Sydney: Australians are being urged to work from home, and be more cautious as the number of people in hospital infected with Covid-19 hits record.

The third Omicron wave is driven by highly transmissible new subvariants, BA.4 ad BA.5. More than 300,000 cases have been recorded in Australia over the past week. Authorities believe the actual number could be twice that amount.

The records hit new levels on Wednesday with the number of Australians admitted to hospitals. Authorities are urging businesses to allow their staff to work from home and making sure people take all the precautions to avoid the pandemic from disrupting the society once again.

Prime Minister Albanese who is under great pressure to reinstate tough curbs for halting the spread of the virus held a press conference on Wednesday.

“The truth is that if you have mandates, you’ve got to enforce them”. He told the reporters, “Whilst there are mandates on public transport … not everyone is wearing a mask.”

Australia began relaxing health measures related to Covid-19 by the end of 2021, after majority of the population had been fully vaccinated. However, the high transmissibility of the Omicron variant is now testing the Aussies’ plan of “living with the virus”.

By

Amna Sheikh