Australia urges work from home as 3rd Omicron wave swamps hospitals

SYDNEY • Australians admitted to hospitals because of Covid-19 neared record levels yesterday as the authorities urged businesses to let staff work from home and recommended people wear masks indoors and get booster shots urgently amid a major outbreak.

Australia is in the grip of a third Omicron wave driven by the highly transmissible new subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, with more than 300,000 cases recorded over the past seven days. The authorities say the actual numbers could be double that total, and yesterday's 53,850 new cases was the highest daily tally in two months.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is resisting pressure to reinstate tough curbs to halt the spread of the virus, including making masks mandatory indoors, though he encouraged people to mask up. "The truth is that if you have mandates, you've got to enforce them," he told reporters. "Whilst there are mandates on public transport ... not everyone is wearing a mask."

Mr Albanese said businesses and employees must decide together on any work-from-home arrangement, as unions called for employers to do more for their staff.

Australian Council of Trade Unions president Michele O'Neil said employers must go beyond the government's pandemic leave payments and provide paid leave at full pay for workers who need to isolate, and offer free rapid antigen tests. "No worker should have to decide between putting food on the table and isolating with Covid-19," Mr O'Neil said.

Australia's chief medical officer Paul Kelly told ABC Radio: "We need to do some things differently at least for a short period of time." He predicted the number of people ending up in hospitals will soon hit an all-time high. "We know that working from home is a very key component of stopping what we call macro spreading."

The authorities have warned that Australia could see "millions" of new cases over the coming weeks. About 5,300 Australians are currently in hospital with Covid-19, not far off the record 5,390 recorded in January during the BA.1 outbreak, official data showed. Numbers in the states of Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia are already at their highest since the pandemic began.

But Dr Kelly said he had not recommended the reintroduction of mask mandates or any other restrictions. Last week, Australia reinstated support payments for casual workers who have to quarantine due to Covid-19 after more workers began calling in sick. Several frontline health workers are also sick or in isolation.

Australian doctors said masks must be made mandatory in indoor venues.

REUTERS