[Global Times reporter Da Qiao] Two years after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, Australia encountered a "dark moment" on the 10th-the cumulative number of confirmed cases in the country exceeded 1 million that day. However, facing the pressure of the general election, Australian Prime Minister Morrison called on the people to "survive" the epidemic and plans to relax the isolation regulations.
According to the Associated Press of Australia, Reuters and other media reports, as of Monday, the cumulative number of confirmed cases in Australia reached 1.04 million, of which more than half of the confirmed cases were patients infected with the Omicron strain in the past week. The Australian government announced on Monday that the number of new confirmed cases in the country in a single day was 67,000, but this number may be seriously "underestimated" because last week Australia's single-day newly confirmed cases exceeded 100,000 multiple times. As of last Sunday, more than 3,000 people across Australia had been hospitalized with COVID-19, 10 per cent of whom were critically ill.
Morrison acknowledged on Monday that the Omicron strain was spreading faster than the government expected, but the outbreak was not that serious. "You have to survive (the epidemic), not implement a blockade." Morrison said. The Australian leader intends to further relax isolation measures and allow people who have been in close contact with asymptomatic infected to engage in food production and distribution. He also hopes that Australian schools can resume offline teaching.
Albanese, the leader of Australia's main opposition Labor Party, accused Morrison of taking a "let it go" attitude towards the epidemic, believing that the government's move seriously affected people's lives. Morrison denied Albanese's claims. Domestic medical experts and economists in Australia do not agree with Morrison's "let go" line, and asked him to "correct the anti-epidemic line" as soon as possible. Morrison previously declared that the Australian government is "building a bridge to take Australia to the other side of the epidemic." In this regard, the " Sydney Morning Herald" commented that Morrison hopes that with the increase in the vaccination rate of vaccines, the epidemic will develop moderately, and the Australian economy can speed up recovery, and all of these can win the general election for Morrison. point. However, some analysts said that health conditions will become an important reference factor for voters to vote. If the Omicron strain leads to overcrowding of the intensive care unit of Australian hospitals, the "bridge" that Morrison called will become a "gap", and his hope of winning the general election will also be dashed.
Source: Global Times
