Professor Peter Collignon from the Australian National University is the author of a study into the COVID-19 ‘fatality risk’ in Australia and South Korea.
The report found deaths lag behind case confirmations by an average of 13.7 days in Australia and 15.1 days in South Korea. This means it'll likely be two weeks before there is news about casualties related to the recent day's infections.
Overall, the 20s and 30s age bracket in Australia has the highest infection rate and this trend is expected to continue as older, more at-risk people are likely to take more precautions.
Associate Professor Sanjaya Senanayake from ANU says this behaviour has been replicated overseas.
"If we are seeing the pattern that they are seeing in southern states of the US, where there is a very large outbreak at the moment, they’ve noticed the age demographic is about 10 to 15 years younger with that second surge in those southern states, which means that it is less elderly people and probably less people at risk of a severe disease of getting infected, it's more healthy young people, so you may see less deaths."
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