long summer of Covid is not over yet – and for Western Australia, which reported 24 locally transmitted cases on Sunday despite maintaining closed borders, it may have only just begun.”

The article also detailed the lack of rapid tests, saying “they’re almost impossible to find in Australia”, and stated that supermarkets are “struggling to keep stores stocked with common products”.

Despite the disruption of the past couple of weeks, caused by the record Covid infections across Australia’s most populous states, authorities say things are beginning to look up.

In NSW, the seven-day average for new infections dropped from 38,138 to 20,214 over the past week.

Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews said the seven-day daily average of cases in his state had almost halved inside a week, from 31,262 on January 15 to 16,929 on January 21.

Covid hospital admissions have continued to fall or stabilise in the four Australian states with the largest Omicron waves, more than a week after case numbers peaked.