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Data centre and notes

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The context in which these data are being collected and documented is unique. We are attempting to track in as timely a manner as possible an unfolding epidemic in which information is limited. Australia's federal system means separate jurisdictions take responsibility for healthcare and report it in different ways. At times, discretion and adaptation have been required. We've tried to document these below.

 

We are grateful to collaborators and especially readers for the many pieces of feedback and advice that have helped with information and decision-making. If you would like to send a comment or request, please get in touch.

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Index
 

  1. Sources

  2. Data downloads

  3. Per capita calculations

  4. Outbreak alerts

  5. New daily cases versus net daily cases

  6. True daily cases

  7. Confirmed cases and deaths

  8. Calculating rolling averages

  9. Active cases and recoveries

  10. Transmission sources

  11. Cases detected inside and outside hotel quarantine

  12. Testing

  13. Hospitalisations

  14. Clusters

  15. Vaccines

Sources


(Please see About page to read who collects, researches and collaborates on this data.)

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Sources

​Data downloads

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You can download our underlying data in the following ways:

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  • Most charts have an icon in the bottom left-hand corner that allows you to download a CSV file.

  • Matt Bolton compiles and uploads our key datasets at his github repository:

    • Confimed cases

    • Deaths

    • Tests

    • Positive Tests

    • Recovered

    • Hospitalised

    • ICU beds

    • Ventilators

  • David Barry uploads transmission sources data (which he provides to this site) at his github respository.

  • View our working spreadsheet tracking COVID-19 deaths in Australia.

 

Please drop us a line to let us know when and how you use the data.

 

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Per capita calculations

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Per capita calculations use population data as of 31 March 2020. Source: ABS. (Note this is updated as the ABS releases new population data. Previous data were September 2019, December 2019).

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Outbreak alerts

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  • Outbreak alerts above the daily briefing are designed to give a quick view of current local outbreaks. 

  • Calculating Totals: all local cases throughout the outbreak period are included. Cases may be from different originating sources and separate outbreaks, unless the breakdown between outbreaks is clearly reported. Examples:

    • In May and June 2021, Victoria had Kappa and Delta outbreaks in Melbourne. These were combined on this site because they both fell into the same lockdown period.

    • Through June to July 2021, QLD had at least 13 different incursion events of both Alpha and Delta variants. The totals in these outbreak alerts were a sum of all local cases during the relevant period. This site originally showed totals for the main local outbreaks, but separate totals became unclear. 

    • The QLD Indooropilly outbreak is reported and tracked separately.

    • 2 new outbreaks in VIC in early August are currently being added to the overall total of the Delta outbreak in July by this site. The sources of infection for the index cases are unknown. 

  • All figures are based on true or net daily cases, not the number of cases announced. E.g. QLD and VIC have added more local cases to its total than announced. There are also downwards revisions at times. The total reflects the sum of local cases added to the state's data. 

  • Queensland does not report the local / OS breakdown of active cases. The number of QLD local actives is calculated based on announced cases in the last 14 days. 

Downloads
per capita
outbreak alerts

New daily cases vs net daily cases

[Data downloads available]

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Summary: The number of new cases each day may differ from the net number of cases added to the total. The Daily briefing on the homepage shows new cases and net added cases in brackets. e.g. 7(+4) = 7 new cases, but only 4 added to the total because 3 previous cases were removed. Epicurves on the site primarily new cases, or in the case of Victoria, official data based on case notifications (which revise daily case numbers to remove duplicates). For the net case epicurves, use the links below.

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Several scenarios have led this site to track new daily cases and net daily cases separately. For example, cases are occasionally moved between jurisdictions to comply with national reporting standards that require reporting based on residency rather than locality. This causes cumulative totals to be adjusted upwards or downwards depending on whether the state or territory is sending or receiving the case/s. (In the past, they did not always announce these types of cases explicitly; they simply made adjustments to the running totals). Downward adjustments may also occur after cases have been ruled out following further investigation or false positive results. During Victoria's second wave, the state removed many cases each day due to 'duplicates'. Another scenario that is increasingly frequent is the confirmation of 'historical' cases following serology testing. This is slightly different from the other situations because these cases do still represent new additions to Australia's case numbers, however they are not 'new' cases in an active sense. 

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To help make sense of these daily announcements and adjustments, this site tracks new daily cases and net daily cases separately. The goal is to make sure we can see how many new 'active' cases there are, separately from historical cases or technical adjustments.

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Other sites tracking COVID-19 cases in Australia usually track net cases added. i.e. Daily cases are calculated by subtracting yesterday's total from today's. Previously this site took that approach also, however it changed policy with respect to downward adjustments as of 15 April 2020, upward adjustments as of 12 May 2020 and newly confirmed 'historical' cases on 17 May 2020. These changes in policy have resulted in some retrospective changes to the epicurve which have been documented below via the charts that show the difference between new confirmed and net added cases.

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While the main epicurve, which is on the homepage and states and territories page, shows new daily confirmed cases that are announced by states and territories, this collection of charts is designed to give the full picture of Australia's daily confirmed cases of COVID-19. Data is updated live and downloadable by clicking the download icon in the bottom left-hand corner of each chart. 

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1. New daily confirmed cases (i.e. new confirmed cases as announced)
 

  • View and download national data here.​

  • View and download state and territory data here.​

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2.  Net daily added cases (i.e. cases added to reach announced total)
 

  • View and download national data here.​

  • View and download state and territory data here.​

 

3. Difference between new confirmed and net added cases
 

(Also shows revisions to the epicurve that come out of the changes in approach). 

  • View and download national data here.​

  • View and download state and territory data here.​

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4. Cumulative total of confirmed cases
 

  • View and download national data here.​

  • View and download state and territory data here.​

Net vs new cases

'True daily cases'

 

  • In the section above, we discussed the difference between new and net cases. (A state may announce X new daily cases ("new"), while adding a different number to its cumulative total ("net"). This happens when previous cases are removed (e.g. due to duplication or false positives) or historical cases are added).

  • However, there is a third way of capturing daily case numbers, which is actually the truest reflection of daily cases: official case notification data that come from state dashboards or datasets. This site refers to these as 'true daily cases'.

  • This is relevant for NSW and Victoria - the main states that release official data based on case notification dates that are different from the new or net cases announced. This is especially important for Victoria, which has removed large numbers of duplicate cases each day throughout the second wave.

  • For example, let's say Victoria announces 75 new cases today, and adds 60 cases to its total, because 15 previous cases were duplicates and have been removed. We would record 75 "new" cases and 60 "net" cases for that particular day. However, the official case notification data would not necessarily show either. This is because the official data are revised to remove those 15 duplicate cases from their true dates, which is often scattered across several days. What's more, the official data are dynamic and daily case numbers change retrospectively as duplicates are removed. So even if it shows 75 cases today, that may be revised downward tomorrow or the day after, as duplicate cases are removed. True daily cases are sourced from the Victoria dashboard and NSW datasets.

  • Crucially, these data are revised retrospectively as cases are investigated or reconciled. Therefore, any data showing 'true daily cases' is dynamic.

  • What is the date of case notification? Data NSW responded to an enquiry from this site and said it is date test sample was taken, which was later found to be incorrect. NSW Health Surveillance Reports state Date of notification is 'Laboratory notifies NSW Health of result: This date is provided to NSW Health by the laboratory. Laboratories prioritise notification of positive results to allow prompt public health action.' Victoria DHHS did not respond to enquiries from this site, however it appears to be the date the case was confirmed also.

  • This site generally records data against the date of announcement or publication. To align true daily cases with the rest of the site, they cases are recorded with a date one day later than their official dates.​

  • VICTORIA: To compare Victoria's new, net and true daily cases, view this live spreadsheet. (If you find this useful, we'd love to know).

True daily

Confirmed cases and deaths

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  • Cases and deaths are recorded on the day they are announced or published to the public. This means cases recorded on today's date reflect the previous day's reporting period, except in the case of Tasmania. Tasmania generally reports cases from the current day that evening. That means while Tasmania appears to be the last to report, it is in fact the first. After 13 June 2020 (following 0 active cases in Tasmania), there is generally no official announcement about cases in Tasmania until the federal department of health updates its website at night. This site updates Tasmania's cases with 0 at the end of the reporting day (in conjunction with the last state to report) and if new cases are reported by Tasmania that evening, we will reopen and revise.

  • 2 Queenslanders who died in NSW are reported in Queensland figures.

  • At least 2 overseas tourists (non-residents) who died in Western Australia have been included.

  • 20 March 2020: NSW brought its reporting time forward, creating a lower than usual figure for that day. 

  • 6 April 2020: 1 Northern Territory case was removed due to double-count with NSW. (Action taken 1 May 2020).

  • There are ongoing discrepancies between the cumulative total number of confirmed cases as reported by individual states and territories compared with those reported by the federal government. This site currently reconciles with federal figures. The current and ongoing discrepancies in confirmed cases are:

    • Tasmania reports -2 (due to residency)

    • NSW reports -189 (historic cases reported in crew members on board the Ruby Prince cruise ship. They were included on 3 July and for time series purposes assigned to 15 April. NSW Health did not add these cases to its reported total, issuing the following statement in a media release: 189 historic COVID-19 cases reported in crew members on board the Ruby Princess were reclassified as Australian cases and included in NSW totals reported by the Commonwealth Department of Health. These cases were reported as Australian cases to the World Health Organisation as part of the Australian Government’s international reporting obligations. The cases were reported by NSW Health at the time of diagnosis, but were not included in NSW totals as they were on board the ship and not in NSW when diagnosed. The cases were not associated with any further transmissions in Australia as they were managed on board the cruise ship. 

    • The Northern Territory reports +1 compared with federal figures (due to residency). (On 10 November 2020, federal figures added +1 case to the NT, which the Territory did not add, bringing the federal total temporarily into line with that reported by NT. Federal figures failed to add a new NT case two days later, restoring the +1 difference. On 28 October 2020, NT added an overseas-acquired case to its cumulative total, citing the case as an interstate resident. This case was not added to the NT total reported by federal authorities, however appeared to be added on 30 October when the federally reported NT total increased by +1. This site reconciled with federal figures by adding the case retrospectively to NT's new cases dated 28 October 2020).

  • There are ongoing discrepancies between the deaths as reported by individual states and territories compared with those reported by the federal government. This site currently reconciles with federal figures. The current and ongoing discrepancies in deaths are:

    • NSW reports +2 deaths​ (this includes: 1) 1 death of a Queenslander who died in NSW that is counted by both states; 2) An 85-year-old man who died on April 27. His death was not initially classified as COVID-19-related. On 25 June 2020, NSW Health announced that his death had been reclassified as COVID-19 related, following new national guidance on the classification of deaths. This death was added to the NSW death toll, but it was not added to the  national tally. 

  • Running totals of confirmed cases may be adjusted upwards or downwards outside of announced confirmed cases. Please see the section above (new daily cases vs net daily cases) for details.

  • Interstate transfers: where a state announces 'new' cases but verbally specifies that some are 'old' due to interstate transfers, the old cases will not be added to the 'new' epicurve, but added only to the net daily additional cases. 

  • Historical cases following serology testing: Some states have intermittently announced historical cases following serology testing. Western Australia was the only state do so consistently. This site dealt with those announcements by adding these cases as 'net' cases to the cumulative total, but not as 'new' cases. On 1 August 2020, Western Australia made the following announcement: "WA is changing the way cases of COVID-19 are reported, bringing WA reporting closer into line with other Australian jurisdictions. Historical cases will be removed from the State total, meaning the total case count will decrease." A total of 28 historical cases were removed from the total. This website incorporated this change on 9 August 2020, (after both the federal and state dashboards accurately reflected the reduced cumulative totals). Due to the fact that these historical cases had been recorded separately as upward adjustments to the net totals, and not new cases, this site was able to remove these cases from the actual days on which they were announced, preserving the epicurve. If you would like a record of the historical cases that were removed, please contact us. Note that this affected WA recoveries also. When the state announced a historical case, it immediately called it 'recovered'. Therefore, these cases have were removed as recoveries from the correct days on the epicurve. 

  • 18 May 2020: The federal government added +3 net cases for both Victoria and Western Australia in order to reconcile cumulative totals. The originating dates of these cases are not clear, but based on previous downward adjustments that had caused the totals reported by the federal government to diverge from those reported by the states, the cases are likely to be: +2 on 12 May and +1 on 14 May for Victoria:, and +2 on 13 May and +1 on 16 May for Western Australia. Cases that had previously been removed from the net cases on these days have been reinstated.

  • 23 May 2020: Federal figures released by the Department of Health did not add new cases to Western Australia (+3) or Queensland (+2), leading to a total national figure of -5. This site generally reconciles with federal figures at the end of each day. Today however, federal figures are irreconcilable with remaining active cases in Western Australia and Queensland. Therefore this site currently reflects the totals as reported by the states, rather than the federal government. ​

  • On 7 August 2020, QLD announced a downward revision of 1 case; however this case was reinstated the following day. The downward revision was removed. 

  • 4 September 2020: Tasmania announced +1 historical case, which was not added to the national toll. (Source).

  • Duplicate deaths in Victoria: Victoria has added net x-1 deaths on 4 occasions, without updating the age and gender of the removed (duplicate) death. This means the age / gender count on this site exceeds the total death toll by 4. The relevant dates are:

    • 10 August 2020: DHHS announced there were 19 new deaths, net +18 added to toll due to a duplication from the previous day. (Noted in press release). Date removed from one line item in order to remove the count of 1 death from 9 August. 

    • 11 August 2020: DHHS announced there were 19 new deaths, net +18 added to toll due to a duplication from the previous day. (Noted in press release). Date removed from one line item in order to remove the count of 1 death from 10 August.

    • 28 August 2020: The Premier announced there were 12 new deaths, but net +11 added to the toll. (Not noted in press release). Date removed from one line item in order to remove the count of 1 death from 27 August.

    • 29 August 2020: The Premier announced there were 18 new deaths, net +17 added to toll. (Not noted in press release). Date removed from one line item in order to remove the count of 1 death from 28 August.

    • 20 September 2020: DHHS announced there were 5 new deaths, net +4 added to toll due to a duplication from a previous day. The day was not specified. The gender / age of this duplicate was not announced or confirmed. Date removed from one line item on 19 September in order to remove the count of 1 death. Awaiting confirmation of details.

  • Delayed notifications of deaths in Victoria: Victoria's DHHS has said the strengthening of national reporting requirements relating to deaths in aged care facilities has resulted in delayed notifications of COVID-19-related deaths. This means that on several days, the new number of deaths (i.e. notified the previous day) differs from the net number added to the total. DHHS has not released information about actual dates of delayed deaths. Therefore, they have been added to the toll on the dates they were announced. To see the specific dates and announcements, see the data notes column in the live working spreadsheet. 

  • 12 June 2022: On 6/6, the federal dashboard reported a cumulative total of 759,435 for WA, which meant 16,459 cases removed. On 7/6 it reported a total of 781,496, which meant 16,274 added. This site reconciles with the federal dashboard. It originally followed the additions to reach the cumulative totals as reported. On 12/6 it was retrospectively revised to remove both these adjustments. This left 0 adjustments on 6/6 (unknown cumulative total) and an adjustment of -185 on 7/6 to reach the reported cumulative total of 781,496.

Cases and deaths

Calculating rolling averages

 

  • In the sections above, we discussed the difference new versus net cases and true daily cases.

  • Different sites may calculate moving averages using any of these inputs.

  • This site prefers to use the last of these as they give the truest indication of daily case numbers (and it is also what Victoria DHHS uses for its roadmap triggers).

  • As discussed, using true daily cases means retrospectively incorporating changes to data - especially the removal of duplicates, as is the case in Victoria.

  • True daily cases are not known until the dashboards / datasets are updated. Therefore this site first updates Victoria's 7-day and 14-day statewide averages using the gross new number of cases announced. It then adjusts this average late in the day when the dashboard publishes the true daily cases. This is preferable to updating with net cases in the meantime, as that would require another adjustment.

  • However is not possible to use true daily cases when calculating averages of metro and regional Victoria as we do not have data of the metro / regional breakdowns of true daily cases; we only know the net cases added to the cumulative totals. Therefore we are limited to recording Victoria's metro and regional averages as announced by DHHS, rather than tracking them independently. 

  • As well as rolling averages, the Victorian roadmap to recovery hinges on rolling totals of cases from an unknown source (community spread). These data are published on this page. While the 14-day average for total cases is updated daily and reflects the rolling 14 day period up until midnight the previous day, the 14-day period for the source of acquisition data ends 48 hours earlier. DHHS says, "this allows for the case interview to have been conducted and an initial determination to made about the source of acquisition. As each case is further analysed its status may be changed accordingly, particularly from unknown to known source of acquisition. The two day delay means that this report may differ from the data provided as part of the daily data reporting." 

Averages

Active cases and recoveries

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  • Before 5 April 2020, not all states and territories reported recoveries. The federal Department of Health began publishing recoveries on this date which created a jump for some jurisdictions.​​​

  • 5 August 2020: NSW Health stopped updating recoveries. It published "NSW Health has suspended its survey of the recovery status of patients with COVID-19 to focus on the recent increase in community transmission. Therefore, recovery statistics are no longer presented. For further information, visit NSW COVID-19 case statistics." NSW still removes 'inactive cases'. See below.

  • 20 August 2020: Victoria reclassified a large number of cases as recovered / inactive. This is called 'release from isolation'. It takes place following an interview with the patient making sure symptoms have cleared and enough time has lapsed since start of illness. 

  • 10 September 2021: NSW removed 13,911 active cases.

  • There are ongoing and inconsistent discrepancies between the number of remaining active cases as reported by the federal authorities and those collectively reported by the state and territories. While this site reconciles with federal figures for overall numbers, it reconciles with states and territories to report how many active cases are in their jurisdiction.    

  • This site reflects state and territory figures with the following adjustments: 

    • As noted above, Tasmania reports -2 confirmed cases compared with federal figures. This site has included these cases in Tasmania's cumulative total (in order to reconcile with federal figures) but to date, has not included them in Tasmania's recoveries or active cases. This is in order to align with the figures Tasmania reports.

    • 2 deaths double-counted by Queensland and NSW (allocated to Queensland by this site and federal Department of Health) are being used by both states to calculate remaining active cases. The jurisdiction in which these people were originally counted as confirmed cases is unclear. This site reports the number of active cases as announced by each state.​

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When does an active case become a recovery?

 

The answer varies across states and territories. 

  • The national guidelines for COVID-19 define conditions for release from isolation:

    • For asymptomatic cases, at least 10 days must pass without symptoms since the first positive test sample was taken;

    • For mild cases, at least 10 days must pass since the onset of symptoms, and there must have been no acute symptoms in the last 72 hours; and

    • There are further conditions for people who were hospitalised or will enter high-risk settings such as health care or residential age care facilities.

  • Spokespersons for ACT Health, Queensland Health, SA Health and WA Health all said recoveries are determined by public health officials who assess patient symptoms by interviewing the patient and make a determination based on the national guidelines. The Queensland Health website also refers to cases with a notification date of 30 days or more. A spokesperson for NT Health said a patient must return two consecutive negative test results.

  • NSW Health has published recoveries are assessed three weeks after the onset of illness by interviewing the case: cases reporting no symptoms are considered to have recovered and cases who have not recovered at three weeks are called in the following weeks until recovery. On 11 June 2020, NSW removed 104 active cases and published "Active cases are calculated as: total cases excluding persons recovered and lives lost. Cases that are not recorded as recovered or deceased after six weeks are not included.

  • Victoria DHHS and Tasmania Health did not respond to questions clarifying their processes. Analysis indicated Victoria allocated cases as 'recovered' approximately 10 days after test sample was taken (see the chart on the recoveries page that compares new cases with recoveries).

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Inactive cases versus recoveries

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  • Sometimes states classify cases as 'inactive' without formally classifying them as 'recovered', affecting the underlying calculation of cases, recoveries and deaths. I.e. The sum of active cases, recoveries and deaths does not necessarily reconcile with the total number of cases.

  • The reason why this is done is not always clear however:

    • Victoria: 

      • The sum of Victoria's reported recoveries, deaths and active cases did not equal the total number of cases reported by that state.

      • As of 22 May 2020, this site reflected Victoria's reported figures of recoveries and active cases separately despite this discrepancy.  

      • On 31 October 2020, Victoria's Health Minister and CHO announced 67 historical cases that had been allocated inactive but not recovered due to the patients being uncontactable, would be classified recovered if 28 days had passed since official notification and no death had been confirmed.

    • NSW:

      • NSW in particular has removed large numbers of active cases without formally classifying them.

      • On 11 June 2020, NSW removed 104 active cases and published "Active cases are calculated as: total cases excluding persons recovered and lives lost. Cases that are not recorded as recovered or deceased after six weeks are not included. 

      • On 12 June 2020, NSW removed a further 149 active cases. 

      • On 25 June 2020, NSW removed removed a further 90 active cases.

      • On 25 June 2020, NSW updated its definition of active cases. Previously, the state said cases were considered 'inactive' if the patient had not recovered or deceased after six weeks. NSW Health published 'active cases are locally acquired COVID-19 cases with onset in the last four weeks. This is based on the date the person first developed symptoms.' Why would the patient not have been formally classified as recovered? It appears that NSW assesses patient-reported symptoms in order to establish a formal recovery. It is possible that these patients have not been contacted regarding symptoms, however the timing of their disease indicates the case is no longer active.

      • On 3 July 2020, 189 historic cases reported in crew members on board the Ruby Prince cruise ship were added to the NSW total by the federal government. NSW Health did not add these cases to its reported total. (As noted above, this site reconciled with federal figures, adding the cases to the total). The federal government also added these cases to the recovered totals of NSW. This site currently calls these cases 'inactive' rather than 'recovered' as this shows the recovered figure as last reported by NSW and better reflects the state's approach to classifying cases as removed inactive unless a recovery has been positively determined.  

      • On 5 August 2020, NSW Health stopped updating recoveries. It published "NSW Health has suspended its survey of the recovery status of patients with COVID-19 to focus on the recent increase in community transmission. Therefore, recovery statistics are no longer presented. For further information, visit NSW COVID-19 case statistics." The recovery number shown on this site is the last figure published by NSW Health before it stopped. 

      • On 27 February 2021, NSW recommenced reporting overseas-acquired cases among 'active' cases in NSW. These are reported separately from locally-acquired cases. See source here.

    • Queensland: As of 4 June 2020, the sum of Queensland's reported recoveries, deaths and active cases does not equal the total number of cases reported by that state. The state has published ''Active' cases do not equal 'Total' cases less 'Deaths' less 'Recovered' cases, as information for some cases is still pending.' This site reflects Queensland's figures as reported.​​

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NSW: Active cases acquired overseas

  • As noted above, on 25 June 2020, NSW stopped including cases acquired overseas among its official 'active' cases figure. The state adopted a narrow definition of active cases, as locally-acquired cases with symptom onset in the last 28 days.

  • On 27 February 2021, the state recommenced reporting overseas-acquired cases among 'active' cases. These are reported separately from locally-acquired cases. 

  • All other states and territories have consistently included overseas-acquired cases among actives. This creates an inconsistency in reported active case numbers. 

  • This site has consistently reported NSW 'active' cases as the state itself reported them. This means for the period between 25 June 2020 and 27 February 2021, overseas-acquired cases were omitted from the active case data.  

  • In order to give an indication about the real number of active cases in the state during this period, this site includes a calculation that sums overseas-acquired cases from the previous 14 days. (Note, this approach was modified a couple of times, and previously used 21 days). The grey lines in the charts show the previous 14 days of OS cases as an indicator of active OS cases during this period of missing data.

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Active and recoveries
NSW HQ

Transmission sources

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  • Transmission sources come from a range of sources. NSW, Victoria, Western Australia and ACT provide time series data via data files or dashboards. Every other jurisdiction (including the Commonwealth) reveal transmission sources via press conferences, web pages or updates. There are two main differences between these sources: the date on which transmission sources are announced, and whether they retrospectively update earlier cases that have been reallocated. Daily updates are static representations of cases and transmission sources from which we can only capture what is announced on the day. Time series data are dynamic - they show cases according to notification dates and are updated retrospectively. Data NSW initially advised this site notification dates relate to when the test sample was taken but NSW Health Surveillance Reports state the date of notification is when the 'laboratory notifies NSW Health of result: This date is provided to NSW Health by the laboratory'. Differences between dates of announcements and notification has several impacts:

    • For those states that provide time series data (NSW, Victoria, WA and ACT), the daily announcements of transmission sources are accurate but do not necessarily match the dates in the official datasets.

    • The national view of transmission sources is a static display of cases that shows the developments in the past 24 hours. This includes allocation of new cases (which may or may not have been notified in that 24 hour period) and reallocation of older cases after further investigation. Therefore it will not necessarily show transmission sources on the same dates as the official data from NSW, Victoria, WA or ACT.

    • In general, this site ​reports information on the date it is announced or published, not the date on which a case is notified (which we do not always know). However, for transmission sources, this site now uses different approaches for different charts: 

      • The charts on the homepage are a direct reflection of announcements to the media and public. 

      • The charts on the page Transmission sources: national charts primarily source data from Commonwealth updates and are therefore static and based on announcement date.

      • The charts on the page Transmission sources: state and territory charts primarily source their respective data from the best possible source for that jurisdiction. For NSW, Victoria, WA and ACT, that is their time series data. (Caveat: as previously noted, cases are generally reported on this site against the date they were announced or published to the public, which means cases recorded on today's date refer to yesterday's reporting period. This creates confusion when case-line data (which has no delay) is placed alongside announcement-date data (which has one day's delay). Therefore, an artificial adjustment has been made in which the case-line data has been shifted forward by one day, to synchronise dates with the rest of the charts on this site).

      • Those jurisdictions that do not provide time series data have a different issue - it means that after a case is announced as 'under investigation' it is not often revisited for the sake of clarifying the transmission source to the public. This particularly occurs in Queensland. It affects the charts of daily transmission sources, but it's recommended you view the charts of cumulative totals on the transmission sources: state and territory charts page.

    • Important note re Victoria's transmission sources: As noted above, Victoria published caseline data that showed transmission sources of cases according to their real notification dates, by retrospectively updating the epicurve in the dashboard with information of each individual case's transmission source. On 25 August 2020, Victoria DHHS stopped providing this when it updated to a new dashboard. For 68 days, it provided transmission sources of active cases only, and running tallies of transmission sources once cases were closed. This affected multiple visualisations on this site. Between 25 August 2020 and 31 October 2020, the epicurve showed real caseline data up to 25 August and changes to running totals afterwards. Transmission sources shown by changes to running totals did not tell us the dates cases were notified. This particularly affected cases of community transmission, which are determined after a period of investigation. UPDATE: On 31 October 2020, Victoria reinstated official caseline data showing transmission sources on their true notification dates. All charts and data on this site were retrospectively updated.

  • Charts go back as far as respective available data allow. This varies depending on the jurisdiction.

  • Negative values have been included in some charts to show movement between categories, but large removals of 'under investigation' cases have not always been included.

  • Transmission source updates are limited on weekends due to availability of data.

  • Western Australia ​may allocate a case as 'known local contact' rather than 'overseas acquired', despite the patient having a history of overseas travel and the case being detected while inside hotel quarantine. For example, on 20 September 2020, WA allocated one new case (a 13-year-old male) as 'known local contact', saying he had returned to Perth from overseas, was a close contact of a confirmed case and was in hotel quarantine. ​This site records such cases to accurately reflect the state's allocation method, however these cases are not counted as 'locally acquired' for the purposes of the counter on the states and territories page.

  • ACT: On 11 October 11 2020, federal figures reporting ACT transmission sources showed a move of five cases from interstate to local cases with a known source. This change was reflected in the ACT dashboard at a later date. Data from the ACT dashboard retrospectively adjust cases based on their true dates. The relevant adjustments were made to this site on 4 November 2020.

  • 14 November 2020: Victoria retrospectively moved 515 cases from unknown local source to known local source. Victoria's  Deputy CHO announced this was done after an algorithmic analysis. As this site shows Victoria's true daily cases, these cases were retrospectively revised according to their true notification dates.

  • 4 April 2021: NT's dashboard shows 1 active interstate case. This site originally recorded a case as having been acquired interstate. NT Health confirmed this case is in fact ADF personnel who acquired Covid overseas, however has been recorded as interstate as opposed to a repatriation flight. This flight recorded the case as OS-acquired. 

  • 20 May 2021: ACT's transmission sources on the federal health webpage showed reallocation of 5 cases from 'acquired by a known local source' to 'acquired interstate'. After some adjustments, the federal health page did not make this change. This site has reconciled with federal figures.

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In focus: NSW

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  1. ​What is announced to the public - shown in the table under 'New today' and in the first chart in the tab 'Last 14 days (new)'.  

  2. True daily cases from the NSW dataset - shown in the first chart in the last 3 tabs: (Last 14 days (true), Last 3 months (true) and Last 6 months (true).

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  • Why capture each one? 

  1. What is announced to the public - this is what people expect to see, based on what they might have read, seen or heard that day. It also captures the message from NSW Health, which is essentially a 'cut to the chase' summary of today's cases.

  2. True daily cases from the NSW dataset - this is the most accurate data showing daily cases in NSW. The important thing to understand here is that these data show cases on their notification dates. NSW Health Surveillance Reports state date of notification is when the 'laboratory notifies NSW Health of result: This date is provided to NSW Health by the laboratory'. (Although, we have to add a +1 day delay to this, to make the data align with the rest of the site.) So on the tabs '3 (or 6) months' in the transmission sources chart, if you see transmission sources such as 3 overseas-acquired, 2 known, 1 unknown on 12 October, this means these are the respective transmission sources for confirmed cases the notification dates for which were 12 October (11 October in reality, but delayed by one day on this site for consistency). 

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  • What to understand:

  • Notification dates do not necessarily align with announcement dates in a uniform way. Seven new cases announced today might actually come from different notification dates. This means the seven cases will not necessarily be added to today's date. It could be five to today, and two to the day before.

  • True daily cases represent the official record of transmission sources. Therefore, it does not 'cut to the chase' in the same way announcements in press conferences might. It shows the official status of a case. Very occasionally, these can be quite different. E.g. This occurred on 13/14 October 2020: NSW Health announced several cases as being linked to a known cluster - therefore, we would chalk them up as 'known' - but the original source of this cluster is still not identified, so they were all added to the official record as having an unknown source. 

  • True daily cases data are retrospectively updated. So when these cases are officially closed, the transmission sources recorded on previous days will change.

  • Further notes on NSW data:

    • Publication of data in the NSW datasets may be delayed - especially on weekends. When this occurs, cases are added as announced and updated with official case notification data when released.

    • 3 June 2020: there were changes made to the NSW dataset which saw cases shift by 1-2 days and some retrospective revisions.

    • 8 June 2020: NSW Health published "the source of 13 previously reported cases has been updated. These cases are known secondary and tertiary infections acquired from people infected overseas who were reported between 24 March and 11 April, and have therefore been reclassified from ‘acquired overseas’ to ‘locally acquired’ as part of ongoing data quality checks."

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Alert: NSW data changes 19.11.21​

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  • NSW introduced quarantine-free travel on 1 November 2021. In mid-November, NSW Health stopped reporting in the morning updates whether cases were locally or overseas-acquired. On 19 November, it stopped updating the transmission source datasets, with this message: 'From 19 November, NSW Health will no longer provide a breakdown of locally acquired and overseas acquired COVID-19 cases in its daily updates, but a total of all cases. With quarantine-free international travel, overseas origin of cases can no longer be determined immediately, but will be included in the NSW Health COVID-19 weekly surveillance reports.'

  • This website has relied on the NSW transmission sources dataset for a range of charts. The discontinuation of the dataset has led to the following changes: 

    • ‘True’ transmission sources may no longer be possible to track. Surveillance reports will update these but are likely to only update local v overseas-acquired. They are released every 1 or 2 weeks. If the data are compatible, this site will use the surveillance report data to continue updating.

    • ‘True’ daily cases may still be possible to track using the case locations dataset as it appears this dataset will continue to be updated. When updates are delayed, this site uses ‘new’ cases until the ‘true’ cases are updated.

    • Net transmission sources continue to be reported via the federal dashboard. This site previously reconciled net totals with NSW data. Adapting to reconcile with federal data on 23.11.21 has led to two key changes from this date:

      • Unknown source versus under investigation: The federal dashboard reported cases under investigation as 'unknown source'. Therefore, this site has reallocated a large number of cases from under investigation to unknown source on 23/11/21, in order to reflect the federal data.

      • 189 passengers on board the Ruby Princess: NSW did not include these in its reported OS-acquired cases, however the federal dashboard did. This site has added added these cases to the net total of NSW OS-acquired cases as of 23/11/21.

    • Contact tracing status no longer possible.

Transmissions
NSW

​Cases detected inside and outside quarantine

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  • Charts representing cases detected inside and outside quarantine capture media announcements, through press conferences, media releases and tweets. 

  • Cases detected inside Hotel Quarantine may be explicitly stated, but this is assumed for all cases that were acquired overseas (which is always explicitly stated) since mandatory hotel quarantine commenced.

  • The category of 'Local cases detected inside quarantine / isolation for potential exposure' was added in September 2020, after Queensland and NSW began to give this information at press conferences.

  • NSW Health began including this information in its Weekly Surveillance reports from August 2020. NSW has an explicit definition for these cases: they must have been in isolation for the full 48 hours before symptom onset ('infectious period'); not simply in isolation when diagnosed.

  • Queensland is consistent in its reporting of whether cases were in isolation for potential exposure. NSW and Victoria are less consistent. For this reason, the final category - cases detected outside quarantine or isolation - includes cases whose detection circumstances were not specified.

  • Cases are only included in the category 'Local cases detected inside quarantine / isolation for potential exposure' when explicitly stated. Therefore this category may be under-representative of what has actually occurred, but it will not be over-representative.

  • Hotel Quarantine includes at-sea quarantine. This is particularly relevant for Western Australian cases.

  • To read about active cases inside Hotel Quarantine in NSW, see the section above.

  • Interstate travellers may be included in Hotel Quarantine, especially for Tasmania and South Australia and all states receiving visitors from Victoria.

quarantine

​Testing

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  • The Federal Department of Health has reported test numbers since 5 April 2020. Previously, data came from state and territory websites, dashboards, media releases and press conferences. Prior to 5 April, not all days were reported / captured for each jurisdiction. 

  • While the Federal Department of Health has reported this metric as 'tests done', it has become progressively clear that testing units have been reportedly inconsistently:

    • On 1 May 2020, Western Australia changed from reporting 'number of individuals tested' to 'number of tests completed'.

    • On 26 May 2020, NSW changed from reporting 'people tested' to 'tests performed' creating a significant rise on that day. The state provides this explanation about the tests that are included.

    • On 27 May 2020, a large jump in Victoria's reported tests indicates a similar change. 

  • There have been instances of bulk removals or additions to testing totals: 

    • ​On 8 June 2020, Victoria removed 12,142 duplicate negative tests.

    • From 20 June 2020, WA has stopped reporting tests on weekends, which creates a larger number reported on Mondays.

    • On 22 June 2020, Queensland reported an additional 38,500 retrospective tests, which were conducted by a private pathology provider.

    • On 10 July 2020, NSW Health reduced the number of tests conducted in NSW by 8,598 from the total after identifying they were interstate tests incorrectly reported through the automated reporting process.

    • On 29 July 2020, SA Health reported a large increase in tests, saying today’s data including an additional private laboratory.

    • From 2 August 2020, Victoria reported rounded estimates of daily tests due to technical constraints. 

    • On 8 August 2020, Victoria removed 11.984 tests from its total. This is possibly to account for rounding errors from the previous week. 

    • On 2 September 2020, Victoria DHHS added  82,309 tests, making a total of 2,331,261 test results have been received by the department since 1 January. This included a data correction of 47,962 tests conducted before 1 August; 17,249 delayed tests from one laboratory; and 17,098 received in the past 24 hours. The Federal Department of Health updated the national testing tally accordingly the following day.​

    • On 19 November 2020, reported tests from SA Health diverged from those reported by Federal Department of Health. This website reconciled with tests reported by SA Health. On 31 December 2020, SA Health reported 5,996 tests but added 4,386 to total. This site initially added the reported daily tests. However, this was later amended on 1/1/20 to add only the net difference of 4,386 in order to reconcile with the the SA Health. This reduced addition also matched the reported total from Federal DOH that day, meaning the two reporting streams reconciled once again.​

Testing
NSW data changes

Hospitalisations

  • Data for clusters are collected primarily from Federal Department of Health figures, released either via the Department of Health website or PDF updates from Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, as well as state and territory dashboards.

    • NSW Health reports out-patients who are receiving care also. This metric is not reported by Federal DOH or any other jurisdiction. NSW Health reports in-patients as a percentage of total patients. This figure is calculated and checked against ​DOH figures each day. 

    • NT does not report hospitalisation figures independently. These figures are only collected via DOH. 

    • In the final months of 2020, Queensland Health's reported hospitalisation figures consistently diverged slightly from those reported by Federal DOH. There appeared to be a one-day delay in the data reported by DOH. Therefore, while this site reconciles hospitalisation figures for all other jurisdictions with federal numbers, we reconcile Queensland's daily figures with those reported by the state. This means the total number of hospitalisations in Australia on a given day may be slightly different from that reported by Federal DOH. Queensland figures account for this difference.

Hospitalisations
Clusters

Clusters

 

  • Data for clusters are collected from health department media releases and press conferences. These announcements do not exhaustively capture known outbreaks and clusters. We record case numbers against the dates of these announcements. For Victoria, collected data are limited to clusters and outbreaks with at least 10 cases. For NSW, data are mainly for clusters with at least 5 cases, except where the cluster was particularly prominent.

  • Timeframes: Victoria's clusters have been tracked since May 2020 (Cedar Meats cluster). NSW clusters have been tracked since July 2020 (Crossroads cluster) due to incomplete earlier data.  

  • Victoria approach: The Victorian clusters stream area chart uses the following approach: the start of each cluster is pinned to the first date case/s were announced as part of that cluster or outbreak. The end of the cluster is pinned to the final date new case/s were announced. When no further cases were announced, the cluster is kept open for the next 10 days. Once 10 days pass without any announcements of new cases, the cluster is closed and the final date snaps back to the last day there was a new case announcement. 

  • NSW approach: The NSW clusters stream area chart uses a similar approach, except NSW Surveillance Reports frequently report the real notification dates of the first and last cases of each cluster or outbreak. When data taken from media releases conflict with those in surveillance reports (often there is difference of a couple of days), we reconcile with the NSW Surveillance Reports. Surveillance Reports do not include the index case in the final count of cases in a cluster, whereas NSW Health media releases do. This site has reconciled with the Surveillance Reports.

  • Victoria cluster notes: In some instances, DHHS intermittently released only the number of active cases in a cluster, rather than the total number of cases. When they resumed publishing total cases, this site recorded them on the date of announcement, which is the approach with all figures on this site. These dates however should be read with caution, as they would certainly represent a delay by at least several days since the actual cases were recorded. The relevant clusters are: Bulla Dairy Foods in Colac, Vawdrey Australia Truck Manufacturer, Wydinia Kindergarten in Colac, Peninsula Health Frankston Hospital, Dandenong Police Station.

  • NSW cluster notes: The Berala cluster had a total of 28 cases. There were nine additional cases that were identified with whole genome sequencing to match the Berala cluster but to which epidemiological links to other cases in this cluster have not been identified. These were not included in the final figure. 

Vaccines

Vaccines

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  • The release of vaccination data is improving incrementally.

  • The federal government releases national figures. This was done weekly until 10 April, when it began releasing figures daily. The data the Commonwealth publishes include:

    • state / territory breakdown of state-delivered doses;

    • total commonwealth-delivered doses via aged and disability care facilities;

    • total doses commonwealth-delivered doses via the GP/Primary care network (as of 26 March);

    • state / territory breakdown of commonwealth-delivered doses via aged and disability care facilities (as of 9 April);

    • state / territory breakdown of commonwealth-delivered doses via GP/Primary care network (as of 9 April);

  • Before 10 April, the federal government reported vaccination figures ad hoc through press conferences, news reports or Parliament.

  • Occasionally, the federal government may release total national vaccination numbers without a breakdown across states. Where this happens, this site updates national figures separately from state figures. This has meant the national totals have occasionally been higher than the sum of state reports. These may be listed as 'unknown' until reconciled.

  • This is also the case where the Commonwealth releases total doses, without specifying whether the doses were given via primary or aged / disability care. When this occurs, this site categorises the doses as 'unknown' until reconciled. Reconciliation is not usually more than a day. However this does affect the daily dose figures.

  • All states and territories now release their total vaccination figures on weekdays via their respective dashboards. Most also release figures on weekends. 

  • NSW began reporting daily vaccination figures on 2 April 2020. Prior to this, the state did not release vaccination figures consistently. Data earlier than April 2 came from ad hoc announcements to media or the weekly update from the federal government. Sometimes, where all other jurisdictions (including federal) reported vaccine doses the previous day it was possible to estimate the number of vaccine doses in NSW for that period.

  • There may be discrepancies between figures reported by states / territories and the federal government. These are generally related to different reporting periods. However, there are some ongoing differences. E.g. The federal government consistently reports +2 doses compared with ACT. This site updates figures based on state releases and reconciles with federal figures when possible, unless state figures are clearly more up to date.

  • Daily vaccine figures should be read with caution. Doses are recorded on the day they are announced to public, therefore do not reflect true daily doses. E.g. On 4 March, the federal government announced 10,168 doses the previous day. However this site had recorded all doses announced by states and territories, which added up to 12,443. For this reason, the 7-day average figure is more useful. Where announcements are clearly for an earlier reporting period, they may be backdated.

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Data re supply

  • Tracking supply of vaccines has been challenging. These data should be read with caution.

  • View the sources for each datapoint in this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vR4FN5OyQJSOPscv9vp8shB7wjb-hCA2JT8JEMqd3p_xVwWiRxjMNkkS-el-1VdrudZPORzsUvxJrLd/pubhtml

  • This site has tracked the quantity of doses delivered to Australia via press conferences and media releases since late February. In late April, the Vaccine Operations Centre started releasing Weekly Operational Updates, including supply. However these updates do not include running totals and these remain unverified. We have requested totals but they have not being given, citing National Cabinet agreement to release limited information. 

  • On 6 May 2021, one datapoint was added retrospectively: in the week ending April 18, 470,000 locally-made AstraZeneca doses. Confirmation of this delivery was sought from Fed Health without response. This delivery was added based on the following:

    • Greg Hunt said: "We've received the 1.3 million that have been cleared. We're expecting later this week over 470,000. Early next week, approximately 480,000. And then late next week or early the following week, 670,000." (View source. Approximations of the latter figures were confirmed via updates from the Vaccine Operations Centre. The first figure was not directly confirmed

    • "So far we have received 3.7 million vaccines, they then have to go through what is called a clearance process and a release process." (View source. Indicates confirmed delivery of an approximate of the 470,000 doses flagged above).


Data re second doses

  • At time of writing, not all jurisdictions report second doses.

  • ​Unless doses are specified as second doses, this site attributes them as first doses.

  • In the chart titled 'Percentage of adults who have received one or two vaccine doses' showing a map of Australia:

    • Second dose percentage data come from WA's vaccination dashboard. The interpretation guide for this dashboard says the data come from a weekly report provided by the Australian Government Department of Health.

    • First dose % data in this chart are calculated by = (total doses / adult population) % - (second doses) %.​

    • Caveats:

      • The WA vaccination dashboard does not provide raw figures for second doses; only percentages. 

      • A few states provide the raw figures of fully vaccinated people, such as VIC, NSW, NT.

      • If we use these raw figures to calculate the percentages of people  aged ≥ 16 years who have received a second dose, we return percentages that are lower than those reported on the WA dashboard.

      • This may mean the Dept of Health calculates percentages based on smaller population sizes than those used by this site. This site calculates ≥16 populations in each jurisdiction using ABS data of populations by age. (See ABS data here and our calculations here).​ Or it may mean true doses are slightly higher than reported.

      • This site reconciles with the WA dashboard, showing the percentages as reported. 


FAQs

  • FAQ: What is the adult population? This refers to anyone over the age of 16 years old. View this site's population calculations and feed here. 

  • FAQ: What does 'doses per 100 people' mean? It means total number of doses delivered per 100 people in the total population. Therefore, if everyone receives 2 doses, this will show 200 doses / 100 people. This site also shows doses per 100 adults. 

  • FAQ: Can this site track which vaccine types were administered? While we are ready on the back end to capture this information, it has not been released except for a one-off announcement from NSW.

  • FAQ: What does 'unknown' mean in the Vaccine Doses table? Sometimes, national totals as reported by the federal government may be higher than the sum of state reports. When this occurs, the difference between the national total and the sum of state reports is shown as 'unknown' in the Vaccines doses table. It's likely that the vast majority, if not all of these cases, will be allocated to the GP / primary health rollout - and possibly a state or territory if they have missed a reporting day. Because we don't know the exact breakdown, this site currently classifies these as unknown. This will only ever be temporary and reconciled at the next available full report.

  • If you have any questions about our vaccination tracking or would like to request data, please get in touch. 


Specific data notes

  • 25 March 2021:

    • ​Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced in Question Time: "This week we had 30,000 doses administered on Monday and over 46,000 doses administered on Tuesday. The figures just received show 49½ doses administered on Wednesday ... Over 126,000 doses have been administered over the course of the first three days of this week. Significantly, we have now passed the 400,000 dose mark in Australia, with 408,000 doses." These figures were incorporated into the national vaccine data of this site. It created a significant difference between national totals and the sum of state totals.

    • Furthermore, the rounded numbers created a shortfall of 550 doses based on the previous federal government announcement of total national vaccination numbers. This site reconciled the total by adding 30,275 and 46,275 to federal figures (as opposed to 30,000 and 46,000).

  • 26 March 2021:​

    • Prime Minister Scott Morrison released national data with breakdowns on his Facebook page. This was incorporated as follows:​

      • All jurisdictions were adjusted to reflect totals as reported. Note the publication did not include current figures from ACT, so this site added ACT's most recent figures on top of the federally reported total.​ Based on the report of total number of doses minus doses administered the previous day, the total for 25 March 2021 was adjusted upwards by 410.

      • This report included a new category: GP clinics. This accounted for the doses that had previously been labelled as 'unknown'. The first datapoint we have for this category is 75,700, which were already included as 'national' doses in the announcements from Greg Hunt.

  • 4 April 2021:​

    • Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced the following figures at a press conference:​

      • 55,764 doses delivered nationally on Monday

      • 72,826 doses delivered on Tuesday 

      • 73,979 doses delivered on Wednesday

      • 79,283 doses delivered on Thursday

      • 841,885 vaccinations delivered in total, nationally, as of end of Saturday

      • 387,605 doses delivered by the federal government​

        • 111,873 of these in aged care​

        • 275,732 of these by GPs or primary health services

      • All of the figures above were incorporated into the data in this site, retrospectively where necessary. In keeping with the methodology of this site, datapoints were recorded on the following day to which they referred. I.e.  55,764 doses delivered nationally on Monday (as reported by Minister Hunt) were recorded against Tuesday 30 March by this site.​

    • This was the first time in almost a week that the federal government had announced GP vaccination / aged care figures. The newly reported daily national totals from the previous week created a large number of doses that this site would ordinarily categorise as 'unknown'. (See FAQ re unknown doses above). However, because the vast majority of these doses would have been through the GP / primary care rollout, this site retrospectively allocated the unknown doses as having been delivered by GP clinics. These are estimates and a small number would in fact have been delivered in aged care. But by allocating them to GP clinics,  the curves show a more accurate daily rollout, rather than if we recorded all doses against the day of announcement. This affects the data between March 30 and April 4. As of April 4, the number of doses in aged care and GP clinics is exactly as reported by the Minister.

  • 8 April 2021: Tasmania's daily / cumulative figures calculated, based on totals reported by federal government and all other states and territories.​

  • 19 April 2021: The federal update added historical data of vaccinations administered by GPs / Primary Care with the following note: "A total of 766,741 primary care vaccinations have been undertaken to date. This represents an increase of 86,316 (primary care) from yesterday and includes a data update of 80,560 vaccinations completed before 17 April 2021, and 5,756 reported in the last 24 hours for primary care." On this site, the state breakdowns of GP / Primary Care doses show the net values added to cumulative totals, not the number of vaccine in the previous 24 hours.

Second doses
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