As Australia fights the most recent COVID-19 wave, Aussies will be hoping 2023 is the year the pandemic "ends", the year when figuring out exposure risks, decisions on mask use, missing out on social events due to that little tickle in the throat, can all be put behind us.
Medical experts say it's vital the community understands that isn't the case — but there are some things that could make this year a bit easier than the past three.
In 2022, the highly infectious Omicron variant made its arrival felt in Australia's pandemic, seeing cases rise steeply.
Australia has seen thousands of COVID-19 deaths in 2022, making the the tolls from 2020 and 2021 seem insignificant.
The surge in cases, peaking in July 2022, has put a huge amount of pressure on health systems, COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalisation increased and in turn the nations healthcare workers are forced to isolate as they too become infected. Cases requiring hospitalisation were down at the beginning of November but the end of the year saw cases on the rise again due to new variants emerging in the past 3 months.
The emphasis needs to be on the basics to reduce the spread of the virus. A key difference in 2022 was the shift from imposed restrictions to personal responsibility. Australia has gone from an extremely high perception on risk to a point where some people are complacent and to not appreciate that risk still exists in the community.
Strategies that everyone can put in place : Meeting up outdoors if possible, ventilating indoor spaces well, using a mask in high-risk settings such as busy shopping malls or supermarkets, keeping up-to-date with vaccines and staying home if you are unwell.
COVID-19 is evolving but so are our vaccines.
The trend in evolution at the moment is that the virus is becoming more transmissible but not more severe. The danger is when a variant emerges that is more severe resulting in higher hospitalisation and mortality.
Let's each do our bit to make a safer Australia.
Read more here "What will Australia's fourth year of the COVID-19 pandemic look like?"
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