COVID deaths were higher among disadvantaged neighbourhoods, people born overseas and Indigenous Australians, according to new data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In a speech by Andrew Leigh, assistant minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury and responsible for the ABS, given at the Australian Population Association Conference, new data showed deaths from COVID-19 disproportionately impacted disadvantaged communities.
According to official ABS statistics, since the start of the pandemic and until September 30 there have been 10,279 deaths from COVID.
Deaths due to COVID were also more prevalent in areas with greater socio-economic disadvantage such as in poorer areas and among migrant and Indigenous communities.
"One of the harshest impacts of economic inequality is the differences in health outcomes across socio-economic groups," Assistant Minister Leigh said.
COVID death rates were more than three times higher among people living in the most disadvantaged areas of the country, compared to those living in the least disadvantaged areas.
'Consistently higher' migrant COVID deaths
Mortality rates from COVID were also higher among Australians born overseas, with death rates for migrants being twice as high than people born in Australia in the first year of the pandemic.
"Australian residents born overseas have had consistently higher death rates from and with COVID than the Australian-born population," Assistant Minister Leigh said.
This gap widened to 3.6 times higher for those born overseas in 2021 but shrunk to 1.3 times higher than for people born in Australia between January and September 2022.
Canberra Multicultural Community Forum chair Chin Wong said this could be due to a multitude of reasons, including many elderly people being born overseas and multicultural communities meeting often.
"Another factor is probably because the people that are born overseas, they're more inclined to have more community and closer meeting of community support and therefore the incidence of infection of COVID would be higher," she said.
She also said people born overseas were more sceptical of the vaccine and needed greater support in understanding COVID-19 vaccinations.
"It takes a lot of effort and a lot of information provided and explanation and getting the help from the health professionals to explain to them clearly about vaccination. Certainly, the uptake of vaccination from the multicultural communities throughout the time when we can have vaccination is not as high."
Indigenous Australians at 'heightened risk'
The new data also showed death from COVID was nearly twice as high, or 1.7, for Indigenous Australians than for non-Indigenous Australians.
Assistant minister Leigh said "First Nations Australians are at heightened risk of more severe outcomes from COVID than non-First Nations Australians".
"There are several reasons for this, including higher rates of socioeconomic disadvantage, higher prevalence of chronic diseases and limited access to culturally safe healthcare."
Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Services, said the impact of COVID on Indigenous peoples in Canberra could have been worse if funding was not provided to help those who contracted COVID.
"We were fortunate enough to have funding to provide assistance to people who were in lockdown and contracted COVID and being able to provide food and medications and phone consults," she said.
"But as the funding dries up, we're still left with a lot of issues around trying to support families that actually have limited resources."
COVID deaths still climbing
COVID infection rates and mortality in Australia have also "climbed considerably" this year, with 8028 deaths in the first 9 months of 2022.
"In addition to deaths from COVID, the ABS also classified 2,266 deaths as COVID related. These are people who died from other causes (such as cancer) but for whom COVID contributed to their death," Assistant Minister Leigh said.
The median age of those who died from COVID was 87.4 years for women and 83.6 years for men.
More men died of COVID than women, with 126 male COVID deaths for every 100 female deaths from the virus.
Victorian and New South Wales residents accounted for around a third of all COVID deaths in Australia.
