Canberra, As Australia battles through a significant rise in COVID-19 cases, authorities are renewing calls for people to follow expert health advice to keep the community safe, The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) in Australia reported.

Health Minister Mark Butler said there have been 300,000 cases in the past week but warned hundreds of thousands more infections are forecast for coming weeks, with the peak of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron wave expected in August.

From wearing face masks and working from home to vaccines and antiviral drugs, here is the latest health advice that experts have strongly recommended in order to reduce hospitalisations and deaths across the country.

Some public health campaigns in favour of masks have gone viral, too. Notably, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant

has taken to TikTok with her peers to encourage mask-wearing indoors and in the workplace.

For those who are yet to get their third dose, authorities have warned that only having the first two vaccines is no longer enough to protect them against COVID-19.

More than half a million Australians have had a fourth vaccine since eligibility was expanded last week, but rates for the first booster are still lagging, with only 70.9 per cent of the population having received their third dose.

“The third dose rate just isn’t shifting fast enough,” Butler told reporters in Canberra yesterday.

Source: Oman News Agency