Omicron cases could hit 200,000 a day across Australia

Australia could record 200,000 cases of Omicron per day before the end of January unless state governments re-introduce restrictions, new modelling claims.  New modelling prepared for the National Cabinet predicts Australia is on track to record large number of new COVID cases daily, as the Omicron variant tears through the community.

National Cabinet will today for an emergency meeting  to thrash out the next steps Australia will take to tackle the growing threat of Omicron.

The Doherty Institute modelling predicts that without low-to-medium restrictions such as density and visitor limits, waning vaccine protection against the Omicron variant puts Australia on track to hit about 200,000 cases a day by late January or early February.

Some tough Covid-19 restrictions must return and vaccine boosters should come forward to stop Omicron infections from overwhelming the Australian health system, according to modelling prepared by Doherty Institute.

The modelling is based on little to no restrictions where there is no lockdown, low-density requirements, no retail restrictions, and schools stay open.

It also assumes that the Omicron variant is more transmissible than the Delta variant and also causes severe illness.

The modelling showed a hard lockdown could suppress a serious outbreak in a month's time if most Australians receive all three vaccine doses by that time.

However, boosters alone will not be fast enough to halt the spread of Omicron,' the Doherty Institute said.

Fast-growing case numbers would lift hospitalisation rates to 4000 per day, which would push emergency departments to the limit, while up to 10,000 patients were expected to be admitted to intensive care.

The modelling reportedly assumes only baseline public health safety measures and that the Omicron variant causes equally severe disease as the Delta strain.

A hard lockdown could suppress Omicron by the end of January, assuming 60 to 80 per cent of the population gets their third dose by then.

However Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Tuesday insisted Australians would not undergo another hard lockdown.

"We're not going back to lockdowns," Mr Morrison said.

"We're not going back to shutting down peoples' lives."

"We've got to let Australians make their own choices about their own health and their own lives."

The emergency National Cabinet was scheduled for today for state, territory and federal leaders to consider before Christmas the growing threat of the Omicron variant