Trends - Nationally, following the peak of the fifth Omicron wave in the week ending 21 May 2023, there has been a decrease in COVID-19 case notifications. In the four-week period 5 June - 2 July 2023, there were 22,721 confirmed and 40,616 probable cases of COVID-19 reported in Australia to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). In the most recent reporting fortnight, a total of 23,827 confirmed and probable cases were notified (an average of 1,702 cases per day), compared with 39,510 in the previous fortnight (an average of 2,822 cases per day). Age group - Since late May 2023, notification rates have decreased among all age groups. In the current reporting period, 5 June - 2 July 2023, the highest notification rate was observed among adults aged 90 years and over, whilst the lowest rates were among young people and children aged 19 years or less. For the entire Omicron wave to date (15 December 2021 - 4 June 2023), the highest notification rate has been in adults aged 20 to 29 years. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - In the reporting period 5 June - 2 July 2023, there were 1,993 new cases notified in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. In the Omicron wave to date (15 December 2021 - 2 July 2023), there have been 418,311 cases notified among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, representing 3.7% of all cases (418,311/11,291,678) during this period. Severity - Since early June 2023, there has been a decrease in the number of cases with severe illness (defined as those admitted to ICU or died). The overall crude case fatality rate from the start of the Omicron wave to date is 0.18%, which is lower than the crude rate during the Delta wave (0.71%). Since the start of the pandemic to 2 July 2023, there have been 182 cases of paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome - temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS) reported to the Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance network (PAEDS), with three new cases reported in the last four weeks, two new cases from the previous reporting period, and a total of 16 cases reported since the start of 2023. Virology - For samples collected in the four-week period 5 June - 2 July 2023, all 1,314 samples were assigned against Omicron or recombinants consisting of Omicron lineages. There is currently significant diversity in the range of sub- and sub-sub-lineages circulating within Australia. During the reporting period, more than 200 unique lineages have been identified. In this reporting period, recombinant lineages represented the majority (88.5%) of sequences collected and 11.5% belonged to BA.2.75 sub-lineages. Acute respiratory illness - Based on self-reported FluTracking data, there has been an overall increase in the prevalence of both 'fever and cough' and 'runny nose and sore throat' symptoms in the community since late January 2023. Over the current period, the rate of 'fever and cough' has decreased and remains lower than the rates observed during the same period in 2022. The rate of 'runny nose and sore throat' symptoms has increased in early July 2023, with rates of this symptom profile now similar to those observed in 2022 for the same period. International situation - According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cumulative global COVID-19 cases stood at over 767 million COVID-19 cases, with over 6.9 million deaths as of 2 July 2023. For the South-East Asia and Western Pacific regions combined, there were 613,455 new cases and 1,188 deaths in the four-week period to 2 July 2023. A proportional decrease in new cases and deaths was observed in the South-East Asia (change in cases: -69% & deaths: -55%) and the Western Pacific regions (change in cases: -36% & deaths: -41%) compared with the previous four weeks. In total, since the start of the pandemic, approximately 265 million cases and over 1.2 million deaths have been reported in the two regions.
