Townsville Bulletin

STATE’S SHOCK NEW COVID DEATH DATA

- RACHAEL ROSEL

COVID has claimed the lives of more Queensland­ers in five months than the entire Spanish flu pandemic as new data reveals unvaccinat­ed patients are 10 times more likely to die from the virus.

Seven deaths were recorded in the first two years of the pandemic, but as of Thursday 918 Queensland­ers have died since January 1 – half of which were aged care residents.

By comparison, just 264 people died in one of Queensland’s worst flu seasons in 2017 and just over 800 Queensland­ers died in the entire outbreak of the 1919 Spanish flu.

Unvaccinat­ed Queensland­ers remain the most atrisk, with data revealing that due to the large population difference­s, they are 10 times more likely to die from Covid.

It comes as 223 of the 4.8 million vaccinated Queensland­ers have died from

Covid-19 compared with 235 of the unvaccinat­ed cohort of 410,000. During the Omicron wave in February 331 Queensland­ers died in just one month and a further 207 deaths were recorded in March, passing NSW’S March total of 198 deaths.

Infectious diseases expert Dr Paul Griffin said he worried people were becoming complacent and were beginning to underestim­ate the significan­ce of the virus.

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