It’s safe to hypothesise most Australians are pondering how great the increase in daily COVID cases can soar before they ultimately begin to decrease. As the Omicron variant threw projected forecasts off track, the roadmap back to a normal life (remind us again, what even is normal?) was unceremoniously derailed. However, new modelling released by the New South Wales government reveals when the peak and fall of the current Omicron COVID outbreak is likely to occur in the coming weeks.
With more than 20,000 cases and 18 deaths recorded today, the highest since the pandemic began, the new modelling for New South Wales' COVID cases may be seen as a roadmap for the return of relative normalcy. It’s believed by either the third or last week of January, the outbreak’s peak will occur and this will conclude by the middle of February, meaning cases should decrease from the tens of thousands as is currently the case.
NSW Health explained the new modelling can be defined as ‘relatively accurate’ with the waves overseas peaking quickly and passing soon after, as is common with the Omicron variant globally. In South Africa, the origin country of the variant, it has been reported the wave has almost reached a conclusion, with signs of the disease slowing becoming more prevalent.
It comes as the NSW government reintroduced some restrictions in an effort to slow the spread of the virus, including singing and dancing now banned from hospitality venues and the postponement of non-urgent elective surgery. The state has also introduced a new isolation exemption for critical workers who are asymptomatic close contacts of a confirmed case to assist with supply-chain shortages impacting supermarkets. NSW has also attained 50 million rapid antigen test kits, with results of the at-home tests to be registrable on the Service NSW app from the middle of the week.
