
When Scott Morrison first learned of the coming COVID-19 wildfire on 21 December, there were 4,492 daily COVID-19 cases. On 26 January, scarcely a month later, there were 52,920 COVID-19 cases. Total confirmed cases stood at 259,174 on 21 December, a number nine times less than the number on 26 January 26 – 2,340,046 – an increase of more than two million in just over a month.