COVID-19 BATTLE IS NOT OVER YET FOR GOLD COASTERS

AFTER two years of planning, we’ve witnessed first-hand the impact Covid-19 can have on our community and our health system.

While this wave has passed, it doesn’t mean that Covid-19 is over for us. Far from it.

We are planning for the next inevitable wave using what we have learned from the Omicron experience.

It’s now very clear that vaccination makes a difference to the number of people who get very sick from this virus and require treatment in hospital, are admitted to our Intensive Care Unit or, worse, die.

We now also understand the importance of the third dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Having two Covid-19 vaccinations cuts your chances of being seriously ill by 66 per cent. A booster dose reduces that even further to 88 per cent.

With so much misinformation circulating, particularly on social media, it’s important that people seek out facts from reputable sources.

Here are the facts I can share with you about the Covid-19 in our city.

On the Gold Coast, as of March 7, 2022, 87.7 per cent of the population had received their second dose of the Covid-19. vaccine. Only 55 per cent of eligible people on the Gold Coast have received that all-important third dose.

While there are minor and expected side-effects such as soreness in the arm, social media stories of adverse reactions are simply untrue. In Australia, more than 54 million vaccines have been administered. Looking at adverse reactions such as myocarditis, to January 30, 2022, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) reports one or two cases in every 100,000 people who receive the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Based on our recent experience, we know if someone who is unvaccinated does catch

Covid-19, they are 24 times more likely than somebody who has had three doses to end up in ICU.

At the peak of this wave there were 202 inpatients with Covid-19 across Gold Coast University Hospital and Robina Hospital and 15 people in ICU, with hundreds more being treated in our Virtual Ward.

Six-hundred-and-fifteen people with Covid-19 have died in Queensland. The number of people who died with Covid-19 sat at just seven for more than a year, but more than doubled within days once Covid-19 started to spread in the community. The Gold Coast went from recording no Covid-19 deaths to 114 people passing away.

Unfortunately, it’s not just those who get sick from Covid-19 who suffer.

With eight Covid-19 wards during the peak, increased pressure in our emergency departments and ICUS, and the extra strain on our staffing numbers, we had to make changes to the way we deliver our services. The impact Covid-19 has had on healthcare consumers goes well beyond those who test positive and need hospitalisation.

My message to the community is simple. Vaccines do work. They reduce people’s chances of dying, regardless of age.

We know that vaccine effectiveness wanes four to six months after a second dose, so it’s really important to get the third dose as soon as eligible.