Elderly woman dies with Covid

AN unvaccinated elderly woman with Covid died in Hobart, Premier Peter Gutwein has confirmed.

The 90-year-old woman, a resident at New Town’s Barrington Lodge Nursing Home, died on Thursday.

Mr Gutwein said Covid had not been recorded as the cause of death on her death certificate, but the infection could not be ruled out as a contributing factor.

It is unknown how the woman contracted Covid.

“These unfortunate circumstances are a reminder that Covid is around,” he said.

Mr Gutwein said the woman was unvaccinated, reminding other Tasmanians to ignore “the messages that are on social media”.

“As we’ve said continually, the best defence we’ve got is to be vaccinated.”

Julie Graham, deputy director of Public Health, said the woman had been asymptomatic and there had been no need to transfer her to hospital.

She said the woman’s positive result had been recorded as part of a testing sweep of all residents and staff at the facility.

Mr Gutwein said new case numbers for Friday were 866 – fewer than the 1009 people who had recovered and been released from isolation in the same period.

He said Tasmania now had 5984 active cases, and 17,083 people who had recovered in total.

Dr Graham said the woman had a number of comorbidities, but declined to discuss her health details further.

Opposition health spokeswoman Anita Dow said she was “extremely sad” to hear the news of the 90-year-old’s death.

Ms Dow said the government should be doing more to make booster shots more readily available for Tasmanians.