An Australian TikTok star who went viral for correctly "predicting" the number of COVID-19 cases per day in New South Wales has been hospitalised with COVID-19.
Jon-Bernard Kairouz attended an anti-lockdown protest in late July where he was charged with two counts of not complying with COVID-19 directions and one count of encouraging the commission of crimes.
The 24-year-old's lawyer Eidan Havas represented him in court on Tuesday, entering pleas of not guilty to all counts.
Havas told the Sydney Morning Herald his client had been hospitalised at St George Hospital with COVID-19. He said Kairouz had also spent some time in the intensive care unit.
"This should highlight to everyone in NSW how serious COVID-19 is and everyone should be getting vaccinated and staying home in order to stop the transmission of this terrible virus," Havas said.
Kairouz's father is also reportedly battling the virus at the same hospital, news.com.au reported.
They spoke to a family friend who said: "After predicting the COVID-19 numbers daily, (Jon-Bernard) couldn't predict that (his dad) would contract it."
Kairouz rose to prominence in July when he correctly told followers the number of daily COVID-19 cases for five days straight before they were announced by officials at 11am (local time).
He claimed he was using mathematical equations and the "Kairouz probability algorithm" to predict the number of cases.
Numerous theories emerged about how he was obtaining the numbers, including that he had a source within NSW's health department.
