Weekly COVID news at a glance

1 Essential workers health at risk

Victoria’s essential workers are keeping the state running during its strict lockdown, but their work also puts them at high risk of being infected with COVID-19.

Many essential workers live in share houses or multi-generational homes, contributing to the spread of the virus, Australasian Epidemiological Association president, Dr Brigid Lynch has said. The increased risk essential workers face of contracting COVID-19 highlights inequality as people who are less advantaged are not able to work from home, Dr Lynch said.

These are services that cannot be shut down in a lockdown as it includes people who clean hospitals, delivery drivers and other essential work. Suggested risk reduction measures include reducing staff numbers where possible, testing staff and maintain the present program of providing isolation payments.

2 Sydney ICU nurses sedating patients more

Guardian Australia reported that overworked Sydney intensive care nurses are increasing sedative doses for some patients in order to manage their workload, claiming pressure from the Delta outbreak makes it impossible to monitor all of their charges.

Two ICU nurses from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred and St Vincent’s hospitals have independently raised concerns that when working in non-Covid ICUs in recent weeks, the pressure that surging Covid cases had placed across the health system has left them understaffed to the point that increasing sedative dosage is the safest way they can manage their patient load.

3 Older Australians not prioritized from mRNA vaccines

Older Australians could have to wait months to get a choice of vaccines, despite the technical advisory group on immunisation (Atagi) calling on the government to consider making mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer available to them.

With supplies of mRNA vaccines set to increase from 1m Pfizer doses per week from July to at least 3m per week of Pfizer and Moderna from October, there will soon be enough doses to offer choice to older Australians, who currently can only take the AstraZeneca vaccine.

On Sunday the Australian Capital Territory chief minister, Andrew Barr, agreed vaccine choice “would be considered once vaccine supplies are there” although he suggested that was likely to be “at the very tail end of the vaccination program”.

4 Victoria leading on Indigenous vaccination 

New data shows that Victoria has the highest COVID vaccination rates in the country for Indigenous Australians. The data was released by the federal government last week, with concerns rising about the gap between fully vaccinated Indigenous Australians and the rest of the population.

Victoria is leading the way with the rate of Indigenous people who have been fully vaccinated at 43 per cent, almost double the rest of the Victorian population.  While in Western Australia, just six per cent of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are fully vaccinated and in New South Wales, less than than 11 per cent have received two doses of the vaccine.

5 Overseas medical staff flying into Victoria

The Victorian government will fly in 350 medical staff from overseas to help with the increasing pressure on the state’s health system, as doctors warn that hospital staffing plans are urgently needed.

Hundreds of Victorian medical workers have been unable to work due to COVID-19 exposure at key hospitals, including the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Victoria has started to recruit overseas medical professionals to arrive in the country and begin work by October across 30 health services, with an initial focus on Melbourne and the Bendigo region.

According to the state government, ninety per cent of the arrivals will be doctors, the remainder will be specialist nurses or midwives, and many are resident hospital medical officers who will meet staffing demands in emergency departments and other critical areas.

6 Hospital emergency rooms wait lengthen

The maximum time a patient spends waiting in South Australia’s public hospital emergency departments before being seen is almost 15 hours, it has been revealed. New figures released by the South Australian government showed patients waited as long as 10 and a half hours to be seen in September last year. This increased to just under 12 hours in January this year and almost 15 hours in April and May.

In response to these claims, SA Health Minister Stephen Wade said Labor continued to run “misinformation”. Mr Wade argued because of COVID, there were in fact, more patients with respiratory conditions referred to emergency departments by GPs. And the pressures causing extreme wait times were not isolated either. He added that right across Australia they are seeing there are more more patients, with more severe conditions presenting at their emergency department.