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Economic and Financial Market Update: COVID

26 August 2022

Summary:

Concerns about COVID in the community have declined substantially;
The result has been increased mobility and spending on services;
COVID (as well as colds and flus) are currently having a substantial impact on the workforce;
While the emergence of a more dangerous variant is a risk, history suggests that won’t be the case.

While COVID is still around it is getting a lot less attention these days. What was once front page news is now lucky to make any page in the newspaper. This gels with the views of the general population where searches for COVID on Google are now at their lowest level since COVID entered Australia. All of this despite hospitalisation rates for COVID still being at a high level.

One reason for this is that COVID has become an everyday phenomena. These days virtually everyone has either had COVID, or some of their close friends or family have. Another is that while the COVID case numbers are high the number that are seriously ill (those in ICU or on ventilators) is substantially lower (although still clearly above zero).