The current state of COVID-19 in Australia: importation and spread

Jessica Liebig; Raja Jurdak; Ahmad El Shoghri; Dean Paini

In Australia the first imported case was reported on 25 th January 2020 in New South Wales and began showing symp- WHO announces the outbreak to be a public health emergency of global concern WHO declares the outbreak to be a pandemic Number of countries with confirmed COVID-19 cases toms of the disease on 13 th January. In the week following the first case report, another eleven cases of COVID-19 were confirmed. Investigations revealed that all twelve individuals acquired the virus in China [12] . During the week ending 8 th February, the state of Queensland reported limited local transmission of the virus [13] . A previously imported case from China, who was part of a travel group, infected three group members prior to being isolated. Further transmission was prevented by quarantining the travel group. The three secondary cases began to show symptoms during the quarantine period. There is now further evidence of local transmission inside Australia, with at least 406 cases being local transmissions [14] . As at 3:00 pm on 25 th March 2020, Australia has reported a total of 2,423 COVID-2019 cases across all of its states and territories [15] .