SYDNEY, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Australian medical think tank, the Doctors Reform Society (DRS) of Australia, has made a call for the government to re-engage the public with pandemic prevention, and stop thinking the worst of the pandemic is over.
The DRS released a note on Wednesday that said despite record case numbers and deaths in recent weeks, governments have seemingly moved on from the pandemic and its control.
"Australia has, this week, hit a world record for COVID cases with Australia now having the highest number of cases of COVID per head in the world at 264 per 1,000 Australians," said Robert Marr, secretary general of the DRS.
The nation has recorded a total of over 6.6 million cases and nearly 8,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, the vast majority of which have been recorded since Australia relaxed public health measures and the arrival of the Omicron variant late last year.
Over the last seven days, 296 people have died with the virus nationally, averaging at over 40 people per day. Marr compared this to a major bus crash happening every day.
Rather than calling for a return to lockdowns or other restrictions, the organization hoped that the government would restart campaigns to highlight the need to get COVID boosters and maintain public health precautions.
"There will be new variants of COVID spreading in Australia in the near future and, along with the winter flu," said Marr.
"This makes it urgent that the federal government urgently restarts the COVID prevention publicity campaign rather than sitting back and congratulating itself for their past COVID actions."
Similar calls have been made by other leading medical associations, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) said citizens should begin to voluntarily wear masks citing heavy pressure on states' hospital and ambulance systems.
"We have to also acknowledge that COVID has made it (ambulance ramping) worse and that COVID's not going anywhere," said Omar Khorshid, president of the AMA. ■