Australia?s daily Covid cases could rise to 100,000 within weeks, expert predicts

Australia could see daily Covid case numbers of more than 100,000 within weeks - lasting for about a month - before new mask and density rules flatten the curve.

The prediction, made by Dr Michael Lydeamore, a Monash University infectious diseases modeller who is part of the Doherty Institute modelling consortium that advises Australia's national cabinet, came as states and territories reported more than 18,000 cases on Wednesday - a pandemic record.

"A month of six figure cases is certainly not outside the realms of possibility across Australia," Lydeamore said, stressing that modelling is based on "broad and crude assumptions".

He said we could have a month of six-figure infection rates before the outbreak peaks, most likely just after February.

Recent models had predicted Covid cases would peak in just over a month's time. A preliminary University of New South Wales model mentioned by the NSW health minister Brad Hazzard on 15 December predicted up to 25,000 cases a day in that state alone by the end of January.

Last Tuesday, there were reports that the Doherty Institute was predicting Australia could have 200,000 new Covid cases a day by late January or early February under a "worst-case scenario", if no health settings were tightened.

However the reintroduction of indoor mask mandates and density limits in various states in recent days means that worst-case scenario models for daily cases are less likely to be reached, Lydeamore said.