National Changes in Outpatient Systemic Antibiotic Use during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic in Australia

To the Editor—We congratulate King et al on their analysis of outpatient antibiotic dispensing during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in the United States. In Australia, where the cumulative case rate is 113.6/100 000 people compared with 8512/100 000 in the United States (as of 28 February 2021), the pandemic response included strict social distancing rules, border closures, employment and economic stimulus measures, and national lockdowns (March 2020–May 2020), followed by additional state-based lockdowns (June 2020–October 2020). We investigated outpatient antibiotic dispensing during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, where the overall rate of outpatient antibiotic use is high compared with other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries...