On Wednesday (July 20), the number of Australians admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 was close to a new record. Over 300,000 cases of highly transmissible new subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 have been reported in the country over the previous seven days. Nearly 50,000 cases were reported on Tuesday (July 19), the highest reported in the past two months. In response, the government urged let employees work from home, advising people to wear masks and urged to get booster doses immediately.
Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the nation's political leaders want to move to a new phase of living with COVID-19 as though it were the flu, but would consult health experts.
Australia on Tuesday suffered its deadliest day of the pandemic as a fast-moving Omicron outbreak continued to push up hospitalisation rates to record levels, even as daily infections eased slightly.
So far, Australia has reported about 1.6 million infections since the pandemic began, of which around 1.3 million were in the last two weeks. Total deaths stood at 2,776