Victoria has recorded a massive and rather sudden spike in cases of COVID-19 today, pushing new cases well into the thousands, a drastic increase from yesterday’s numbers.
Yesterday, the state recorded 950 new cases of COVID-19, and today the case numbers have skyrocketed to 1,438. This is a spike of 488 cases, which goes against everything we expected about a gradual increase.
For example, Monday’s cases were in the 700’s, Tuesday’s in the 800’s and Wednesday’s in the 900’s. You can see where this would eventually take us, but apparently, the numbers wanted to go a bit helter-skelter this morn.
This now brings the total number of active cases in Victoria to 11,018. Just one month ago on August 30, there were only 73.
Reported yesterday: 1,438 new local cases and 0 cases acquired overseas.
– 34,323 vaccines administered
– 65,497 test results received
– Sadly, 5 people with COVID-19 have diedMore later: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/odC4gg8pEf
— Victorian Department of Health (@VicGovDH) September 29, 2021
There have been some guesses online as to why this massive spike has appeared, with most assuming that the ‘freedom’ protests in Victoria have a thing or two to do with it.
Although the CFMEU (whose headquarters are now a tier-one COVID exposure site) have blamed the protestors for its recent outbreak, it’s still unclear whether today’s spike in case numbers has anything to do with that.
It would make sense, given it’s been a week since the protest, but there are other assumptions as well.
https://twitter.com/MissKayeSera/status/1443351789588271105?s=20
Data analyst for the Guardian, Nick Evershed, reckons that there may have just been a big chunk of numbers missing from previous days, that are now playing catch-up today, which adds up (literally).
The big jump in Vic cases looks bad, but also weird – like, 50% increase day-on-day is very unusual which makes me wonder if there’s a reporting artifact involved somehow? pic.twitter.com/YInemsKuo9
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) September 29, 2021
There’s no real way to know for certain until Premier Dan Andrews says something about it, but it’s definitely a hot guess.
What I’m getting at are legit cases, but reported all at once in a big bunch for some reason, like catching up missed cases or a results from a targeted testing programme or something. No idea really though, we’ll find out a bit later
— Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) September 29, 2021
As always, Dan Andrews is expected to give a press conference regarding the new surge in case numbers, and we may just get an explanation as to whether this spike was just some lost data making its way in, or a direct result of large-scale protests.
All adult Aussies (yep, even those of us under 40) are currently able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Click here to see which clinics are offering it, and talk to a doctor for more info.
The best vaccine is the first one you can get, and that’ll be our ticket out of this mess.
