At the time of publication, 156,536 people have tested positive for COVID-19. The death toll currently sits at 5,835. Contrary to the comments you’ve seen popping up on social media in the last few weeks, this is nothing like the flu. It is at least 23 times more deadly.
We will not know for months, perhaps years, the mortality rate of COVID-19. But currently it’s looking like for every 100 people who fall ill, three to four people will die. If, as has been hypothesised by Dr Kerry Chant, New South Wales’ chief health officer, 20 per cent of New South Wales’ population contract COVID-19, then that’s 8,000 people dead. Those estimates are conservative. And that’s also assuming everyone who needs a hospital bed, gets one.
On Friday, the Australian government announced a ban on all non-essential gatherings of over 500 people. These sorts of measures, known as social…
