9 April 2022

ACT records 45th COVID-death, 959 new infections; Vaccination status of all ACT COVID-19 deaths released

| Lottie Twyford
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minister for health Rachel Stephen-Smith at a press conference

Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith had previously confirmed the vaccination status of the ACT’s COVID-deaths would be included in this week’s epidemiological report. Photo: Thomas Lucraft.

A man in his 90s has become the 45th person to die with COVID-19 in the ACT. This comes as the ACT recorded 959 new COVID-19 infections in the 24 hours to 8 pm last night.

The vaccination status of everyone who has died with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic has been released by ACT Health.

The department’s latest detailed epidemiological report, which authorities agreed to release after previously claiming some of this information could not be made public because of privacy laws and restrictions, covers the period up to 3 April.

It showed that of the total 42 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, most had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Four people who died with the virus had received three doses of the vaccine, 19 had received two doses of vaccine and three had received a single dose of vaccine.

15 were unvaccinated and the vaccination status for the remaining person was unknown, the report read.

Of the 50 ICU admissions since 1 January 2022, 12 had received 3 doses of the vaccine, 23 had received 2 doses of the vaccine, 2 had received a single dose of vaccine, 12 were unvaccinated and the vaccination status for the remaining person was unknown.

This wasn’t included in last week’s report as the data required “clarification”, Minister for Health Rachel Stephen-Smith said on Thursday.

She also confirmed the consent of the family to release the vaccination status of a deceased person is also taken into account.

icu beds at hospital

50 people have been admitted to the ICU between 1 January 2022 and 3 April 2022. Photo: ACT Government.

Ms Stephen-Smith warned the size of the ACT’s data pool – particularly regarding deaths – is too small to be statistically significant.

“What we know about our data is that we are often talking about very small numbers – they are not statistically significant – and so presenting our data as being evidence for something is quite difficult and so we want to be clear with people that it’s also important to look at the data nationally or at least from a larger jurisdiction like NSW if you really want to draw an evidence conclusion around the impact of vaccination, for example,” she said.

Cases during the week of 28 March to 3 April decreased to 6577 from the previous week in which 6985 cases were reported. Test positivity PCRs (only) declined slightly to 17 to 18 per cent from 18 to 20 per cent in the previous week.

During the reporting period, there were 20 admissions to hospital and no new admissions to the ICU.

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The 959 (572 PCR and 387 RAT) new cases of COVID-19 reported this morning brings the Territory’s local active caseload to 5,974 (3,311 PCR and 2,663 RAT).

The ACT recorded 1200 new infections yesterday.

There are now 62 people in hospital, including three in the ICU and two being ventilated.

Yesterday there were 55 people in hospital, of which three were in ICU and one being ventilated.

As of yesterday, the double-dose vaccination rate for the ACT’s five-plus population was 96.4 per cent, and 73.9 per cent of residents aged 16 and older have now received a booster.

Of ACT residents aged five to 11, 58.7 per cent have received two doses.

Since the pandemic began, 86,102 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the ACT.

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Interstate, NSW has reported ten deaths overnight and 17,597 new cases.

Victoria has reported seven new deaths overnight and an additional 9610 cases of COVID-19.

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I’ve had three jabs. Not having another

At this point, there are three pretty safe conclusions you can draw about these vaccines. One, they don’t prevent you from catching or passing on covid. Two, they probably reduce the severity when you do catch it. And three, the effectiveness of the vaccine wears off fairly quickly.

Oh, and a fourth – they are a huge money maker for a few chosen pharmaceutical companies.

ACT vaccinated with 2 or more jabs was 89.6% on 1 Jan 2022 and is 96.4% today. The average % of ACT residents that have 0 or one jab over the period is 7%… and over the period 1 Jan 2022 to today this 7% of the ACT makes up up 28% if ICU admissions based on the data release (14 of the 50 ICU admissions)… so this data implies you are 4x more likely to end up in ICU if get COVID and you are unvaccinated or only have 1 jab than if you have 2 or three jabs in the ACT.

Ms Stephen-Smith warned the size of the ACT’s data pool – particularly regarding deaths – is too small to be statistically significant.

The number of deaths is not a statistic, Its a physical count and attributes of each.
A sample of 100% of the ACT deaths is significant.

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