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Australia marks two years since first confirmed Covid-19 case

Catie McLeodNCA NewsWire
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Camera IconNot Supplied Credit: News Corp Australia

Tuesday marks exactly two years since Australia recorded it first Covid-19 case.

On January 25 2020, a man who had flown into Melbourne from China tested positive for a virus that was so new it didn’t have a name.

The case was a man from Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated, who travelled to Australia on January 19 from Guandong.

Hours after Australia’s initial case was recorded, three more Chinese travellers were confirmed to have tested positive in NSW.

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Camera IconCovid has gone on to infect almost two million Australians NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui Credit: News Corp Australia

There was no hotel quarantine, no Covid screening at airports and no vaccinations, which wouldn’t be rolled out widely in Australia for some 18 months.

It was before public health officials and epidemiologists entered the limelight, premiers closed their borders and millions of Australians spent months in and out of lockdown watching daily press conferences and hearing a lot of the word “unprecedented”.

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Camera IconPrime Minister Scott Morrison in February 2020 declared the novel coronavirus would become a pandemic. NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia

By the end of February, the Morrison government had announced the novel coronavirus would become a global pandemic and extended its travel ban on visitors from China.

A few days after that, Australia saw its first community transmission of Covid when there were still just 33 confirmed cases in the country.

On March 11, the World Health Organisation, which had already declared a public health emergency of international concern, “rang the alarm bell loud and clear” and declared a pandemic.

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Camera IconThe pandemic has seen sweeping restrictions enforced including mask mandates. Tony Gough Credit: News Corp Australia

Covid has gone on to infect almost two million Australians and 3148 people have died after contracting it.

It’s estimated there are some 411,875 active cases in the country, with 5173 people in hospitals including 404 patients in intensive care units and 146 people on ventilators.

Australia’s total cases skyrocketed from 300,594 on Christmas Day to more than 2 million confirmed infections on Tuesday, which is likely to be an underestimate as authorities rely on at-home testing.

WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday more than 80 million Covid cases had been reported since Omicron was first identified just 9 weeks ago – more than were reported in the whole of 2020.

“On average last week, 100 cases were reported every three seconds, and somebody lost their life to Covid-19 every 12 seconds,” Dr Tedros told the 150th session of the WHO Executive Board.

Dr Tedros said it was dangerous to assume Omicron would be the last variant.

But there is cautious optimism its rampant spread – which follows the earlier dominant strains of Alpha and Delta – could signal a return to more normal life as populations build immunity.

Some Australian public health experts have said the Omicron wave appears to have peaked here, with hospitalisations and ICU presentations stabilising.

Originally published as Australia marks two years since first confirmed Covid-19 case

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