Those case numbers in the last few days is really eye-watering. Such rapid increase shows just how contagious this new variant is.
We thought Delta was really bad with it being 3-4 times more contagious, but Omicron looks to be at least ten times as contagious as that, particularly when you take into account the preventative measures Australia has in place making us one of the best countries in the world for limiting the spread (vaccine rates the highest in the world, mask mandates, density limits in public places).
The friday numbers was just under 10,000 for the country, with every state and territory reporting case numbers.
QLD certainly had the fastest growth in numbers this week, most likely due to the flood of tourists from other states now allowed to spend their christmas vacation there, and people only needed a negative result 3 days before they travel, allowing them to catch it at any time after that and bring it across the border.

The important thing to hope for is that this variant is indeed less deadly, and we don't see those huge numbers translate into hospital admissions. I think the vaccine will play a major role in that, as it will be helping most people fight off the virus before it multiplies too much within their body and overwhelms their immune system.

But even if people aren't filling hospitals, the current processes require people who have had a positive result to isolate along with any close contacts, and if we start getting close to 100,000 cases per day within a week, it will disrupt events and businesses worse than when there was the advance-warning of a government-announced lockdown, as thousands of events or businesses will now have to suddenly be cancelled due to just one positive case, who could be a close contact to others.


One of the new workers at my workplace is a mid-20s guy who thinks he's invincible, boasting the other day that he'll never get the vaccine or wear a mask, because he believes that he won't die because he doesn't believe he has any other underlying conditions.
There is so much to unpack with that... even healthy people get sick, and if you don't die from it, you are likely to have symptoms for the rest of your (shortened) life... not to mention the irresponsibility of possibly passing it onto someone who is at high risk, either from an immune system that didn't respond to the vaccine, or have other medical issues.