New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria combined have reported around 89.8% of Australia’s COVID-19 cases to date (DoH 2020) and around 6 in 10 of all MBS mental health services between 16 March and 27 September 2020.
The NSW government has imposed a number of general restrictions on gatherings and movement during the pandemic and are continuously assessing areas identified as ‘hotspots’. Hotspot areas may be subjected to more restrictive measures, such as not being permitted to travel to certain other jurisdictions. NSW currently accepts the most international arrivals into the mandatory 2-week hotel quarantine program of any state. In September, NSW had the highest rate of contacts per 100,000 population with ReachOut digital health services.
On 2 August, stage 4 lockdowns began in Melbourne and surrounding Victorian regional areas in an attempt to reduce the number of COVID-19 cases. Restrictions involved curfews, a limit of how many kilometres from home a person could travel, and on people gathering. Regional Victoria was placed under more relaxed stage 3 limits. As of September 2020, COVID-19 case numbers in Victorian had reduced substantially and restrictions were gradually being lifted.
MBS services
In the week to 27 September 2020, people in NSW utilised 82,803 mental health-related MBS services, or 1,019 MBS services per 100,000 population, slightly above the rest of Australia (excluding NSW and Victoria). MBS service use in NSW peaked in the week to 30 August, with 86,240 services recorded that week.
Victorians utilised 87,705 (1,319 per 100,000 population) MBS services in the week to 27 September 2020, compared to 999 per 100,000 population for the rest of Australia (excluding NSW and Victoria) (Figure COVID.6). Use of mental health-related MBS services in Victoria peaked in the week to 13 September, with 91,493 services recorded that week.