when did covid start in australia

COVID-19 officially started in Australia in late January 2020, when the first confirmed cases were reported.

Key date: when it started

• The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Australia was identified on 25 January 2020 in Victoria, in a man who had returned from Wuhan, China.

• On the same day, three more cases were confirmed in New South Wales in people who had recently returned from Wuhan, meaning Australia had four cases recorded on 25 January 2020.

• By early March 2020, Australia recorded its first known cases of community transmission , marking the shift from imported cases to local spread.

How it unfolded early on

• On 23 January 2020 , biosecurity screening of passengers arriving on flights from Wuhan to Sydney began, signalling that authorities were already preparing before the first case was confirmed.

• The early Australian cases were almost all linked to recent travel from Wuhan or other parts of China, with eight of the first nine patients having recently travelled from Wuhan.

• Australia reached its first 100 cases by 10 March 2020, after which case numbers rose quickly and broader public health measures and restrictions were introduced.

Quick Scoop style recap

• “When did COVID start in Australia?” → The pandemic phase in Australia effectively began on 25 January 2020 , with the first confirmed case in Melbourne and three more in Sydney that same day.

• Preceding that, COVID-19 was only a concern overseas; within weeks of the first cases, Australia moved into border controls, quarantine, and later lockdowns as case numbers grew through February and March 2020.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.