Originally Posted by
CurtainTwitcher
Sorry to burst your bubble Dr, our testing and monitoring has been limited by reagent shortages (USA as well). We are observing positive test results rate limited by available resources. At least one State (WA) tests for only imported cases, not community spread.
There is no evidence that warmer weather alters the rate of transmission. Qatar had a large number of cases.
The Guardian Global shortage of Covid-19 test kits hits Australia as other nations limit exports Fri 13 Mar 2020 17.48 AEDT
There's still a lot of testing being conducted in Australia.
16,000 from NSW Health.
Almost all cases are from overseas or close contact with overseas cases. Have there been some community transmission? Yes, but not a great number yet.
As for Qatar they get a flu season too, which correlates to their northern hemisphere winter. Although it may not be warm temperatures that kill the bug, it may be things like increased travel from nearby countries that have a flu season, a high transitory migrant population, more time spent indoors? Scientists aren't exactly sure but the rates to seem to correlate with them having their flu season concurrent with the northern hemispheres.