COVID-19 Update: Booster shots, "the older you are, the more benefit you get"

This is your update on COVID-19 in Australia for March 8.

Mwanamke aonesha fahari yake yakupata chanjo ya UVIKO-19

Mwanamke aonesha fahari yake yakupata chanjo ya UVIKO-19 Source: Getty Images / Digital Vision / Luis Alvarez

  • Professor Peter Collignon from the Australian National University called for a change in the communication around booster shots. "The older you are, the more benefit you get", he said, adding that for people over 50, we should be aiming to have booster rates at the same level of first and second doses.
  • Speaking at the Australian Financial Review Business Summit, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the "uncertainties of COVID, regrettably, will continue to remain with us, but we can't let them overwhelm us or intimidate us".
  • The statement came in anticipation of the next National Cabinet's meeting on Friday 11 March. States and territories will discuss then what do to in preparation for winter, that could bring a spike in COVID-19 infections, and when flu will likely be back, after 2 years of record lows.
  • Queen Elizabeth II has met with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in what was her first appearance since testing positive to COVID-19 on February 20.
  • A recent study by the University of Oxford has been published on Nature magazine, identifying significant effects of COVID-19 on the brain, with shrinkage and loss of brain tissue.
  • , after a number of bus drivers in Perth tested positive or were deemed close contacts. No routes will be cancelled but frequency might be reduced.

COVID-19 Australian Stats

New South Wales reported 1,070 patients hospitalised with 43 in intensive care. There were 5 deaths, and 13,018 new cases of COVID-19.

In Victoria, 203 people are in hospital with 29 in ICU and 4 on ventilators. There were 6 deaths and 7,043 new infections.

Tasmania has recorded no deaths with 1,051 new COVID-19 cases. There are 14 people with COVID-19 in hospital, with 4 requiring intensive care.

In Queensland, there were 4,397 new COVID-19 cases and 5 deaths. 268 people are hospitalised with COVID-19, with 20 patients in ICU.

In the ACT 43 people are now in hospital with COVID-19, 2 of them requiring intensive care, with 658 new infections reported.

In Western Australia there were 2,847 new cases of COVID-19 with 48 people currently in hospital.

In the Northern Territory there were 437 new cases of COVID-19 and one death. 45 people are now in hospital with one patient in ICU.

In South Australia 97 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19 and 13 of them are in ICU, 2 are ventilated. There were 2,089 new cases.


 





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3 min read
Published 8 March 2022 12:37pm
Updated 8 March 2022 4:23pm


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