New grim detail in Aussie Covid milestone

Latest figures from the Department of Health, States and Territories Report on August 26 revealed the nation had notched up 9,976,582 cases since the pandemic started.In the 24 hours to August 26 there were 13,496 cases reported, contributing to the active cases tally of 131,609.There have been 13,648 deaths in total, according to the report.Daily case numbers have been declining since peaking in mid-July, when more than 50,000 cases were being reported every day. This latest surge is still well below the record peak of more than 100,000 cases in mid-January this year.The report provided a breakdown of active cases across the states and territories, revealing NSW had the lion’s share of cases – 80,381.Victoria had the second-highest number of cases with 17,852, followed by Queensland (15,677), Western Australia (8492), South Australia (5418), Tasmania (1597), the ACT (1433) and the Northern Territory (759).NSW has the greatest share of the cumulative 9,976,582 cases (3,411,500), followed by Victoria (2,551,938), Queensland (1,597,448), Western Australia (1,123,826), South Australia (750,458), Tasmania (244,489), the ACT (201,579) and the Northern Territory (95,344).NSW continues the trend when it comes to the death toll, with 4786 deaths, followed by Victoria (5213), Queensland (1919), South Australia (774), Western Australia (580), Tasmania (177), the ACT (121) and the Northern Territory (68).The figures followed the release of new data last week showing that the average incubation time for an Omicron Covid infection is shorter than for other variants.A team of international researchers examined 142 studies estimating the incubation period of different Covid variants. The found early variants Alpha and Beta had mean incubation periods of five days and 4.5 days respectively and Delta had a mean incubation time of 4.41 days.By comparison, Omicron had a mean incubation period of 3.42 days, suggesting newer variants generally have shorter incubation periods, the researchers reported.Their findings have been published in the journal JAMA Network Open. “The findings of this study suggest that SARS-CoV-2 has evolved and mutated continuously throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, producing variants with different enhanced transmission and virulence,” the authors concluded.“Identifying the incubation period of different variants is a key factor in determining the isolation period.”