Coronavirus (COVID-19) at a glance – 19 October 2021

As at 3pm on 19 October 2021, a total of 147,275 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in Australia, including 1,558 deaths, and approximately 27,118 active cases. 

• Over the past week, there has been an average of 2,283 new cases reported each day. Of the newly reported cases, the majority have been from Victoria.
• COVID-19 cases were reported across all ages:
  • The median age of all cases is 31 years (range: 0 to 106 years).
  • The median age of deaths is 84 years (range: 15 to 106 years).
• There is a relatively equal ratio of male-to-female cases across most age groups.
• In 2020, case numbers reached an initial peak at the end of March. This was followed by a period of low case numbers. In mid June 2020, case numbers started to increase before reaching a secondary peak in early August 2020. Case numbers gradually declined and remained low with spikes occurring in mid-late December 2020 and mid-late April 2021. From late June 2021, case numbers increased and are currently sitting at a peak.
• Of cases with a reported place of acquisition, 79% were locally acquired.
• The overall proportion of cases under investigation in each state and territory is relatively low, indicating that public health actions, including case identification and contact tracing, are occurring in a timely manner.
• To date, more than 41,371,500 tests have been conducted nationally. Of those tests conducted, 0.4% have been positive.
• The ‘cases in aged care services’ table presents the number of cases that have been reported among care recipients in Australian Government-subsidised residential and in-home care settings in each state and territory.

View the latest information on our case numbers and statistics page.