FAQs

Is this an official government site?

No. COVID Live is an independent site.

Where does the data come from?

From NNDSS, Australia’s national notifiable diseases surveillance system. We check it daily. See the Last updated page for the latest status.

How are cases counted?

By the date a person was diagnosed.

NNDSS works out the diagnosis date as the day symptoms started. If that’s unknown, it uses the earliest of the test date, the notification date, or the date the notification was received.

Do these numbers include everyone who’s been sick?

No. They only include cases confirmed by a test and reported to health authorities. Many people with mild illness never get tested, so the true number of infections is higher.

What’s the difference between NET and NEW?

Both count cases by diagnosis date. NET appears on the daily, monthly and yearly tables. It’s the total for that period.

NEW appears on the home page and state summaries. It’s how many cases were added since our last update. It covers the latest 6 days, which are the same days the averages leave out, so the two work together. NEW can go down if a case is reclassified and removed.

Example: national COVID-19 cases in one update

Why do totals sometimes drop?

NNDSS corrects past figures as late reports come in and duplicates are removed, so totals can sometimes go down and show as negatives.

Why do the averages lag behind?

Cases take about a week to be reported, so the most recent days are always incomplete. Rather than show averages that keep rising after we publish them, we leave out the latest 5 days.

We picked 5 days by comparing figures before and after each update. A day is about 67% complete at 3 days old, 80% at 4 days and 95% at 5 days. Today’s figures are also partial, so the latest average is about 6 days behind today.

Can I use this data?

Yes, under CC BY 4.0.

Spotted an error or have an idea?

Email us at contact@covidlive.com.au with corrections, suggestions or data requests. We’d love to hear from you.