Graph reveals how Australia is faring in Omicron fight

Two new graphs show the impact Omicron is having on Australians and reveals how we’re coping compared to other countries.

New data on Australia’s Covid fight has revealed how the country is faring against the Omicron surge compared to other countries.

The details were supplied by the Federal Government and maps Covid deaths over the past seven days, while the second is daily cases per million in G7 countries throughout 2021, when the Delta variant emerged and was dominant.

Australia has had 67 deaths over the last seven days, one of the lowest number when compared to select countries.

The US had the most fatalities, at over 9,000, and comes as President Joe Biden orders 500 million rapid antigen tests to be supplied to Americans.

The second graph depicts the impact of the pandemic last year and clearly illustrates the arrival of Delta and the havoc it played on the country, with long lockdowns in Victoria and New South Wales, where the bulk of the deaths were.

Australia and New Zealand Intensive Care Society president Anthony Holley on Monday said the country was well-prepared to deal with a surge in intensive care patients if it eventuated.

Dr Holley said ICU capacity had been ramped up to 2000 beds during the pandemic, with just 240 beds currently filled.

“At this stage, the system is coping very well,” he told Sky News.

“We all remain deeply concerned, but it’s worth remembering that we have spent a lot of time preparing and getting ready for this inevitable influx of ICU patients requiring critical care.

“In that setting we have remunerated equipment shortages, and we just have to embrace for a long and arduous journey in caring for these individuals.”

Former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth said rising Covid-19 case numbers were not translating to high ICU admissions.

“We are not seeing the same bottleneck with these tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Omicron infections, not seeing the same bottleneck in our intensive care units, they are coping,” he told Sunrise.

“Hospitals on the other hand are getting people with Covid-19 and the Omicron variant, but hospitals and resources are a bit easier to manage, you can stop elective surgery so on and so forth.

“They are less finite than intensive care beds, so I think we are in a better position than we were before, even with the high case numbers.”

Originally published as Graph reveals how Australia is faring in Omicron fight