Virus to kill 15k Aussies this year

COVID-19 is on track to be Australia’s second or third biggest killer in 2022, causing almost as many deaths as dementia and heart disease.

On average, 285 Australians are dying from Covid each week, and if that continues, the virus will claim 14,916 Australian lives this year.

This is almost as many as die from dementia (14,919) and closing in on our No.1 killer – heart disease – which takes more than 17,700 lives a year.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports 5940 people have died with or from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic until April 30, 2022.

Nine in 10 of those (5335) died of Covid and 605 of other causes, such as cancer, but were Covid-19 positive at the time of death.

The total death figure is much lower than that reported on the Health Department website (7873) and the ABS “expects to receive further registrations for this period from the jurisdictional Registries of Births, Deaths and Marriages”.

Experts have warned deaths could rise further in winter when people are indoors and Covid is more likely to spread.

Deakin University epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said the Omicron variant spread so fast “by the time you know you have an infection, the people you have already infected that you didn’t even know you’ve infected are infectious themselves, and once you reach that point, you can’t control it with contact tracing”.

Professor Bennett said making sure you had third and fourth vaccine booster doses and going to a doctor early to find out if you were eligible for new Covid-busting drugs would be critical in curtailing the death rate.

New data from Israel shows a fourth vaccine significantly boosts immunity to the virus and helps stop many elderly getting infected with the virus for 4-8 weeks.

To better control the infection without lockdowns, health authorities needed to carry out random blood tests in the population each month to get an idea where it was spreading, Prof Bennett said.