Covid-19 Australia: Virus cases drop but record deaths recorded
The number of Covid cases being reported across the country are rapidly falling but the official death toll has hit a new record in one state.
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Daily coronavirus infections in NSW are at their lowest since the Christmas period, while hospitalisations and ICU admissions also continue to ease from the staggering Omicron peak in mid January.
Saturday’s update from NSW Health revealed another 18 people have died with Covid-19, while 2337 patients were in hospital with the virus.
There were 8389 new infections in the latest 24-hour reporting period – a significant drop on Friday’s result of 10,698 infections – and the lowest daily total since December 28.
results from rapid antigen tests and 3089 from PCR tests.
NSW Health also said 152 Covid-19 patients remain in intensive care units, slightly down from the previous day.
There are 70 people on ventilators.
Premier Dominic Perrottet says it is inevitable that actual case numbers in the community were higher than was being reported, he was nonetheless pleased with the state’s progress.
Saturday’s health update comes as the NSW government shows signs of winding back its mandatory booster stance for essential workers.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard has said the government will no longer be going ahead with the change.
Meanwhile, Victoria’s health department says a lag in reporting is behind its highest death toll since late 2020.
The state had 7810 new cases on Saturday with a shocking 41 deaths reported.
It is the highest death toll in the state since September 2020 when a record 59 people lost their lives to Covid in a single day.
But the health department’s deputy secretary, Kate Matson, said a lag in notifications was behind Saturday’s figure.
“Unfortunately it was a particularly high number yesterday and that’s very sad, but nothing has changed,” she said.
“Sometimes there can be a lag in notifications that may cover a period of weeks if there’s a late registration with a death, or if there is a coroner’s investigation or if the diagnosis is made post mortem.
“The 41 reported today is a really sad, tragic high number, but it may not correlate to the number of people hospitalised.”
Victoria has seen a steady decline in Covid infections in recent weeks, with authorities now believing the state has passed its peak in the current Omicron outbreak.
Ms Matson said the daily Covid numbers now reflected modelling and would be monitored over the next couple of weeks.
“I think 8000 is about where we’d expected, it’s in line with the modelling, she said.
“It’s too early to say. We’d expect fairly stable numbers or cases dropping.”
The state on Saturday had 687 people in hospitals with coronavirus, while the latest figures have 80 in intensive care, of which 31 are on ventilators.
It comes after Victoria recorded 11,240 cases and 752 hospitalisations on Friday.
QLD DEADLIEST DAY OF PANDEMIC
Queensland has experienced its deadliest day of the pandemic so far after 21 people died with the virus – more deaths than were recorded in NSW.
The latest fatalities in Queensland were aged from their 60s to their 90s, four of whom were unvaccinated and only two having had their booster shot.
Seven deaths were in aged care, bringing the sector’s death count to 134, more than half of the total deaths recorded in the state.
“It just stresses me greatly every day to be reporting on older Queenslanders who are dying without having received the booster,” chief health officer Dr John Gerrard said at Saturday’s press conference.
“We know that most of these people who have not received the booster are not anti vaxxers.
“I hear stories about elderly people who have who have dutifully made their appointment with their general practitioner four weeks down the track.
“There is plenty of booster out there available at multiple locations – there is no need to wait to get boosted particularly if you’re an older Queensland, provided you pass that three month period.”
Dr Gerrard reported a rise in cases to 8508 on Saturday morning, up from 6857 infections in the previous reporting period.
Public sector hospitalisations have, however, eased from 798 to 727. The number of people in public ICU fell from 52 to 46.
In the private sector, there are 63 patients in hospital and two in ICU.
There have now been 268 Covid deaths in Queensland, all but seven of these coming in the new year.
The previous daily high for deaths was 19 fatalities on January 28.
. Dr Gerrard said it appeared most areas of Queensland were past the point of peak Covid transmission.
He also urged parents not to be “unduly concerned” about sending their kids back to school on Monday.
“I know there are a lot of anxious parents out there. Please don‘t be,” he said.
“There will be disruption, I think that’ll be the biggest problem rather than the true illness in their children. The other risk with children getting it is the risk of them transmitting it to the grandparents.
“And that again must emphasise that’s why it’s so important that the grandparents or small children, get those boosters.”
‘LIKE NORTH KOREA’ QANTAS BOSS SLAMS WA
Qantas boss Alan Joyce has unleashed on Western Australia, accusing the state of acting like North Korea by keeping its borders closed.
Mr Joyce said Australians should be “enraged” that they could travel to London but not to Perth.
“There isn’t a plan for when that’s going to open up – it’s starting to look like North Korea. It’s gonna (sic) be closed indefinitely at this stage,” Mr Joyce told 3AW Radio on Friday.
The Qantas boss is furious that WA backflipped on its plans to reopen on February 5.
“We’re supposed to all be Australians, but you can’t even travel around your own country,” he said.
“(The WA border) is going to be closed indefinitely at this stage – unless we have a plan to start living with Covid and opening up to the rest of the country.
“The fact that we can travel to London but we can’t travel to Perth, I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with the federation.”
WA was preparing to open its borders once 90 per cent of the state’s residents had been double vaccinated, and the plan was to welcome visitors from Saturday.
But Premier Mark McGowan changed his mind last month, saying the planned opening date would have been “reckless and irresponsible” given the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.
Australia’s borders have been shut to most foreign tourists for the majority of the coronavirus pandemic.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has hinted international tourists could be welcome again by Easter.
“Well, I can’t give you a specific date yet … and that’s because we’re just watching how Omicron is sort of washing over the eastern states,” he told 4CA radio in Cairns last week.
“I’d like to see us get there soon – certainly before Easter, well before Easter.”
NSW: 10,698 CASES, 31 DEATHS
Thirty-one people have died with Covid-19 and 2494 patients are in hospital with the disease, NSW Health said on Friday.
There were 10,698 new infections recorded in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
That’s about 2000 fewer cases than the previous day’s result of 12,632 infections.
There were 160 Covid-19 patients in intensive care units on Friday, the same number as the previous day.
VIC: 11,240 CASES, 36 DEATHS
Victoria reported 11,240 new cases and 36 Covid deaths have been recorded in the past 24 hours.
There are now 707 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 79 in intensive care and 29 on ventilators.
Victoria’s pre-Omicron peak for Covid hospitalisations was 851 in October when the state was battling a surge in Delta infections.
More than 93 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated and the state has 65,968 active cases.
A total of 24,737 PCR tests were taken on Wednesday and 15,382 vaccines were administered at state hubs.
It came as Premier Daniel Andrews dropped a hint on how long people will have to live with one hated Covid rule.
“This is a wildly infectious variant and we are being guided by safely, which has never been more important than it is right now,” Mr Andrews said.
“It is very, very challenging.”
Mr Andrews said it was still an uphill battle for health workers, who were seeing little reprieve despite a drop in cases.
“There is incredibly pressure on our health system right now despite the fact the numbers are coming down,” he said.
“Despite the fact we seem to have reached the peak, there is still very significant pressure there.”
QLD: 6857 CASES, 13 DEATHS
The coronavirus continues to surge across Queensland, with 6857 new cases and 13 deaths reported on Friday.
Of the fatalities, three had received their booster and nine were in aged care.
Deaths in aged care in Queensland account for more than half of the overall tally at 118.
More than 4074 tests were recorded in the last 24 hours.
The number of patients presenting to public hospitals in the state’s southeast is showing signs of stabilising, as the state reported 732 hospitalisations, down from Thursday’s total of 820.
Fifty people are in intensive care.
The state’s death toll over the course of the pandemic has reached 234, with all but seven of these fatalities coming in the first 33 days of 2022.
Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath criticised the federal government’s efforts in aged care and told them to “get on with it”.
“The federal government needs to implement the recommendations of the Aged Care Royal Commission to keep residents safe,” she said.
Chief health officer John Gerrard said authorities were still planning for the worst in preparing for potential future waves in winter.
“The virus is much more widespread than the collected data has suggested,” he said.
Authorities have urged anyone who has had their second coronavirus vaccination dose at least three months ago to come forward and get their booster.
‘FULLY VAXXED’ CHANGES COMING
What it means to be fully vaccinated is likely to change within the coming weeks, with Scott Morrison flagging the change is “quite possible”.
But the Prime Minister has insisted whether a change is made “doesn’t matter” either way because his government does not support vaccine mandates.
Speaking on Brisbane radio on Thursday, Mr Morrison was asked about the potential expansion of the definition of fully vaccinated from two doses to three.
“Whether we move to recognising the vaccination, the three-dose vaccination, that’s been under intense analysis by the health officials now for some time,” he told B105.
“It’s quite possible they could go to that.
“But that really for me doesn't matter either way because we don’t support those mandates and things like that.”
He added that it was critical for Aussies to receive their booster shot given the lessons learnt from the recent Omicron peak, but he wasn’t going to tell people what to do.
“The position is that you should get your booster and particularly because of Omicron. One of the things we've learned over dealing with Omicron these last two months (is) that the booster helps prevent that transmission.
“I don't think people should need to be told to do it. And so many don’t, they just do it because it’s in their best interest.”
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been vocal in his push to have the third dose included and has flagged any change could have ramification for entering venues and events.
Earlier on the Today show, Health Minister Greg Hunt said it was “more likely than not” that the definition of fully vaccinated would change.
“I think it is more likely than not, that's my expectation. We want everybody to be boosted in any event,” Mr Hunt said.
A senate committee was told on Wednesday that the term fully vaccinated could be replaced with “up to date on vaccinations”.
The nation’s expert immunisation panel has been deliberating whether or not to change the definition to include the third dose, with advice expected to be handed to the government within two weeks.
ATAGI chair Nigel Crawford said it would bring the Covid-19 jabs closer into line with other vaccination programs.
“We think the best terminology is actually ‘up to date with vaccination status’ rather than ‘fully vaccinated’,” he told the parliamentary inquiry.
“That’s a term that we’ve used in the childhood program.
“So essentially, as you have your children get vaccinated, we say are you ‘up to date with your immunisations’ at a certain date or point in time.”
PM’S HUGE CALL ABOUT WA BORDER
Scott Morrison has sensationally claimed West Australia Premier Mark McGowan did the right thing in delaying the state’s border reopening.
WA was originally slated to reopen its border to other states on February 5, but last month Mr McGowan announced that would be pushed back due to the Omicron surge in the eastern states.
The delay has been widely panned.
But on Thursday, Mr Morrison conceded the WA Premier had done right by his state, saying Omicron was a “very different virus” and changed the goalposts.
“The things we were doing before, don’t work the same way under the Omicron virus,” Mr Morrison told Perth’s 6PR radio.
“As a result, you’ve got to reset, and you’ve got to rethink the things you were doing in the eastern states.
“We’ve had to change things over the summer, it’s had significant impacts but Omicron brought that about.
“That’s the big lesson from the eastern states to the west, when it inevitably moves – as the Premier has said – into the Omicron stage, that the lessons from the east coast be applied there and that when the health system he believes is ready to go, I’m sure he’ll take the next step.”
When asked when he thought was the right time for WA to rejoin the rest of the country, Mr Morrison said he trusted Mr McGowan and his team to make the right decision.
“We’ve seen in the west they want (to travel unencumbered for their work or to see family or holiday), but they want to do it safely too,” Mr Morrison said.
“That’s the Premier’s call, and he has to make that decision based on what he thinks his health system is ready to absorb.”
Zeroing in on the health systems in eastern states, and the high death rates being recorded every daily, Mr Morrison was asked whether the level of death was “acceptable” to him.
“None of these deaths, at the end of the day whether here in Australia or around the world (are acceptable),” he said.
“This is the virus doing this, and it’s happening all around the world. And Australia has one of the lowest death rates from Covid anywhere in the world.
“And yes, every single one of these deaths is heartbreaking for those families, but equally every life we have saved is a great blessing.”
Earlier, chief medical officer Paul Kelly revealed data showing just 0.1 per cent of Omicron-positive cases died from the virus.
Mr Morrison said it was a sign of how “different” Omicron was to previous iterations of the virus.
“It behaves differently. And that’s why when Western Australia, and it will get there at some point, and (Mr McGowan and I) both understand that, that looking at how you manage that when it’s there is very different to what it was with Delta,” Mr Morrison said.
“That’s the lesson from the east coast.”
JAB CHANGE FOR TEENS
Hundreds of thousands of Australians aged 16 and 17 have been given the green light to get their Covid-19 booster three months after their second dose.
Almost 90 per cent of teenagers in this group have already received their second dose of the vaccine, with at least two-thirds to be eligible for their booster from Tuesday.
The announcement comes as school students across the country head back to the classroom despite Omicron circulating across the nation.
Earlier this week, adults were told they could get their booster after three months.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said he was pleased the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had extended Pfizer’s booster approval for that age group as they head back to school.
“With the return to school this week and many of these young people in, or approaching, their final year of schooling, the ability to extend the vaccine’s protection even further will help provide stability and reassurance during this important period of their studies,” Mr Hunt said.
Those teenagers will be able to receive their booster from state-run vaccination hubs, pharmacies and their GPs.
So far, about 90 per cent of 16 and 17-year-olds have had two doses, with at least 60 per cent to be eligible for their booster this week.
ATAGI is weighing up whether to make three doses the minimum to be fully protected against Covid-19.
ATAGI chairman Nigel Crawford told the Covid-19 Senate committee on Wednesday the group were considering what “we define as up-to-date status of vaccination for Covid-19 and how that may change in theory over time”.
Chief medical officer Paul Kelly told the committee Australia should prepare for a winter Omicron wave, with a warning the pandemic would not end soon.
Earlier this week, deputy chief medical officer Michael Kidd urged all Australians to get their booster as soon as they were eligible.
“The booster dose ensures the protection from the first two doses is even stronger and longer lasting,” Professor Kidd said on Monday.
He also urged Australians who had recently contracted Covid-19 to come forward for their booster as soon as their symptoms subsided.
ATAGI is also considering whether a fourth dose would be required for the average adult. Currently, severely immunocompromised adults are eligible for a fourth dose.
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