Baku, January 8, AZERTAC

Australia's daily increase of COVID-19 cases surpassed the grim record of 100,000 on Saturday, the first time since the pandemic began in the country in early 2020, as the three most populous states all saw a record high of daily infections, according to Xinhua.

The epicenter of the current wave of pandemic, the state of New South Wales (NSW), recorded 45,098 cases and nine deaths in the past 24 hours to 8 p.m. local time on Friday, the first time for the daily increase of cases to top 40,000. The number of hospitalization reached 1,795 including 145 people in intensive care.

The daily increase of infections in the state of Victoria doubled from Friday's 21,728 to 51,356 on Saturday. Victoria also recorded nine deaths and 644 hospitalized. The state of Queensland recorded 11,174 cases, two deaths and 349 hospitalizations.

Among the surging cases are former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who tweeted respectively that they were tested positive to COVID-19 and are in isolation.

NSW has reimposed some restrictions from Saturday such as banning singing and dancing in pubs and nightclubs and temporarily suspending non-urgent elective surgeries. However, experts still criticized the state authorities of not being cautious while facing the Omicron variant.

The Guardian cited Australian Medical Association vice-president Chris Moy who thought relaxing restrictions in last December in NSW "basically accelerated into the Omicron wave."

Professor Raina Macintyre from the University of New South Wales Kirby Institute said the surge was 100 percent predictable and it was a mistake for NSW to persevere the national roadmap of reopening while Omicron has already been spreading in the state.