PRIME Minister Anthony Albanese has arranged for an urgent national cabinet meeting tomorrow morning after receiving a briefing from chief medical officer Professor Pail Kelly on the BA4/5 Covid-19 wave.
Recently politicians including WA premier Mark McGowan have appeared to dismiss calls or by ATAGI and the AMA as well as the Kirby and Burnett institutes who have all been calling for measures to deal with the latest Covid-19 wave.
According to the federal Department of Health and Aged Care data released today Aegis Shorehaven in Alkimos with 38 resident cases is one of the 76 aged care residences in WA with an active outbreak of Covid-19.
This morning WA Health reported a total of 6458 new cases to 6pm Thursday, July 14 and said there were 35,138 active cases in Western Australia.
Last night at 6pm there were 333 people with Covid-19 in hospital, 16 in ICU.
Today’s report included eight deaths, dating back to June 10 which were reported to WA Health yesterday – a man in his 90s, two men and a woman in their 80s, a man and woman in their 70s and two men in their 60s.
The 330 people in hospital is edging closer to the 350 in hospital that AMA (WA) president Mark Duncan-Smith on July 14 said should result in the McGowan Government reintroducing a mask mandate that would include indoor spaces where social distancing cannot be maintained.
Dr Duncan-Smith said this was in addition to the current mandate for hospitals, doctors’ offices, aged care and public transport.
Public health measures take two to three weeks to have an effect on the number of people in hospital,’’ he said.
“That’s why when we break 350, we need to be doing something different to what we’re doing today to protect the medical system down the road.’’
On July 7 WA chief health officer Andy Robertson told listeners to the ABC Perth Drive show that BA.4 and BA.5 were becoming dominant variants in the state and daily cases were expected to rise to between 10,000 to 17,000 a day sometime during the next six weeks.
Mr Robertson said this would flow on to the number of people in hospital and potentially in ICU.
The same day the Australian technical advisory group on immunisation (ATAGI) said a surge in cases of Covid-19 from the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants were expected to worsen in the coming months.
“Increasing the uptake of winter booster doses of Covid-19 vaccine in populations most at risk during this time is anticipated to play a limited, but important role in reducing the risk from Covid-19 to individuals and pressure on the healthcare system,’’ ATAGI said.
ATAGI said other public health and social measures, in addition to vaccination, would have the greatest impact against the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 surge in infections.
“This includes increased use of masks and increasing the use of antiviral treatment in people diagnosed with Covid-19, including in people aged 50 years and above,’’ the ATAGI update said.
On the same day Professor Raina MacIntyre, who is head of the biosecurity program at the Kirby Institute, said in The Conversation that Australia was bracing for a massive wave of BA.4 and 5, predicted to be as bad as the last peak in early 2022.
“In the absence of other public health measures such as masks, and if a vaccine-only strategy is continued, expanding fourth dose eligibility is the only way to mitigate the next Covid wave,’’ she said.
“A fourth dose becomes even more crucial when we have no other plan – no mask mandates, no mandated indoor air quality standards nor universal, affordable access to antivirals.
“It will save lives and reduce the load on our health system.”
Some days earlier on July 4 Burnet Institute director and chief executive office Brendan Crabb told ABC Radio Melbourne Mornings that many people who have had Covid and recovered, think “what’s the big deal?”
“The big deal is, you’re very likely to get it again, and you’re likely to get it again after that, and you’re likely to get it again after that, and every time, we now know there’s cumulative damage to the individual,” he said.
Professor Crabb said that while restrictive measures such as lockdowns were no longer necessary to address the pandemic, Australia had the necessary tools and knowledge including:
- vaccines and the need to be fully vaccinated,
- continuing to test and isolate if positive,
- a focus on clean air and better ventilation, and
- the ongoing use of masks
“This is an airborne disease, so we want the places we go in to have clean air – and if it doesn’t have clean air, you need to wear a mask and you need to be helped in that,” he said.
Earlier today some media outlets were reporting that tomorrow Mr Albanese would sign off on a temporary scheme so that Australians with Covid-19 could once again receive the $750 a week pandemic payment.
Meanwhile, federal Department of Health and Aged Care data on July 3 showed 79.5 per cent of the eligible City of Wanneroo population aged 16 and over had received more than two doses of the vaccine.
In the Shire of Gingin 77.8 per cent of the eligible population aged 16 and over had received more than two doses of the vaccine.
By July 14 more than 6.35 million confirmed deaths due to Covid-19 had been reported to the World Health Organization
