Sydney outbreak spreads, claims first life

7 minute read

Communicable Disease COVID-19 Live blog

By

Bianca Nogrady

And a Belgian woman co-infected with two variants dies from covid.

Welcome to The Medical Republic’s COVID Catch-Up.

It’s the day’s covid-19 news in one convenient post. Email bianca@biancanogrady.com with any tips, comments or feedback.

12 July

Covid has claimed the life of a Sydney woman in her 90s – the first death from covid in Australia since early April this year. The woman was a close contact of another case and unvaccinated, and she died within 24 hours of being diagnosed.
Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly expressed his sorrow at the news of the woman’s death, and said this was a ‘difficult and concerning time’ for New South Wales.
With 77 new cases diagnosed in the 24 hours to 9pm Saturday – at least half of whom were infectious in the community before being contacted – and a further 112 cases diagnosed in the 24 hours to 9pm Sunday, Kelly reminded residents that this was not the time to look for loopholes in the stay-at-home messaging.
The outbreak is currently concentrated around the west and south-west Sydney regions of Fairfield, Canterbury/Bankstown and Liverpool, with some cases emerging in the Penrith/Nepean area of western Sydney.
At a press conference today, NSW Chief Medical Officer Dr Kerry Chant said there were now 63 patients in hospital with covid in NSW, 18 of whom are in intensive care, and four of whom are on ventilators. Fourteen of those in hospital are under 35 years of age, and two people in intensive care are under the age of 40, “dispelling the notion that you’re not going to get sick from covid if you’re young,” Dr Chant said.
Greater Sydney has been declared a ‘covid hotspot’, which unlocks support measures including increased PPE, single-site workforce payments for aged care, asymptomatic testing at GP-led respiratory clinics, reprioritisation of vaccine supplies, and access to a covid-19 disaster payment for those eligible.
On Sunday, Lieutenant General John Frewen – who heads up the federal government’s vaccine taskforce – repeatedly emphasised the importance of Australians getting vaccinated against covid, but also asked people to “be patient as we seek to bring more vaccines online.”
In an effort to increase vaccine coverage, NSW is now advising people to bring forward their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to six to eight weeks after the first, rather than waiting the full 12 weeks between doses, and asked people to ring their GP to reschedule their second dose.
Dr Chant said that while this may reduce the duration of protection, future booster doses would address that.
The government last night also launched a hard-hitting scare campaign featuring a young woman struggling to breathe on a hospital bed and exhorting people to stay home, get tested and book a vaccination appointment.
The advertisement met with a mixed response from doctors on social media, with some traumatised, others angry that supply shortages meant they weren’t able to get vaccinated for months, some pointing out that the presumed age of the woman in the ad meant she herself wouldn’t have been eligible to get vaccinated, and ICU doctors arguing a patient would not have been left in such respiratory distress.

A Belgian woman is reported to have died after being co-infected with two strains of SARS-CoV-2 at once.
A case study presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases conference heard the 90-year-old woman – who was unvaccinated – contracted both the Alpha (UK) and Beta (South African) variants of concern, and died five days after being diagnosed.
It was unclear whether the co-infection contributed to the severity of disease, but one researcher said the phenomenon was likely underestimated because of limited testing for variants of concern.

The Moderna vaccine shows high levels of protection against both symptomatic and asymptomatic infection with the Alpha and Beta variants of covid, a real-world study has found.
A paper published in Nature Medicine details the outcomes of a study of 181,304 individuals in Qatar who received two doses of the mRNA vaccine.
The study reported the vaccine was 99.2% effective at preventing infection with the Alpha strain two weeks after the second dose, and 100% effective after that point. Against the Beta variant, the vaccine was 96.4% effective at 14 or more days after the second dose.
The vaccine was 95.7% effective at preventing severe illness or death at two weeks after the second dose.

Stand aside, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills; there’s a new Drama in town, featuring not one but three current and former prime ministers, one health minister, and a multinational pharmaceutical company.
It’s a soap opera that transcends party lines and international boundaries, a tale of power play and betrayal that will leave you gasping for breath.
As Australia descends back into covid chaos and citizens desperately seek out hard-to-get covid vaccines, former PM Kevin Rudd donned his shining armour and set out to see if he couldn’t secure more doses of the sought-after Pfizer covid vaccine by apparently contacting the chief executive of Pfizer directly, Dr Albert Bourla.
According to reports from the ABC, Rudd asked the Pfizer chief if it was possible for Australia’s vaccine deliveries to be brought forward. When he got a cautious ‘maybe’, Rudd put this in a letter to current PM Scott Morrison, which also found its way to the ABC. A few days later, Morrison announced the vaccine deliveries would be brought forward.
With Rudd and Morrison claiming victory for the Australian people, another former PM Malcolm Turnbull weighed in on Twitter, thanking Rudd and expressing surprise that Morrison himself hadn’t gone to the same lengths of calling up the Pfizer chief.
Pfizer then put out a statement saying that no third party had been involved “in contractual agreements” (something that was not claimed by Rudd or the ABC): “The only two parties involved in these agreements are Pfizer and the Australian government,” Pfizer said in a statement to the ABC.
And at today’s press conference, federal Health Minister Greg Hunt threw some not-so-subtle smirky shade in Rudd’s direction, saying he and his colleages “had a little chuckle” when they saw the story on the ABC, and that they had no doubt Rudd’s letter would be released when the vaccine negotiations were announced publicly.
“I respect that individuals will sometimes take initiatives and we welcome and thank them,” Hunt said at the press conference. “But did it make a difference? No.”
But Rudd wasn’t done, and today issued another statement saying that he had contacted the Pfizer chief as a ‘concerned private citizen’ and – as he made clear to Morrison – all negotiating powers rest with the federal government.
“Mr Rudd would definitely not seek to associate himself with the Australian Government’s comprehensively botched vaccine procurement program”.
Ooooooo. Burn.

Here are the latest covid-19 infection numbers from around Australia. Please note the figures in brackets include locally- and overseas-acquired cases, and is taken from the federal Department of Health website, which updates at 9pm each evening to cover the previous 24 hours:
National – 31,103 with 911 deaths
ACT – 124 (0)
NSW – 6243 (82)
NT – 188 (0)
QLD – 1738 (1)
SA – 891 (1)
TAS – 234 (0)
VIC – 20,722 (0)
WA – 1035 (2)

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