NSW recorded its deadliest day of the COVID pandemic on Saturday as Victorian officials warn the emergence of a Omicron sub-variant means double vaccination is no longer enough for many people.
After a pandemic-high 98 fatalities were reported across Australia on Friday, a further 97 were announced on Saturday – 49 of them in NSW.
Victoria registered 31 deaths, Queensland 12 and South Australia five.
More than 3630 Australian lives have been lost since the pandemic began, over a thousand of them this month and 500 in the past week.
According to Australia’s chief nursing and midwifery officer, Professor Alison McMillan, the aftershock of the Omicron wave will also mean death rates will likely remain high for some time after infections plateau.
Opposition health spokesman Mark Butler labelled Saturday “a terrible, tragic day” and said each casualty would be “felt very deeply by Australians irrespective of age or irrespective of any underlying health condition that might be reported in one newspaper or another”.
On the issue of aged care, the United Workers Union has launched an attack on the federal government over the deaths of more than 200 residents over the past week.
The union says the first month of 2022 has been deadlier for Australia’s elderly than all of last year.
Triple vaccination
Victoria’s COVID Commander Jeroen Weimar on Saturday said people who are double vaccinated need to pivot their thinking again, as the state grapples with more changes and a sub-variant of Omicron is detected.
