Restrictions Relaxed, Australia Again Records COVID-19 Infection Cases

JAKARTA - Australian authorities scrambled on Friday to track down hundreds of people who attended Taylor Swift's album party in Sydney last week, in an event that caused a super-spread, as the country's cases hit a new pandemic high for the second day in a row.

COVID-19 infections, including the new, more contagious variant of Omicron, have spread in pubs and nightclubs as social distancing restrictions eased following higher vaccination rates.

Despite the spike in cases, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australia had entered a 'different phase of the pandemic' and set aside a lockdown to contain the spread of the virus.

"The number of cases is no longer a metric. The real measure is what serious illness means, (intensive care), hospitalizations, stress on the hospital system," PM Morrison said at a press conference on Friday, citing Reuters December 17.

He added that early signs suggest the Omicron variant could be less severe than the other variants.

At least 97 cases, including several possible Omicron variants, have been detected among people attending Taylor Swift-themed parties. More than 600 people who checked in at the venue had to undergo tests and self-isolate, but officials signaled there could be more guests.

To note, Australia had a record 3,820 daily infection cases reported on Friday, with most of them in the most populous states, New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria, exceeding the record high of around 3,400 cases reported the day before.

NSW authorities have warned daily cases could reach 25,000 in the state by the end of January, with authorities looking to accelerate the rollout of booster vaccine injections to counter the threat from the Omicron variant.

Health officials blamed gatherings in pubs and clubs for the "rapid rise" in cases. "Some of these have caused super-spread events," NSW health official Jeremy McAnulty said.

Meanwhile, the neighboring state of Victoria was on alert after a person infected with the Omicron variant attended an event at Melbourne's busy pub and hotel.

Australia has reported around 243,000 cases of infection and 2,134 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began.