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All of this is to say that a favorable international comparison should not encourage complacency. However, it is true that Victoria’s efforts are remarkable on the world stage. The state’s success has avoided significant human cost and further economic damage. As a result, Australia has a much better chance of returning to an approach to “normal life” in the new year.
Victorians should be proud of these efforts, and the markedly different results in countries that were in a similar position should assure them that the efforts were worth it.
Surfing the second wave: Victoria, Singapore, then in daylight
On 5 August, Victoria’s seven-day average of daily new cases reached 533, the worst number seen anywhere in Australia.
Several other countries had similar numbers at the time, including Canada, Japan, Singapore, and most of Europe. They had taken different paths to get there; for Europe, these numbers represented a low ebb, not a peak. But the trajectories after this period diverged even more dramatically.
As the chart below shows, the number of cases in several European countries started to accelerate abruptly and is now much worse than ever. In contrast, Japan, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, and Australia have so far kept the number of cases at a moderate level.
