New data has revealed the shocking number of people who have died from coronavirus this year.
The federal Department of Health has reportedly recorded more than 4,500 deaths this year, compared to the 2,239 deaths in the previous two years of the pandemic.
It's feared people don't care about Covid-19 pandemic anymore.
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There are also concerns this apathy could be dangerous considering subvariants of Omicron continue to spread around the country and we're about to get into flu season.
Professor of psychology at The University of Sydney and director of the Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health Maree Teesson said that many Australians had ‘switched off’ regarding the virus.
She told News Corp: “I fundamentally think that Australians really care about each other so it’s quite confronting that we’ve switched off.
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“But it’s understandable.”
Teesson also shared that fear was a primary ‘motivation’ for social distancing; however, Australians couldn’t remain disconnected from each other forever, which led to the relaxed attitudes towards Covid-19.
“Humans respond to fear with fight or flight. And fear was the primary motivator used very intensely for behaviour change in the pandemic," she said.
“It was extremely effective in increasing social distancing and virus spread but it is also a very blunt instrument of change. And while it motivated people to socially distance, it reduced social cohesion and connection in our community.”
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Biostatistician at the University of South Australia profession Adrian Esterman also told the Guardian he wasn’t surprised by the rising death toll as the nation continues to lessen its restrictions.
He said: "We’re still seeing thousands of people being infected; we’re seeing many, many people ending up in hospital.
“Yes, it’s no longer an absolute acute emergency like it was, because we have a large percentage of our population vaccinated and we’ve got better treatments.
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"But the fact of the matter is it’s still there. We could still get another variant coming along tomorrow, which is worse than Delta.”
He added: "If even only a small percentage of those get severely ill, end up in hospital or die, they’re still big numbers and that’s what we’re seeing. It’s not only hospitalisation and deaths – it’s long Covid [too].”
Following the report, Australia recorded 11 Covid-19 deaths in Victoria, 16 in NSW and 15 in Queensland.
Tasmania, ACT and Northern Territory recorded one death, while Western Australia recorded two deaths and South Australia had two deaths.
Topics: Australia
Charisa Bossinakis