As of today we will be only updating the COVID-19 once a day between 8pm and 10pm each night unless there is a major update that requires urgent attention.
Each night we will provide the most update numbers and break down of stats available with visual charts to make sense of the numbers.
For the first time today HNE provided us with a break down of the numbers by area. As we are now aware the HNE covers a massive area and is one of largest health regions in NSW.
See map below of the area the HNE covers.
Firstly let’s have look at the national snapshot Australia has 2,799 cases and 170 people have recovered. 13 people have died. Out of the 183 people in Australia who had an outcome 7% have died whilst 93% recovered.
As at 8pm, Wednesday, 25 March 2020, an additional 21 cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed. This brings the total number of Hunter New England confirmed cases to 124.
The chart below is what is referred to as the curve this is what Prime Minister Scott Morrison and CMO Brendan Murphy have been talking about flatting the curve. This chart shows the number of cases rising and doubling ever three days.
The next chart we break the numbers down by age. The older you are the higher risk you are of having a fatal outcome. We have 36 cases which are over the age 70 and are of the highest risk but this does not mean younger people are bullet proof. (Half of all cases in the ICU in Italy are under 50 years of age.)
This next chart is how the person became infected which is critical for determining if there is community outbreak. At this stage community transmission seems to be very low. Which could be because of testing criteria focus has been on people returning from overseas and close contacts. As the plan seems to still be to contain the virus. There has been five cases where the contact is unknown and five still being investigated. The vast majority of cases are from people returning home from overseas.
The next chart breaks down the numbers into regions of the Hunter New England Health and gives a snapshot of where the cases are located. This chart is from 24 hours ago. As we you can see the cases are spread out over the whole region and there is no need to panic at this stage.
Lake Macquarie has the biggest cluster of cases closkdy followed by Newcastle and the Mid North Coast.
In conclusion, the virus is here but in only small numbers and scattered around the Hunter. There is no need to panic but you should be very alert to what is going on. If we all obey the new rules the curve from our first chart should flatten out or even start to decrease in the next few weeks. If this does not happen than stage 3 of the lockdown will begin.