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Australia's COVID-19 case numbers — ABC News data charting the spread of coronavirus

Digital Story Innovation Team
Posted , updated 

Data tracking Australia's COVID-19 developments are in the charts below, which provide a guide to how the country is faring in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

These figures are from a national dataset of every case confirmed by state and federal health authorities since January 25, 2020, when the country's first four cases were reported. The dataset is supplemented with additional reporting by ABC News.

The charts are updated daily, so bookmark this page to stay up-to-date.

Last updated ___.

Skip to a section:

(Tap/hover on any chart for more information.)

Currently __ COVID patients are in hospitals across Australia, according to figures reported so far today. This includes COVID patients in intensive care and on ventilators. (Note that this figure is likely to be lower earlier in the day, as some states/territories have not yet reported.)

As vaccinations have increased, the focus has shifted from case numbers to hospitalisations as a key measure of how countries are coping with the disease. 

The chart below shows the number of people in hospital in each state and territory. (Hospitalised numbers in the chart include patients in ICU; ICU numbers include ventilated patients.)

Hospitalisation figures lag new case numbers by about 10-20 days. 

Figures from NSW Health show that unvaccinated people are more than five times more likely to be hospitalised for COVID-19 and nine times more likely to be in ICU than those who are double- or triple-vaccinated. 

Note that hospitalisation figures are a snapshot of the number of COVID patients in hospital at a given point in time, rather than a count of new admissions each day.

To date, Australia has recorded _ confirmed cases of COVID-19, including __ deaths.

(Note that these numbers are likely to be lower earlier in the day, as some states/territories have not yet reported.)

On January 5, National Cabinet removed the requirement to confirm a positive RAT result with a PCR test. Positive RAT results are included in the official daily numbers for all states and territories.

Case numbers are heavily influenced by the rate of testing, with the true number of coronavirus cases likely to be far higher than official counts due to the limits of testing.

The chart below tracks the number of PCR tests processed across Australia each day. Although rapid antigen tests are widely used, there are no figures tracking the number of RATs taken. As a result, these figures underestimate the true level of testing.

NSW holds the record for most daily PCR tests, based on the 7-day moving average. In August 2021, the testing rate climbed past 170,000. By contrast, Victoria's daily PCR tests, based on the 7-day moving average, have never exceeded 100,000.

The chart above compares daily tests and new confirmed cases using 7-day moving averages for both.

The rapid spread of the Omicron variant saw case counts escalate despite a sharp fall in testing numbers. The fall came after national cabinet slashed testing requirements in a bid to ease pressure on overwhelmed testing facilities.

Nationally, ___ people have died — __.

(In these figures, two Queensland residents who died in NSW are included in the NSW tally. These deaths are currently counted in both Queensland and NSW health authority totals.)

Research shows that these figures very likely underestimate the true number of deaths. 

Australia's elderly population has borne the brunt of COVID deaths.

However, people __  have been infected in the highest numbers, even after adjusting for the size of each age group.

They are followed by people __, then those __.

Young adults  — the age group made to wait longest to become eligible for vaccination — have recorded the most infections because they are more likely to be exposed to the disease, according to experts.

They are more likely to work in high-risk settings, such as in hospitals, supermarkets, restaurants, bars and cafes, and as delivery drivers, and to socialise with a wider network of people.

Tracing the source of infection was paramount in the first two years of the pandemic, as governments battled to contain the virus using border closures and lockdowns. The chart above shows stark differences between jurisdictions.

In WA, for example, more than 85 per cent of infections confirmed before January 2022 were acquired overseas. In Victoria, on the other hand, less than 5 per cent of infections confirmed after the second wave in the winter 2020 were acquired overseas.

Since January 2022, the majority of cases in Australia have been categorised as under investigation, with health authorities shifting from a strategy of containment to "living with the virus".

Credits

Notes about this story

  • Data used in this story is provided by federal and state/territory governments, either from press conferences, official websites and reports, or press releases.
  • Federal and state/territory health authorities update their figures at different times of the day, so the numbers shown do not necessarily reflect the same point in time in each jurisdiction.
  • From October 26, 2021, federal government data is extracted by Ken Tsang from data tables published by the Department of Health. This data is generally updated daily around 9pm AEST, except on weekends as of May 7, 2022. The Department of Health does not publicly archive these figures, so data for dates that the department has not updated are omitted.
  • Between March 27 2020 and October 25, 2020, federal government data came from a daily PDF emailed by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, titled "COVID-19 Update". Prior to March 27, 2020, federal government data came from daily updates to the Department of Health website and a PDF "dashboard" also published by the Department of Health.
  • Rapid antigen test results: New daily case counts spiked in the 2nd and 3rd week of January 2022 as states and territories began adding positive rapid antigen test results to their daily counts, including positive results detected earlier than the reporting date.
  • Cumulative vs new cases: This story tracks two datasets of daily cases. Both are important. Cumulative cases tracks cumulative daily case counts adjusted for false positive tests, double counting, historical cases and other revisions. This dataset shows the adjusted epidemic curve in a state/territory. New cases tracks daily new cases as they are announced that day. This dataset tracks how health authorities and the public understood the rate of spread at that time. The adjusted daily case count can be calculated based on the running difference in daily cumulative cases. In most jurisdictions the cumulative case count does not equal the sum of daily new cases. The difference is especially large in Victoria.
  • Tests: Official figures count PCR tests only as no jurisdiction tracks the total number of rapid antigen tests administered. NSW — On May 26, 2020, NSW changed to reporting the number of tests, rather than people tested, bringing it into line with other jurisdictions. On July 1, 2020, ABC News adjusted NSW testing figures up to and including May 25, 2020, to also report the number of tests. As a result, data to May 26, 2020 is sourced from NSW COVID-19 tests data; from May 26, 2020, it is sourced from the Prime Minister and Cabinet's daily COVID-19 update. VIC — On May 27, 2020 Victoria received more than 20,000 delayed negative test results. On June 6, 2020, it removed a large number of duplicate negative results. There were no changes to the way it reports testing figures. ABC has adjusted the figures on both days to balance the anomaly. On August 2 and 3, Victoria did not report testing figures due to a "technical issue". This led to a jump in figures on August 4, which ABC News has spread across the three dates. WA — On June 16 and 17, 2020, WA did not update testing figures "due to technical issues". This led to a jump in figures on June 18, 2020, which ABC News has distributed across the three dates. From June 27, 2020, WA no longer updates testing figures on weekends. QLD — Queensland figures from May 22 to June 21, 2020, inclusive, have been adjusted to account for 38,500 delayed negative test results added in bulk on June 22, 2020. Specifically, ABC News has added 1,242 daily tests to each of the 31 days affected by the delay. TAS — Tasmanian health authorities have not responded to questions about unusual testing figures for June 16, 17 and 18, 2020.
  • Deaths: Two Queensland residents who died in NSW are currently counted in both Queensland and NSW health authority totals. ABC News has only included them in the NSW tally. On April 1, 2022, NSW added 331 historic deaths to its tally, including 270 which occurred in 2022, 58 in 2021 and three in 2020.
  • Source of infection: Between April 10 and 14, 2020, NSW moved a large number of cases between Source of infection categories, effectively reallocating 11 cases from Local - Unknown to Overseas. ABC News has adjusted the daily figures to reflect this.
  • Age and sex: Data are from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. It lags both federal and state/territory figures but is the most up-to-date source of age data at the national level. It is updated daily.
  • Cases and tests per 100,000: Population figures sourced from ABS Australian Demographic Statistics, June 2020

  • Dates refer to the date the case was reported by authorities, except in these instances:

    - The 5th, 6th and 7th confirmed cases in Victoria have been assigned to the date they were first cited in official press releases. These cases were first announced on March 1, 2020, as having recovered from the virus.

    - Dates for the 7th and 8th confirmed cases in Queensland (Diamond Princess cruise ship evacuees) are based on ABC News reports. The 9th confirmed Queensland case, another Diamond Princess evacuee, was first announced in a press release on March 3, 2020.

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