a sars-cov-2 infection was reported, that of a chinese citizen who arrived from guangzhou on 19 january. the patient was tested and received treatment in melbourne. on the same day, three other patients tested positive in sydney after returning from wuhan. first wave: march–april 2020 australia reported its 100th case on 10 march 2020 roughly corresponding to the start of australia's first wave. case numbers and deaths continued to climb during march and april, but by late april the first wave had effectively ended. on 6 june, both new south wales and victoria reported no new cases for the previous 24 hours, with only queensland and western australia reporting one new (international) case each, the lowest national total since february. second wave: june–october 2020 on 20 june, the victorian government announced the re-tightening of restrictions on household gatherings following a spike in community transmitted cases over the previous week, reported to be mainly caused by family-to-family transmission in large household gatherings. most easing of restrictions that were to take place were postponed. the same day restrictions were re-tightened in victoria, the western australian government announced the state would move into "phase 4" from 27 june, permitting some of the most relaxed restrictions in the country. on 26 october, the "second wave" ended when victoria recorded zero new cases and zero deaths statewide for the first time since 9 june. on the same day, daniel andrews announced a significant easing of restrictions to take effect over the coming weeks. from 11.59 pm on 27 october, people no longer required a reason to leave home, all retail, restaurants, hotels, cafes and bars were allowed to open with capacity limits, beauty, personal services and tattooing will reopen, outdoor community sport for under 18 and outdoor non-contact sport for adults recommenced, a maximum of 10 people were allowed to attend weddings, a maximum of 20 mourners allowed to attend funerals and faith and religious gatherings allowed to resume, subject to patron limitations. with a length of 112 days, this victorian covid-19 lockdown was the longest continuous lockdown world-wide, as of october 2020. third wave: june 2021 – present victoria recorded no deaths between late october 2020 and august 2021. there were then none in new south wales until 10 july 2021. on 18 june in nsw, a sars-cov-2 delta variant covid-19 cluster in sydney's eastern suburbs had grown to 4 cases. on 25 june in nsw, after 22 new cases of the delta variant brought infections linked to the bondi cluster to 65 total, an initial lockdown was announced for four sydney local government areas (lgas). new south wales recorded its "worst day" of its continuing june 2021 outbreak of the covid-19 delta variant on 29 august 2021, with six deaths, and a record 1,218 new local confirmed cases. whilst the daily number of cases continues to increase, at the time this was the highest daily confirmed case total australia had received on a single day, surpassing victoria's record in the previous wave. however, the recorded covid-19 deaths is significantly lower than the 41 daily deaths recorded in victoria during its peak. on 30 august in nsw, the ministry of health reported four deaths in the previous 24 hours of people confirmed to have had covid-19. one of them, a man in his 50s who died at dubbo hospital, is believed to be the first aboriginal or torres strait islander covid-19 related death. he was not vaccinated. the total number of covid related deaths in nsw reached 149 since the beginning of the pandemic, and 93 during the nsw delta outbreak. the official national death toll broke 1,000 at 1,002. on 31 august in victoria, the deaths of two women were reported, the first covid deaths in that state since 30 november 2020 which ended a nine-month streak with no fatalities. as of 9 october 2021 at least 431 nsw residents had died since the june outbreak of the delta variant in sydney. australia began to re-open to the world from 1 november 2021, with vaccinated australian citizens and permanent residents allowed to enter nsw and victoria without being restricted by strict flight cap numbers or long hotel quarantine stays from that date. on 8 november, queensland premier annastacia palaszczuk announced that as of 17 december, all eligible unvaccinated citizens over the age of 16 will be banned from pubs, clubs, cafes, restaurants, cinemas, theatres, music festivals and stadiums, government-owned galleries, museums and libraries, and they will not be allowed to visit hospitals, aged care facilities, prisons or disability services, among other restrictions. the premier described this as "a reward for the fully vaccinated and a precaution for when the borders open", and stated that restrictions are expected to continue into 2022. on 28 november 2021, nsw health confirmed two returned travellers have tested positive for the new omicron covid-19 variant in sydney, making them the first known cases of the strain in australia. on 29 november, a positive case of the omicron variant was recorded at the howard springs quarantine facility, from a return traveller who arrived at darwin on 25 november from johannesburg, south africa. the same day, two passengers who had flown to sydney from southern africa via singapore also tested positive for the omicron variant. on 30 november, a positive case of the omicron variant was recorded in sydney. the person had visited southern africa before arriving in sydney prior to travel restrictions, and was subsequently active in the community in sydney and the central coast. on 3 december, a positive omicron variant case was confirmed in the act. most public health restrictions were lifted in december 2021, after 90% of the australian population were vaccinated. the sars-cov-2 omicron variant drove a record rise in infections, leading to new south wales to have one of the highest infection rates worldwide. 2022 on 18 january 2022, 77 covid-19 deaths were reported in australia, the highest number so far, though not all occurred on the same day (17 january). there were 36 in new south wales, 22 in victoria, 16 in queensland, 2 in south australia, and 1 in the australian capital territory. on 22 january 2022, australia exceeded 3,000 deaths related to covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. by 4 february 2022, 4,000 covid-19 related deaths were exceeded. this increased to 5,000 by 23 february. other states and territories followed over the next few months. finally on 21 february 2022 border restrictions were removed for all vaccinated people, including non-citizens such as tourists and new immigrants, effectively opening australia up to the world. on 18 april 2022 further restrictions on international travel that had been imposed under the biosecurity act were removed, allowing cruise ships to operate in australia for the first time in over 2 years (although only in states where the state government was willing to allow cruise ships, such as nsw, queensland and victoria). from mid-october 2022, the number of cases trend was rising. statistics covid-19 pandemic in australia by state and territory location cases deaths recoveries active hospital tests notes ref. 12 / 12 6,635,645 7,807 6,239,947 387,891 3,101 70,938,962 australian capital territory 119,548 58 113,046 6,444 75 1,088,553 new south wales 2,447,877 2,970 2,308,016 136,891 1,437 31,514,416 northern territory 68,139 46 66,131 1,962 22 1,088,553 queensland 1,089,495 940 1,047,736 40,819 435 7,452,195 south australia 464,841 403 437,598 26,840 248 4,745,163 tasmania 150,983 65 144,841 6,077 44 662,730 victoria 1,734,100 3,138 1,651,038 79,924 526 20,794,566 western australia 560,662 187 471,541 88,934 314 3,592,786 norfolk island 515 0 451 64 38 1,054 jervis bay territory 4 0 — — — — christmas island 33 0 33 0 — — cocos (keeling) islands 27 0 26 1 — — updated may 16, 2022 diagnosed in australia; nationality and location of original infection may vary. data sourced from state and federal governments; where there are inconsistencies, federal reporting takes precedence. under national notifiable diseases surveillance system reporting requirements, cases are reported based on their australian jurisdiction of residence rather than where they were detected. cumulative reported confirmed cases at time of update. actual case numbers may be higher. active cases based on state definition of active. does not necessarily equate to the total cases minus deaths and recoveries. cumulative hospitalisations. there are around 95,000 hospital beds in australia (3.8 beds/1000 people). nsw reporting two queenslanders who died in nsw. nsw total cases and recoveries include 189 historical cases in crew members on board a ship that were subsequently classified as australian cases and included in nsw totals. nt reporting one extra case and recovery. federal and tasmanian reporting differ by 2 fewer cases. the following charts represent the daily new confirmed number of cases in the whole of australia. it is based on reports by the johns hopkins center for health security. clusters the largest cluster in australia from the start of the pandemic until 5 november 2021, when australia reached its 80 percent vaccination target and entered the consolidation phase of its covid-19 transition plan, was the flemington/north melbourne public housing cluster with 310 cases. the deadliest cluster in australia was at st basil's homes for the aged in victoria, where 45 residents died. responses