Infectious Covid-19 patients will now be treated at more hospitals across Adelaide

SA Health has revealed the ages and vaccination status of patients in hospital with Covid – and the power of vaccination has been made clear.

Infectious Covid-19 patients will now be treated at more hospitals across Adelaide, as new data reveals the power of being vaccinated.

SA Health will from today treat acute coronavirus cases at the Flinders Medical Centre and Lyell McEwin Hospital, as well as current Royal Adelaide wards. The state recorded 2921 Covid-19 cases On Tuesday, down 1110 on the day before. SA Health data shows more than two-thirds of hospital patients in ICU are unvaccinated.

“The power of vaccinations to prevent severe illness is clear,” Premier Steven Marshall said.

A woman in her 50s became the state’s 19th Covid-related death.

Almost half of eligible adults, or 260,000 people, have had a booster jab after a surge of 95,000 doses in the past week.

Mr Marshall will today announce non-virus patients will be moved to private hospitals to free up an extra 108 Covid ward beds for an expected Omicron peak in a fortnight’s time.

There will be 300 RAH ward beds while the FMC and Lyell McEwin can each treat 100 patients.

On top of that, there will be an extra 60 new intensive care beds, taking ICU capacity to 280 across Adelaide.

Speaking from isolation, Mr Marshall said the updated plan would also include “decanting patients from public hospitals into private” ones.

“This will mean a pivot from the previous arrangements when the vast majority of Covid-positive patients were all at the RAH,” he said. “This updated plan comfortably provides for the projected hospital requirements at the peak.”

Last night eight children were among 211 Covid-19 hospital patients.

There were 22 people aged between their 30s and 80s among the RAH’s ICU cases. Four were on ventilators.

New SA Health figures show 123 patients out of a total 367 cases admitted to the RAH since borders reopened on November 23 were unvaccinated. More than 90 per cent had Omicron.

The data shows also shows that as of Sunday two-thirds of the 35 ICU patients had not had a Covid jab.

Medicos have treated 13 babies and seven children younger than 12, most of whom were ineligible for a vaccine.

PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL WITH COVID

From November 23, 2021 until January 9, 2022 at 23:59:

Total admitted in hospital with or for COVID
367 patients (see graph for age breakdown)

Vaccination status of these patients
• 59 per cent (217) fully vaccinated
• 34 per cent (123) unvaccinated
• 7 per cent (27) one dose only – partially vaccinated

 

Methodology
This data includes acute patients, including acute mental health patients, who have tested positive for COVID-19. 
This data excludes cases with a length of stay of less than one day.
Total admitted to ICU from November 23, 2021 until January 10, 2022: 35 patients
Vaccination status: 68 per cent unvaccinated
Source: SA Health

Paediatric jabs for five to 11 year-olds opened this week.

The data, which excludes cases in hospital for less than a day, shows the highest number of patients have been older than 80, followed by those in their 60s and people in their 70s.

A further six teenagers were hospitalised, 27 in their 20s, 45 in their 30s, while 71 patients were in their 40s or 50s, according to figures that include acute mental health cases.

Mr Marshall earlier said SA had avoided a “massive disaster” as he revealed cases had “stabilised” after tough restrictions were launched in late December.

Official projections, to be released in coming days, show SA was at risk of being swamped by “tens and tens of thousands” of daily Omicron, he said. The Covid Ready Committee heard a peak was due in the third or fourth week of January but Mr Marshall said daily cases would be “well under 10,000 a day”.

Mr Marshall said he was “very grateful to all the dedicated” medicos for their “incredible efforts” to keep SA safe.