New data from the Australian Government reveals the median age of those who have died during the pandemic as ICU admissions dwindle.
The median age of Australians who have died during the pandemic is 83 as ICU admissions linked to Covid-19 dwindle, new data reveals.
More than 8.6 million Australians have been infected with the virus since the pandemic began in late 2019.
As of last Friday, there had been 10,582 deaths, with a median age of deaths being 83 years. Australia’s average life expectancy is 82.9 years.
The median age of all cases was 31 years, split “relatively” evenly between males and females.
The data also shows that 293 Australians under 50 have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic began.
That includes six boys and six girls under 10, four boys and four girls under 20 as well as 18 men and 12 women in their 20s.
There have been 2061 men who have died from Covid-19 in their 80s and 1503 women in the same age bracket.
In the 90-plus age group, 1186 men and 1515 women have succumbed to the virus.
The data helps fill in the gaps for Australians who are facing the prospect of new restrictions amid fears of a spike in new infections.
But they come as some hospitals report ICU numbers linked to Covid-19 are way down on previous months.
Virologist Ian Mackay wrote on Sunday: “ICU admissions continue to be flat while cases in hospital rise, although signs of slowing/peaking apparent in the graphs for NSW and Victoria.”
Staff at the ICU at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital say there are “just one or two Covid patients” there at the moment.
The ABC’s Isobel Roe reported that emergency departments and respiratory wards are seeing the majority of cases that end up in hospital.
Australia is in the grip of a surge in cases that experts say will be driven by the BA. 4 and BA. 5 strains.
“These variants are highly transmissible and also more symptomatic than previous Omicron variants,” said Gaetan Burgio from the Australian National University.
“These variants have quite evolved from the Delta and Omicron strains, and are therefore capable of vaccine escape, hence the increased incidence of reinfection.”
Dr Burgio predicts the latest outbreak will continue to spike over the next few weeks.
“As the virus is in perpetual evolution/selection, there will be additional variants coming,” he said.
“It is far from over. However, increased vaccine coverage and previous infections, even imperfect, protect against current and newly emerging variants and prevent transmission of the virus.”
Despite his belief the virus would not go away any time soon, Dr Burgio said people should not panic.
“I wouldn’t be too pessimistic and I don’t think we are in a ‘doom and gloom’ situation,” he said.
“The vaccine technology is improving at rapid pace and the technology evolves rapidly to promote sufficient immunity against the virus, even imperfect, against these variants.
“Without the vaccines, I would have been a lot more pessimistic.”
— with NCA NewsWire
Originally published as Truth about Australia’s Covid-19 numbers
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