Data contained in an internal Department of Health and Aged Care “Hot Issues Brief”, released under a Freedom of Information request, reveals that Australia’s mortality rate from COVID-19 compared favourably with similar countries around the world.

Data from 1 November 2022, the latest available, shows that Australia’s COVID-19 mortality rate was 598.4 deaths per one million population – lower than Canada (1,214.6), the United Kingdom (3,099.0) and the United States (3,165.4), the briefing shows.

Australia faced a significant number of COVID deaths in residential care earlier this year, however the country now has high vaccination rates and well-established infection control protocols in aged care.

Since the start of the pandemic, 5,131 aged care residents have died from Covid. In the week to 9 March 2023, 17 residents died from the virus.