Fewer Aussies taking Covid precautions, ABS survey reveals

Australia’s Covid infection rates are hitting worldwide highs, but new research reveals a troubling trend around stopping the spread.

Fewer Australians are taking precautions against the spread of Covid-19 – according to a new survey – despite new infections hitting worldwide highs.

As of Saturday, Australia led New Zealand, Germany, Italy, France, the US, the UK and Canada for new daily Covid cases per capita, according to global databases.

More Australians reported household members returning positive Covid tests in April, the ABS’s latest Household Impacts of Covid-19 Survey released on Tuesday found.

Despite the uptick, as of April, Australians were less likely to take Covid precautions than they were in February.

More Australians said their household members had returned positive tests in April. Picture: John Gass

The survey, conducted in April, revealed 62 per cent of households had a Covid test in the four weeks prior to the survey, up from 46 per cent in March 2022.

Of those in households where someone had a test, 23 per cent reported one or more household members had tested positive in April, up from 14 per cent in March.

But only 78 per cent of Australians in April reported wearing a face mask in the previous week, down from 98 per cent in February.

Ninety-two per cent washed their hands or were using hand sanitiser regularly in the week before the survey, down from 95 per cent in February.

Less people were also physically distancing themselves from others: 75 per cent kept up the practice, compared with 85 per cent in February, ABS Head of Household Surveys, David Zago, said.

Aussies were taking less Covid precautions, the survey said. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Geraghty

While the disease is less deadly than it was at the start of the pandemic thanks to high vaccination rates, exhaustion may be why we were less careful, science writer Jane McCredie wrote in the Medical Journal of Australia’s Insight newsletter on Monday.

“After two years on high alert, plunging in and out of isolation, staring at every stranger’s cough, sanitising our hands like there’s no tomorrow, we just don’t have the energy anymore,” Ms McCredie said.

Yet the silence during the federal election campaign on the biggest test to the nation’s health system was the “very obvious elephant in the room”.

“By the end of December 2021, just over 400,000 Australians had contracted the disease, with the cumulative total now more than 6.45 million,” Ms McCredie said.

“At a time when Australia is jockeying for top spot in the list of countries with the most new Covid cases per capita, we have pretty much stopped talking about the biggest challenge our health system has ever faced,” 

Aussies are still shy of going to social gatherings, the survey found. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Ian Currie

The ABS survey revealed Aussies were more likely to take public transport at least once a week compared to February.

But workers were continuing to shun the office, with almost twice as many employed people working from home one or more times a week in April.

Forty-six per cent worked from home, compared to 24 per cent before Covid restrictions were introduced in March 2020.

Involvement in sports and social gatherings was yet to return to pre-Covid levels.

Fewer people (29 per cent) exercised at a gym or played sport in April compared to March 2020, down from 38 per cent.

They were also less likely to attend social gatherings, with 20 per cent in April 2022, down from 27 per cent before March 2020.

The ABS telephone survey of 2094 adults ran from April 19 to 28.

Originally published as Fewer Aussies taking Covid precautions, ABS survey reveals