Here's a quick wrap of the COVID-19 news and case numbers from each Australian jurisdiction for the past week, as reported on Friday, May 12, 2023.
The states and territories are now reporting their COVID-19 statistics weekly instead of through the daily updates that were provided from the early days of the pandemic.
- New South Wales
- Victoria
- Northern Territory
- Western Australia
- Australian Capital Territory
- Tasmania
- Queensland
News you may have missed
- A COVID-19 border restriction policy has expired in the US. The Trump-era restrictions, named Title 42, was introduced during the pandemic as part of efforts to curb an influx of coronavirus infections.
- People are still leaving city centres for regional areas, keeping up a trend that first emerged during the pandemic, with capital city residents migrating to the regions still 16 per cent higher than before COVID.
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New South Wales
The state has recorded 12,980 more COVID-19 cases.
There are 1,292 cases in hospital, 31 of those in intensive care.
There were 59 new deaths announced today.
Victoria
There have been another 7,594 COVID-19 cases.
There are 309 cases in hospital, with 17 of those in intensive care.
There were 56 new deaths announced today.
Northern Territory
There have been 192 new COVID-19 cases reported this week.
The Northern Territory has 14 cases in hospital.
No new deaths have been reported.
Western Australia
WA Health has reported 3,963 new COVID-19 cases in the past week.
There are 210 people in hospital.
This week's report includes 14 COVID-19 deaths.
South Australia
South Australia has reported 2,471 new COVID-19 cases in the last seven days.
There have been 130 new COVID-19 admissions to hospitals in the past week and eight in intensive care.
There have been 12 new COVID-19 deaths reported.
Australian Capital Territory
There have been 867 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the Australian Capital Territory this week.
There are 36 people in hospital, with one of those in ICU.
The territory reported three new COVID-19 deaths this week.
Tasmania
Tasmania has recorded 883 new COVID-19 cases this week.
There have been 19 new COVID-19 admissions to hospitals in the past week, but no admissions to ICU.
There have been seven new COVID-19 deaths reported.
Queensland
Queensland has a seven-day rolling average of 590 cases this week.
It has a weekly average of 261 cases in hospital and three in intensive care.
It has a seven-day rolling average of two new deaths.
One thing to know: WHO declares COVID-19 is no longer a global emergency
COVID-19 no longer represents a global health emergency, the World Health Organization says.
It's a major symbolic step towards the end of the pandemic that has killed more than 6.9 million people, disrupted the global economy and ravaged communities.
The WHO's emergency committee first declared that COVID-19 represented its highest level of alert more than three years ago, on January 30, 2020.
That status helped focus international attention on the health threat posed by COVID-19, as well as bolstering collaboration on vaccines and treatments.
"Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Could a frozen ancient virus thawed by climate change cause the next pandemic?
Climate change threatens human life in many ways but one of the less-obvious could be a rise in pandemics.
A warming climate could release ancient pathogens, such as bacteria and viruses, that have been frozen in permafrost in the polar regions for millennia.
Jean-Michel Claverie and his team of researchers recently published their findings on seven ancient viruses found in Siberia's permafrost. One was almost 50,000 years old and still infectious.
He says scientists don't yet know exactly how ancient diseases could impact living species today – animals or humans. In 2021, it was reported that more than 100 ancient strains of bacteria found in Siberia's permafrost were resistant to antibiotics.
One more thing: Victorian government offers to settle class action over towers' COVID-19 lockdown
The Victorian government has proposed a $5 million settlement to public housing tower residents who were subjected to a contentious COVID-19 lockdown.
A class action was launched by residents of nine public housing towers, who were locked down during Melbourne's second lockdown in July 2020.
It alleges the government wrongly detained residents of the towers for up to 14 days and wrongly threatened them if they tried to leave the towers.
In a notice posted to its website, the state government denies the claims set out in the class action, but proposes to resolve the issue through a settlement without trial.
