Sharjah24 –Reuters: Fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, Australia's daily coronavirus infections soared to a fresh peak on Thursday, overwhelming hospitals, while isolation rules caused labour shortages, putting a strain on businesses and supply chains.
With Thursday's count still incomplete, Australia so far has reported 72,392 new infections easily exceeding the high of 64,774 set a day earlier. Western Australia is due to post its new cases later.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, facing a federal election before May, is under pressure over his handling of the Omicron outbreak due to stock shortages of antigen tests and hours-long wait times at testing centres.
Having successfully kept a lid in its COVID-19 caseload through aggressive lockdowns earlier in the pandemic, Australia is now suffering infections rates far higher than elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific region, and some epidemiologists in the country predict that the worst is yet to come.
On Thursday, the government cancelled Novak Djokovic's visa to pacify public anger over the decision to give the world tennis number one a medical exemption from vaccination to play at the Australian Open.
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