Eighth Covid wave strikes Australia: Chief medical officer Paul Kelly reassures strain is less ‘severe’ than predecessors
An urgent warning has been issued. Australia is in the grip of its eighth Covid wave, with cases rising across the country.
The revelation comes less than two weeks after chief medical officer Professor Paul Kelly announced the end of Covid emergency aid on October 20.
The virus is still considered a ‘serious threat’, but Professor Kelly admitted the new strains appeared to be ‘less serious’ than their predecessors.
Professor Kelly also said Australians were better protected after building up their immunity through vaccinations and previous infections.
“Each of the waves we’ve had this year has been less and less severe,” he said.
Australia’s top doctor has warned the country is in the grip of an eighth wave of Covid
‘There is still a possibility that we could have a brand new variant of concern, but if we look at what has happened since late 2021 when Omicron was founded.
“We’ve had literally hundreds of sub-variants… of Omicron, but nothing has really progressed in any other way.”
Professor Kelly said Australia would continue to focus on vaccination, prevention and case management.
“Targeted surveillance and monitoring of Covid will be maintained through established national surveillance programmes,” he said.
Sentinel surveillance is a public health term that refers to monitoring changes in disease rates through a network of doctors, laboratories and officials.
The latest official weekly Covid case numbers were 936, an increase of 23.6 percent across the country.
The largest week-on-week increases occurred in Western Australia (up 43.7 percent) and the Northern Territory (up 45.1 percent), Tasmania (28.4 percent) and New South Wales (up of 23.8 percent).
The number of hospitalized COVID-19 cases across Australia has risen by an average of 17.5 per cent compared to the previous week.
NSW has by far the most people in hospital with Covid, with a figure of 733.
General practitioner registrar Dr Ashley Van Leeuwestyn, from the NSW Central Coast, told the story Sydney Morning Herald The number of Covid cases has been increasing for a month and is being diagnosed in patients of all ages, but especially in the elderly.
She said that, contrary to popular belief, Covid is not ‘gone’.
“It’s a new normal,” she said.
‘A few years ago we didn’t know anything about it. Now it is a big part of many presentations.’
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee backed Mr Kelly’s decision to call off emergency measures.
“It is time to move from a state of emergency to managing COVID-19 among other infectious diseases,” said a statement from the AHPPC.
Covid is ‘no longer a communicable disease event of national concern’, but Australia will continue to focus on vaccination, prevention and case management
Australia’s top doctor Paul Kelly (pictured) said the government will maintain ‘targeted surveillance and monitoring of COVID-19 through established national and sentinel surveillance programs’
‘Covid remains a serious infectious disease, but is no longer a public health emergency.
‘We can expect continued waves of infection in the coming years, but at this stage current and emerging variants pose similar risks to other circulating Omicron strains.’
It said ‘vaccination and other mitigation strategies are now more appropriate than an emergency response.”
Older Australians in particular are being urged to get a third vaccination if they have not already done so.
Since the pandemic began in 2020, Australia has had 11,793,995 Covid cases, which have killed 22,885 people.
The World Health Organization officially declared that Covid was no longer a global public health emergency on May 5, 2023.
Ny Breaking Australia approached the Department of Health and Aged Care for comment.