As the spread of the Omicron variant continues to cause significant individual and societal disruption, researchers from one of Australia's most renowned medical institutes called for the government to re-adopt Covid-19 policies on Thursday.
Australia had a total of 7,919,777 Covid-19 cases and 9,558 deaths as of Thursday.
According to the Xinhua news agency, 32,982 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours, and 3,022 people are currently hospitalised, with 103 of them in intensive care.
Brendan Crabb, the director and chief executive officer of the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health (Burnet Institute), and epidemiologist Mike Toole urged for the restoration of stronger measures to stop the spread of viruses in an editorial that was published on Thursday.
When the first cases of the highly contagious Omicron strain were discovered in Australia at the end of the previous year, policymakers decided to proceed with the country's reopening anyhow, betting that the virus would be less severe and would allow individuals who were affected to build up their immunity.
Since then, the Covid-19 health restrictions have been gradually reduced, and last week, the rule to wear a mask in select Australian airports was eliminated.
Given the reality of the pandemic's current situation in Australia, Crabb and Toole claimed that returning to regular life was sending the wrong message to the general public.
They claimed that this year, almost 7 million Covid-19 instances had been reported in Australia, significantly more than in the two prior years.
"Tens of thousands have been sick enough to go to hospital and there have been 8,000 Covid deaths."
Additionally, the researchers claimed that because of the virus's ongoing evolution, people's past immunity was failing, which resulted in recurring infections that were no less severe.
Crabb and Toole suggested investing in bettering indoor air quality and reintroducing high-quality N95/P2 masks in high-risk indoor settings in addition to increasing focus on vaccines up to date.
They said that viral medications like Paxlovid, which have been licenced in Australia, should be made more widely known and accessible.
Australia's federal health minister, Mark Butler, claimed on Wednesday that the government's stockpile of 1.3 million Paxlovid medicines had only been used 50,000 times and that too many older Australians were passing away from Covid-19.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. To receive it on Telegram, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
