New data reveals what Covid strains Victorians died of this year and their vaccination status

Exclusive, new data reveals Victoria’s 2022 Covid death toll, along with the vaccination status of those who died and the virus strains that claimed their lives.

Prof Peter Doherty: “The obvious message here is to get that third or fourth booster shot as soon as possible.”

More than 1740 Victorians have died of Covid so far this year, with one third completely unvaccinated and 76 per cent not triple jabbed.

And Omicron has claimed the most lives.

However, the State government data supplied exclusively to the Sunday Herald Sun also shows more of the Covid deaths were among double jabbed Victorians than unvaccinated ones.

The data reveals Covid claimed the lives of 1,742 Victorians between January 1 to May 25 this year, with 558 deceased Victorians, or 32 per cent, unvaccinated or with an unknown vaccination status, 53 (three per cent) having had one vaccine dose, 720 (41 per cent) double vaxxed and 411 (24 per cent) triple vaxxed.

A Department of Health spokesman stressed it was vital to put these deaths in context as more than 5.1 million Victorians over the age of 16 were now double dosed while those unvaccinated numbered in the several hundreds of thousands, proving that per capita vaccinations did indeed save lives.

One third of the total Covid deaths this year were in people who had not been vaccinated at all – despite representing only five per cent of the overall Victorian population aged 12 and above, and just one per cent of Victorians aged over 65.

Of the 1,742 deaths, 349 were genomically sequenced revealing 201 people died with the Omicron BA.1 sub-variant, 110 with the Omicron BA.2 sub-variant and 38 with the B.1.617.2 or Delta variant.

“Our heartfelt sympathies go out to all the families and friends who have lost loved ones to Covid over the course of the pandemic,” the DHS spokesman said.

“Staying up to date with your Covid vaccination will significantly reduce your chance of going to hospital, going to ICU or dying from Covid.

“If you are due for your next Covid vaccine dose, you should get it as soon as possible.”

UK research showed a third dose of vaccine provided between 94 per cent and 97 per cent better protection against hospitalisation and death for people over the age of 50 compared with people who had received just two vaccine doses or people who had never received any vaccine at all, he said.

It comes as another 22 Victorians died of Covid on Friday and 540 were in hospital - with 26 in intensive care.

And more than 8,700 new cases of Covid were recorded in Victoria on Friday, bringing the active case number to 65,614.

Long Covid cases are also of increasing concern.

Nobel laureate Peter Doherty from Melbourne’s Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity said it was too early to say how well vaccinations provided protection from long Covid (LC) after infection with the currently circulating and highly transmissible Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants, but people could be “reasonably confident” third or fourth booster shots would help them avoid the severest forms of the virus.

“The obvious message here is to get that third or fourth booster shot as soon as possible,” Prof Doherty said.

A recent study in the UK showed up to nine per cent of triple-vaccinated people were developing long Covid symptoms, one or two months after receiving a positive Covid diagnosis, he said.

Long Covid can see patients suffer from debilitating symptoms including extreme fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, brain fog and even mood disorders, long after their ­initial Covid infection.

“For Omicron BA.1, three vaccine doses can, at least for a time, be about 80 per cent effective at keeping those testing positive out of hospital,” Prof Doherty said.

“This should substantially protect us against what I think of as post Covid, the debility that results from permanent organ damage that can occur if we become very ill and require, for example, an ICU stay.”