Australian Reports of the Virus Spread

[drron]

Omicron not fuelling hospitalisations, America’s top medical adviser says​

Australia news LIVE: Queensland to reopen borders to fully vaccinated travellers from December 13; Perth stripped of fifth Ashes test; NSW’s Omicron cases grow

School-aged children are on track to receive the coronavirus jab before classes return next year, speculation is mounting that former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is expected to announce a tilt at federal politics as soon as today and Victoria says it won’t pursue an “Omicron-zero” strategy.

www.brisbanetimes.com.au

But hospitalisations always lag cases and it has only been recently detected in the USA and Australia and in low numbers.
As posted in the other thread in South Africa hospitalisations are rising and mainly in young children. That is a group in Australia that also has extremely low vaccination numbers and will be so probably to the end of January. The positive though is that it is rapidly coming up to the school holidays.

 

[antycbr]

But hospitalisations always lag cases and it has only been recently detected in the USA and Australia and in low numbers.
As posted in the other thread in South Africa hospitalisations are rising and mainly in young children. That is a group in Australia that also has extremely low vaccination numbers and will be so probably to the end of January. The positive though is that it is rapidly coming up to the school holidays.

For a good understanding of South African news have a read of the Daily Maverick:

Early clinical pictures of Omicron patients: indications of less severe disease but high infection rates among the young

While researchers are warning that it might be too early to tell, doctors are seeing a significantly different clinical profile in their patients admitted for Covid in Tshwane hospitals – giving preliminary and early indications of less Covid pneumonia and less severe disease. Tshwane is...

www.dailymaverick.co.za

This is what they are seeing on the ground in Tshwane/Pretoria. Those admitted to hospital generally don't require oxygenation/ventilator use and importantly have only 1/4 of the average stay duration in hospital compared to the last 18 month running average.

 

[jakeseven7]

For a good understanding of South African news have a read of the Daily Maverick:

Early clinical pictures of Omicron patients: indications of less severe disease but high infection rates among the young

While researchers are warning that it might be too early to tell, doctors are seeing a significantly different clinical profile in their patients admitted for Covid in Tshwane hospitals – giving preliminary and early indications of less Covid pneumonia and less severe disease. Tshwane is...

www.dailymaverick.co.za

This is what they are seeing on the ground in Tshwane/Pretoria. Those admitted to hospital generally don't require oxygenation/ventilator use and importantly have only 1/4 of the average stay duration in hospital compared to the last 18 month running average.

Wait, but South Australia told us we were all going to die?

 

[drron]

For a good understanding of South African news have a read of the Daily Maverick:

Early clinical pictures of Omicron patients: indications of less severe disease but high infection rates among the young

While researchers are warning that it might be too early to tell, doctors are seeing a significantly different clinical profile in their patients admitted for Covid in Tshwane hospitals – giving preliminary and early indications of less Covid pneumonia and less severe disease. Tshwane is...

www.dailymaverick.co.za

This is what they are seeing on the ground in Tshwane/Pretoria. Those admitted to hospital generally don't require oxygenation/ventilator use and importantly have only 1/4 of the average stay duration in hospital compared to the last 18 month running average.

Though that report says 30% are needing supplemental oxygen if hospitalised.that is probably a bit high seeing it is predominantly young that are being admitted.It is also only a month since Omicron was first seen.Hospitalisations lag cases and severe disease lags hospitalisations.
So yes Omicron doesn't seem to be as severe as Delta but not necessarily harmless.

 

[jb747]

Wait, but South Australia told us we were all going to die?

No. It was they are going to die....

 

[Pushka]

Wait, but South Australia told us we were all going to die?

In an abundance of caution SA Health have banned all deaths.

 

[oz_mark]

 

[Matt_01]

@oz_mark, love it. The cynical part of me wonders how much/ long the pressers will go to town on this variant and post rubbish. The pressers killed the AZ rollout, have had a field day with Delta and as everything was starting to move in the right direction (maybe WA excluded) along come omicron.

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

NT, SA, Qld updates

NT
3 positives (2 non-local, 1 local - current local outbreak 61), 2.0k tests, 1 ICU

3/12 non-local is a false positive

SA
4 positives (3 non-local, 1 local - Norwood outbreak 25), 15.3k tests, 1 hospital for non-covid reasons

3/12 mystery is a false positive, 5/12 mystery is a non-local.

Qld
3 positives (all non-local), 10.5k tests

 

[jakeseven7]

@oz_mark, love it. The cynical part of me wonders how much/ long the pressers will go to town on this variant and post rubbish. The pressers killed the AZ rollout, have had a field day with Delta and as everything was starting to move in the right direction (maybe WA excluded) along come omicron.

Actually omicrap news seems to have bubbled right down, barely mentioned. Which is lovely. For now…

 

[Matt_01]

On another note how did we jump from delta to omicron, did we miss a few letters or were they taken up in the past by some other covid type outbreak.

 

[clifford]

On another note how did we jump from delta to omicron, did we miss a few letters or were they taken up in the past by some other covid type outbreak.

You don't know? It's been in all the papers...

 

[N860CR]

@oz_mark, love it. The cynical part of me wonders how much/ long the pressers will go to town on this variant and post rubbish. The pressers killed the AZ rollout, have had a field day with Delta and as everything was starting to move in the right direction (maybe WA excluded) along come omicron.

Remember the first few variants? Before they had ethnic names? UK Variant and South African variant. Both were claimed to be even more contagious and even more scary, but turned out to be neither. Got a few news cycles before burning out.

 

[nutwood]

On another note how did we jump from delta to omicron, did we miss a few letters or were they taken up in the past by some other covid type outbreak.

Other varieties that fizzled and they didn't want to use Nu (too like new) or Xi (for obvious political reasons).

 

[HappyFlyerFamily]

On another note how did we jump from delta to omicron, did we miss a few letters or were they taken up in the past by some other covid type outbreak.

From Variants of SARS-CoV-2 - Wikipedia

Other varieties that fizzled and they didn't want to use Nu (too like new) or Xi (for obvious political reasons).

Correct. The ones between Delta and Omicron reached Variant of Interest status.

Epsilon, Zeta, Eta, Theta, Iota, Kappa have officially fizzled
Lambda, Mu still have Variant of Interest status as of August 2021

Nu and Xi were skipped.

 

[jakeseven7]

On another note how did we jump from delta to omicron, did we miss a few letters or were they taken up in the past by some other covid type outbreak.

Put it this way, QLD pollies would have LOVED if they weren’t skipped!

 

[justinbrett]

On another note how did we jump from delta to omicron, did we miss a few letters or were they taken up in the past by some other covid type outbreak.

They only skipped nu and xi

There's been plenty of variants in between - Melbourne had an small outbreak of Kappa before the main Delta outbreak.

Not all go global. Iota is mainly restricted to the US (it started in NY). Lambada was big in South America. Theta was Philippines.

Also keep in mind we got Delta quite late. It started in India late 2020.

 

[drron]

Reported that QLD kidney/renal authority is banning the unvaccinated from receiving ( and presumably donating) kidney transplants.

A bridge too far, for me. Doesn’t seem To be any provision for pre and post isolation, negative test etc. Just no.

I’m all for carrots and sticks to encourage vaccination, but denying life saving surgery?? Not on in my view.

Not as silly as some OS countries. In Germany you have to be double vaxxed to access Euthanasia services. Obviously very important where they are going.

Germany blocks unvaccinated from euthanasia clinics

GERMANY has banned those unvaccinated against COVID-19 from accessing euthanasia clinics amid concerns over staff safety.

www.express.co.uk

 

[jb747]

Not as silly as some OS countries. In Germany you have to be double vaxxed to access Euthanasia services. Obviously very important where they are going.

Germany blocks unvaccinated from euthanasia clinics

GERMANY has banned those unvaccinated against COVID-19 from accessing euthanasia clinics amid concerns over staff safety.

www.express.co.uk

Coffee, meet keyboard.

 

[Quickstatus]

started in India late 2020.

We seem to import from China, US, EU, India, Africa.

If ScoMo is serious about Made in Australia, when are we going to re-start local manufacturing. Home grown Covid please. We don’t want the dodgy imported stuff