I saw this report in my news feed, and was about to pass over it, but a reader sent an email to the Alor.org bullpen later in the day, drawing my attention to it again. Reading closely, we find that for Covid patients in New South Wales hospitals, there were at the time of writing, 21 men and nine women dead. One person was aged in their 30s, one was in their 50s, five were in their 70s, 19 were in their 80s and four were in their 90s. "Five of the people who died had received three doses of the COVID vaccine, 19 people had received two doses and six were not vaccinated," Dr Chant, NSW Chief Health Officer said. So, my inference from this, is that the majority of the dead were vaccinated (only six unvaccinated died), and the vast majority of the dead were over 70 years, even over 80 years. So, how is this a pandemic of the unvaccinated? And, where is the threat to young people? Please explain.
“There are 2749 COVID-19 patients in NSW hospitals, including 183 people in intensive care units (ICUs). Of those in ICUs, 70 patients require ventilation.
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said the deaths were of 21 men and nine women.
Of the 30 people who died, one person was aged in their 30s, one was in their 50s, five were in their 70s, 19 were in their 80s and four were in their 90s.
"Five of the people who died had received three doses of the COVID vaccine, 19 people had received two doses and six were not vaccinated," Dr Chant said.
"[For] the two people under the age of 65, a man in his 30s had received two doses of COVID vaccine and had no significant underlying health conditions, again highlighting the importance of [a] booster to really lift that protection, and the woman in her 50s was not vaccinated and had underlying health conditions."
Of the new cases, 7913 were positive rapid antigen tests (RATs) and 4905 positive PCR swabs, from around 36,000 PCR tests.
Dr Chant said vaccination rates continue to rise, with 44.7 per cent of those eligible for a booster to have already received their dose, but she would "love to see that number climb rapidly".
The booster dose interval was officially shortened to three months across Australia on Monday, despite many states, including NSW, moving to reduce the time between doses earlier in January.
More than 5 million rapid antigen tests have been distributed to schools for the start of term, with every student and staff member at government and non-government schools asked to complete a rapid antigen test twice a week for the first four weeks.
"We'll review that after two weeks and just see how it's going, but we'll certainly provide the supplies for a month," NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet told Nine News on Monday night.
At Ultimo Public School on Tuesday morning, Mr Perrottet said there will be "bumps along the way" and "it won't all be smooth-sailing".
"I accept that, but the alternative is to have schools closed and that is not the outcome we want, it's not the outcome that's best for our kids," he said.
NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said almost one million families were preparing for a return to school on Tuesday.
She acknowledged RATs added to the morning routine but stressed the importance of keeping children safe and thanked school staff for going "above and beyond" to prepare for the year.
Meanwhile, non-urgent elective surgery requiring an overnight stay in metropolitan private hospitals and rural and regional public hospitals will resume at 75 per cent of pre-pandemic capacity next week.
"I'm delighted that less than a month later, we're able to move back into a staged transition of having non-urgent elective surgery come back onboard," NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Tuesday.
"I'm sorry that some people have had to have their surgery delayed ... it was in the interests of the entire community that we had the space available in our hospitals."
In a statement, acting NSW Health deputy secretary Wayne Jones encouraged patients impacted by the non-urgent elective surgery suspension to seek medical attention if their condition has changed, "so they can be clinically reviewed and re-prioritised to a more urgent category if required".
He said authorities would continue to review the situation in metropolitan public hospitals, where there remained heavy demand from COVID-19 patients.”
School kids are ratty enough without having to have RAT tests every moment. But, I suppose that they are lucky to be let out of their kennels at all, here in Melbourne.