A lone woman, wearing a protective mask, crosses a downtown bridge while the state of Victoria seeks to curb the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak in Melbourne, Australia, on July 16, 2021. REUTERS / Sandra Sanders
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SYDNEY, July 20 (Reuters) – Australians hospitalized by COVID-19 approached record levels on Wednesday as authorities urged companies to let staff work from home and recommended that people bring masks inside and booster vaccinations were done urgently amid a large outbreak of coronavirus.
Australia is in a third wave of Omicron driven by the new highly transmissible subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, with more than 300,000 cases recorded over the past seven days. Authorities say the actual figures could be double that total, and Wednesday’s 53,850 new cases were the highest daily number in two months.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese resists pressure to restore hard brakes to stop the spread of the virus, including the obligation of masks inside, although he encouraged people to wear it.
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“The truth is that if you have warrants, you have to enforce them,” Albanese told reporters on Wednesday. “Even though there are warrants on public transportation … not everyone wears a mask.”
Albanese said companies and employees must decide together any work agreement from home, as unions asked employers to do more for their staff.
Employers need to go beyond government pandemic leave payments and offer paid leave with full pay to workers who need to isolate themselves and offer free rapid antigen testing, said the chairwoman of the Australian Council of Trade Unions , Michele O’Neil.
“No worker should have to decide between putting food on the table or isolating themselves with COVID,” O’Neil said.
Last week, Australia reinstated support payments for casual workers to be quarantined. Read more
Australia’s medical director, Paul Kelly, predicted that the number of people ending up in hospital would soon reach a record and urged companies to let more staff work from home.
Australia could see “millions” of new cases over the next few weeks, authorities have warned.
Some 5,350 Australians are currently in hospital with COVID-19, not far from the record of 5,390 recorded in January during the BA.1 outbreak, official data showed. Figures in the states of Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia are already at their peak since the pandemic began.
Many front-line health workers are also sick or isolated, which makes the health system more tense.
Australian doctors said masks should be made mandatory indoors.
“We don’t have optional seat belts, we don’t have optional speed limits. There are many limits to our freedoms that we accept because it’s the right thing to do,” Australian Medical Association President Omar Khorshid told 2GB radio station.
Authorities have also warned of a delay in people taking their booster injections.
To date, 95% of people over the age of 16 have received two doses, which has helped keep Australia’s total number of COVID-19 cases just under 9 million and deaths at 10,884, well below many countries. But only 71% have received three or more doses.
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Report by Renju Jose; edited by Richard Pullin and Stephen Coates
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