The days of being swamped with politicians talking about COVID already seem like a long time ago. But the virus continues to run rampant, making a lot of Australians sick and killing many, even if we don't seem to be talking about it publicly as much. #abc730 pic.twitter.com/f2hyVb9QXt
— abc730 (@abc730) January 23, 2023
The NSW Perrottet Government publishes a very basic update of COVID-19 infection statistics once every 7 days and it releases a weekly epidemiological report whenever it feels in the mood.
So the only NSW Respiratory Surveillance Report-weekly epidemiology summary currently available which contains data on new infections, hospitalisation and basic mortality demographics, only covers the period 1-7 January 2023.
In that particular 7 days only two out of the 15 state local health districts did not record a death due to COVID-19, these were the Far West and Northern NSW.
Of the total 92 deaths of people (aged between 30-39 years & 90+ years) recorded between 1-7 January, 36 were aged care residents (14 of these people died in hospital and 22 died at an aged care facility), 7 people diagnosed with COVID-19 prior to death died at home and presumably the remaining 49 died in local public hospitals.
The following graphics show that while infection and hospitalisation numbers are falling in the first three weeks of 2023 the death toll continues to mount.
Graphics via @NSWHealth
The total number of deaths included in these four graphs represent 352 people.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 January 2023:
Everyone dies. But last year in NSW, far more people than usual did. Every single week up to September, dozens more deaths were reported than the state’s average. The cause is no secret: a rapidly ageing population combined with the ongoing impact of the pandemic.
But behind those numbers stands a colossal and often misunderstood industry that deals with everything from palliative care and burials to cremation and counselling.
And under immense pressure, 2022 changed it forever.
Crematorium operators spent the year dealing with a “high volume” of requests, funeral directors have been forced to increase their services and, as if to prove bureaucracy stays with you to the grave, the city’s cemeteries are set to be full within 10 years.
Guardian Funerals, a giant provider of funerals across the state, said they assisted “more families than ever before in 2022 and as we have commenced 2023, there continues to be an increased demand for our services.”….. [my yellow highlighting]
It’s only now, after a few years of increased focus on dying, that the public is experiencing what those in the industry have known for decades: when it comes to dealing with death, Sydney is headed for a crisis.
Transcript of letter accompanying Review of COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Purchasing and Procurement report:
The Hon Mark Butler
Minister for Health and Aged Care
Parliament House
CANBERRA ACT 2600
Dear Minister
On 30 June 2022 you commissioned an independent review of the purchasing and procurement of COVID-19 vaccine and treatments to inform the next 12-24 months. This report provides the conclusions and recommendations of the review.
The review team engaged with a number of key stakeholders involved in Australia’s response to the
COVID-19 pandemic and rollout of vaccines and treatments. This included epidemiological experts
both nationally and internationally, Commonwealth, state and territory Health departments and bodies, health sector organisations, as well as manufacturers of the vaccines and treatments procured within Australia.
As principal reviewer I was assisted by Professor Peter Collignon AM who provided expert medical advice. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the review project team led by Georgie Fairhall, Department of Health and Aged Care.
Early procurement of vaccines and treatments occurred in a highly competitive global market. In this context Australia secured a portfolio of effective COVID-19 vaccines and treatments enabling high rates of primary course vaccination preventing serious illness and death relative to global peers.
However, Australia and the world are not yet ‘COVID-stable’, and we are unable to confidently predict the timing or impact of new waves and variants. This uncertainty presents particular challenges. The availability of efficacious vaccines and treatments will continue to play a key role in ensuring ongoing protection for lives and livelihoods.
The next two years are critical to supporting our economy, health and education systems to recover. Australia's approach to the procurement of vaccines and treatments needs to be responsive to the changing environment and should be guided by clear policy and understanding of risk appetite.
Consideration should be given to the decision-making structures and advice required, and whether new and existing pathways for procurement and distribution of vaccines and treatments should be retained or adapted. Finally, it is critical that Australia maintains surge capacity in the event of a serious new variant or another infectious disease.
Yours sincerely
Hon. Professor Jane Halton AO PSM
19 September 2022
[my yellow highlighting]
Review of COVID-19 Vaccine and Treatment Purchasing and Procurement aka the Halton Report by clarencegirl on Scribd
Note: This letter, executive summary & recommendations are the full extent of what the federal government was prepared to release for public consumption. The remainder of the Halton Report allegedly covers contractual arrangements with vaccine manufacturers and as such is commercial-in-confidence.
The Saturday Paper, 7 January 2023, excerpts:
A summary of the review by former senior health bureaucrat Professor Jane Halton was released in September last year. The full version of the report, obtained by The Saturday Paper under freedom of information laws, paints a disturbing picture of what could lie ahead as the virus mutates further and existing vaccines become less effective.....
Speaking to The Saturday Paper this week, Halton emphasised that the virus remains a serious threat that could worsen.
“The world is currently seeing the emergence of yet more new variants, including XBB1.5, which underscores that the pandemic and particularly the effects of SARS-CoV-2 are not yet completely behind us,” said Halton, who heads the global Centre for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI.
“It’s really important to take a step back and say, ‘What are we trying to achieve here?’ I’d love to see a narrative from the federal Health minister – the goals we want to achieve. I’m just not seeing that. It just seems to be a lot of Whac-A-Mole going on.”
“The entire world is looking forward to a day where we don’t have to worry about SARS-CoV-2. However, we continue to need to be prepared for all circumstances, including new and more dangerous variants.”
In her report, Halton writes that Australia signed advanced purchasing agreements (APAs) with vaccine manufacturers “later than other comparative countries which delayed the supply of vaccines and the speed of the rollout”.
Australia later overtook other countries, once a distribution plan was in place. However, Halton warns that those foundational APAs are now expiring. “As a consequence, new APAs giving effect to purchasing decisions will be needed.”
A spokesperson for Butler declined to comment specifically on new purchasing agreements but said the government “has ensured there is a portfolio of vaccines and supply available to Australians in 2023 and 2024”.
The report says the new government should rethink eligibility for both vaccines and the antiviral treatments that lessen the virus’s impact on individuals. It says optimising their uptake and investing in new versions will be “critical” in what will continue to be a highly competitive global market.
“In the short-term, wider eligibility for some treatments should be considered where there are stocks available, there is evidence of efficacy, safety and broader economic and societal benefits (such as workforce availability). This is particularly the case where there is no significant private market to help limit the burden of the disease.”
The absence of a “private market” highlights that the government’s approach to Covid-19 vaccines is different than for other vaccines.
For example, anyone in Australia can access the annual influenza vaccine. The government lists the vaccine on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) and identifies priority groups who can receive it free. Others who want to be vaccinated protectively can pay to obtain it through vaccination clinics or their local general practice. Some employers offer staff vaccinations to limit workdays lost to illness.
That is not the case for Covid-19 vaccines and was also not the case for Covid treatments when they first became available. The government is the only purchaser and distributor of these vaccines and it alone controls who can access them.
Unlike its American counterpart, the Australian government has only authorised a fifth vaccine dose for the most vulnerable. In the United States, a protective fifth shot is widely available.
Butler’s spokesperson did not respond directly to a question about the different approaches to eligibility. “New booster dose recommendations are anticipated in early 2023 in preparation for winter,” they said. “Future recommendations will aim to provide ongoing clear guidance across all groups including time since last dose and definitions of eligibility.”
The current, restrictive approach was adopted in the pandemic’s emergency phase to ensure access was not dictated by who could pay; but Halton notes circumstances have now changed, with most of the population protected by at least basic vaccination.
She suggests that widening access to vaccines – and treatments – could slow the spread of variants and lessen risk as immunity wanes. In other words, the cost-benefit equation around restricting access has shifted.
Halton writes that variants influence the effectiveness of both vaccines and treatments. “These changes are significant for decision-making,” she writes, “and the relative benefit of individual vaccines and treatments will continue to need to be assessed.”
The report also indicates a shift in the importance of antiviral treatments, which have not been a focus in Australia’s Covid policy. Halton notes that if vaccination or previous infection no longer offer significant protection against new variants, treatments may now be considered proportionally more beneficial than when protection from vaccines was higher.
Halton warns that the current broad distribution framework for vaccines “does not include a strategy for the distribution of treatments as they were not widely available in 2020”......
Halton’s report says strategies and frameworks drafted early in the pandemic are now out of date and don’t adequately consider developments in vaccines and especially treatments for the virus. She says government should rethink those restrictions put in place because of supply constraints.....
She also notes that because the previous government elected to adopt all advice from the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI), it effectively became the decision-maker. Its advice was not always interrogated and was portrayed as entirely clinical when it was sometimes based on judgement.
“The ATAGI advice, which is released publicly, is often treated as prescriptive and rules-based. The timeliness of this advice has also been questioned.”
Halton describes a “mismatch” between vaccine supply and demand, the latter having been restricted by the eligibility criteria ATAGI had applied, which were often narrower than those contained in the Therapeutic Goods Administration approvals. Halton says this has created confusion about their respective roles.
She writes that ATAGI’s advice “has changed over time and does not provide a firm foundation for procurement decisions”.
Halton’s report says there have also been delays in the booster stage.
“While Australia has had early success with managing the pandemic, further emergence of new variants and management of the vaccination rollout has seen waning performance in comparison to other countries,” the report says. “Australia currently has the second lowest rate of booster uptake among comparator countries.”
Halton says “inconsistent messaging from health authorities” has contributed to the slow booster uptake and urges the government to significantly improve public communications.
The government has accepted all of Halton’s recommendations “in principle”, Butler’s spokesperson said. A formal government response is expected soon.
As an Australia - battered by increasing unnatural disasters and a pandemic which never ends - comes to the final days of 2022, here is a brief summary of where the COVID-19 numbers now stand.
"Globally, as of 4:46pm CET, 9 December 2022, there have been 643,875,406 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,630,082 deaths, reported to WHO...Including 756,013 confirmed cases in the last 24 hours." [WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard]
As at 13 December 2022 there have been 13,592,315 new confirmed COVID-19 cases world-wide in the last 28 days and 41,383 COVID-19 deaths in the same period. [COVID-19 Dashboard, Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), Johns Hopkins University]
NOTE: By the time the Morrison Government had been removed from office there was no consistent method of COVID-19 data collection across all jurisdictions in Australia and publicly released information was frequently designed to minimise or hide what federal and/or state governments judged to be politically sensitive statistics. There was also significant under reporting of infection numbers inbuilt into data collection. That situation has not changed to date.
According to the Australian Government Dept. of Health and Aging, in the 7 days up to 6 December 2022 a total of 108,983 cases of COVID-19 were reported across Australia, an average of 15,569 cases per day.
In the 14 days up to 9 December 2022 there were 351 reported COVID-19 deaths bringing the cumulative total of deaths since the start of the pandemic to 16,441 men, women & children, according to COVID LIVE.
In NSW in the 7 days up to 4pm 8 December 2022 there were 40,194 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 48 confirmed deaths reported to NSW Health.
Of these 1,526 people were ill enough to require hospitalisation, with 40 in intensive care units. Weekly new admissions to NSW hospitals appear to be running in the vicinity of 1,049 people on the wards and 59 to intensive care units.
A total of 954 of the newly confirmed cases in the 7 days up to 8 December were in the Northern Rivers region. An est. 50.41% of these cases were in Tweed Shire, 25.27% in Ballina Shire and 18.65% in Lismore City - with the remaining 5.67% spread across the other four local government areas in the region.
Compare these state and regional numbers with those of 1-11 December 2021 and it is shocking to see how the collapse of public health measures have affected the course of the pandemic in New South Wales and the Northern Rivers. The Northern Rivers in particular has gone from est. 3.85 daily COVID-19 cases in the 7 days up to 8 December 2021 to est. 136.28 daily COVID-19 cases in the 7 days up to 8 December 2022.
 |
| ABS, Provisional Mortality Statistics Jan-Aug 2022, released 25 Nov 2022. Click on image to enlarge |
The Conversation, 12 December 2022:
Last month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released a report of mortality statistics. It showed that from January to July 2022, there were 17% more deaths (16,375) than the average expected for these months.
This historical average is based on an average of the deaths for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021. They did not include 2020 in the baseline for 2022 data because it included periods where numbers of deaths were significantly lower than expected. The difference between the expected number of deaths based on historical data, and the actual number, is called “excess deaths”.
However, as the ABS points out in its report, using previous years as the predictor for the expected number of deaths does not take into account changes in population age structure over time, or potential improvements in mortality rates.
As we will see, the excess deaths this year were likely lower than the ABS estimate – but still overwhelmingly related to COVID and its effects on health….
The Actuaries Institute report shows 13% excess mortality for the first eight months of 2022 (approximately 15,400 deaths), substantially lower than the ABS estimate for the first seven months…..
Read the full article here.
The graphic above illustrates what 'Living with COVID'
Perrottet-style actually is, as at 4pm Thursday 8 December 2022.
That's an average infection growth factor of est. 1.02 - which is likely to indicate a 2% increase in daily case numbers. High levels of infection continuing according to NSW Health.
The number of healthcare workers infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and in isolation stood at 1,897 on 7 December.
By 8 December there was an average of 6 deaths a day - an average increase of 2 more deaths a day than in the previous 7-day period.
Because of the deliberate fragmentation of published COVID-19 data and the built-in time lag to its release, there is no demographic breakdown of deaths for the 7 days up to 8 December. However, it seems likely deaths were of a similar age distribution to the previous reporting period, with the majority of deaths occurring in those between 60 to 90+ years of age.
As of the week ending 8 December 2022 there were 195 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the Northern Rivers region and a total of 1,171 new cases in preceding 4 weeks.
The NSW Perrottet Government decided in late 2021 that it would ignore the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. It no longer publicly report instances of COVID-19 infection in a meaningful way. As well as removing in stages all mandatory health measures, including an obligation to get tested or to isolate if unwell.
Therefore the general public knows little about the viral soup that now swirls arounds Australia's public spaces, transit systems, workplaces and even our homes.
So as a new cluster of Omicron subvariants make themselves felt this month in New South Wales: the population is generally under-vaccinated; the viral transmission rate is rising; the number of people testing positive is growing by approx. six to eight thousand confirmed cases every 7 days; hospital admissions due to COVD-19 are climbing; and somewhere between 22 to 39 deaths are occurring over 7 day periods.
With all statistics belatedly supplied by NSW Health indicating an increase in the already massive under reporting, once all pretence of a public health approach to this pandemic was abandoned.
So how many SARS-CoV-2 subvariants are there now?
Well since the original subvariants Apha, Beta, Gamma and Delta gave way to Omicron, there have been so many more subvariants of concern spawned in Australia and around the world.
Here is an outline of what is currently in the viral soup......
Doherty Institute, News, 3 November 2022:
The Omicron variant of concern has splintered into multiple subvariants. So we’ve had to get our heads around these mutated forms of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, including BA.1 and the more recent BA.5.
We’ve also seen recombinant forms of the virus, such as XE, arising by genetic material swapping between subvariants.
More recently, XBB and BQ.1 have been in the news.
No wonder it’s hard to keep up.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has had to rethink how it describes all these subvariants, now labelling ones we need to be monitoring more closely.
Omicron and its subvariants are still causing the vast majority of COVID cases globally, including in Australia.
Omicron subvariants have their own specific mutations that might make them more transmissible, cause more severe disease, or evade our immune response.
Omicron and its subvariants have pushed aside previous variants of concern, the ones that led to waves of Alpha and Delta earlier in the pandemic.
Now, in Australia, the main Omicron subvariants circulating are BA.2.75, and certain versions of BA.5. More on these later.
Viral genomes from Australia: once we had Alpha and Delta waves. Now we have waves of Omicron subvariants. Author provided
We still don’t fully understand the driving forces behind the emergence and spread of certain SARS-CoV-2 subvariants.
We can, however, assume the virus will keep evolving, and new variants (and subvariants) will continue to emerge and spread in this wave-like pattern.
To monitor these subvariants, the WHO has defined a new category, known as “Omicron subvariants under monitoring”.
These are ones that have specific combinations of mutations known to confer some type of advantage, such as being more transmissible than others currently circulating.
Researchers and health authorities keep track of circulating subvariants by sequencing the genetic material from viral samples (for instance, from PCR testing or from wastewater sampling). They then upload the results to global databases (such as GISAID) or national ones (such as AusTrakka).
These are the Omicron subvariants authorities are keeping a closer eye on for any increased risk to public health.
The BA.5 subvariant that arose in early February 2022 is still accumulating more mutations.
The WHO is monitoring BA.5 versions that carry at least one of five additional mutations (known as S:R346X, S:K444X, S:V445X, S:N450D and S:N460X) in the spike gene.
The spike gene codes for the part of the virus that recognises and fuses with human cells. We are particularly concerned about mutations in this gene as they might increase the virus’ ability to bind with human cells.
Throughout recent months, BA.5 has been the dominant subvariant in Australia. However, BA.2.75 has now established a foothold.
The BA.2.75 subvariant, sometimes called Centaurus, was first documented in December 2021. It possibly emerged in India, but has been detected around the globe.
This includes in Australia, where more than 400 sequences have been uploaded to the GISAID database since June 2022.
This subvariant has up to 12 mutations in its spike gene. It seems to spread more effectively than BA.5. This is probably due to being better able to infect our cells, and avoiding the immune response driven by previous infection with other variants.
This was first detected in early September 2022 and has a set of 14 spike gene mutations.
It has mostly been detected in India or in infections coming from this area.
We know very little about the impact of its mutations and at the time of writing, there was only one Australian sequence reported.
BA.4.6, sometimes called Aeterna, was detected in January 2022 and has been spreading rapidly in the United States and the United Kingdom.
There have been more than 800 sequences uploaded to the GISAID database in Australia since May 2022.
It may be more easily transmitted from one person to the next due to its spike gene mutations.
Early data suggests it is better able to resist cocktails of therapeutic antibodies compared with BA.5. This makes antibody therapies, such as Evusheld, less effective against it.
This was first detected in the US in August 2022. It has a set of nine mutations in the spike gene, including a rare double mutation (A484R).
Like BA.2.75, this subvariant is probably better able to infect our cells and avoid the immune response driven by previous infection.
There are more than 100 Australian genomic sequences reported in the GISAID database, all from August 2022.
This recombinant version of the virus was detected in August 2022. It is a result of the swapping of genetic material between BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75. It has 14 extra mutations in its spike gene compared with BA.2.
Although there have only been 50 Australian genomic sequences reported in GISAID since September, we anticipate cases will rise. Lab studies indicate therapeutic antibodies don’t work so well against it, with XBB showing strong resistance.
Although XBB appears to be able to spread faster than BA.5, there’s no evidence so far it causes more severe disease.
Although it is not on the WHO list of subvariants under monitoring, cases of the BQ.1 subvariant are rising in Australia. BQ.1 contains mutations that help the virus evade existing immunity. This means infection with other subvariants, including BA.5, may not protect you against BQ.1.
In the meantime, your best protection against severe COVID, whichever subvariant is circulating, is to make sure your booster shots are up-to-date. Other ways to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection include wearing a fitted mask, avoiding crowded spaces with poor ventilation, and washing your hands regularly.
Dr Ash Porter, Research officer and Dr Sebastian Duchene, Australian Research Council Future Fellow.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
We are going to have more virus as a result of the decision to scrap mandatory isolation @CrabbBrendan tells @abcnews "We seem to have surrendered to the virus for now and for its devastating effects. I just don't understand because we can hold the line." https://t.co/mneeKbnhId pic.twitter.com/Um5E13HzHS
— Burnet Institute (@BurnetInstitute) September 30, 2022
ABC News, 30 September 2022:
Rules forcing people to isolate for five days if they test positive to COVID-19 will end from October 14 for everyone, with support for some workers to be able to continue isolation if needed.
States will determine how to implement the change, but national cabinet agreed to continue targeted financial support for casual workers in aged care, disability care, Aboriginal health care and hospital care.
Support payments for people infected with COVID-19 who are not in those sectors will also end from October 14, with payments that continue to be funded equally by the Commonwealth and individual states or territories.
Scrapping mandatory isolation marks the end of one of the last remaining pandemic restrictions.
COVID-19 deaths soaring in aged care
The vast majority of COVID-19 aged care deaths have occurred this year, but some worry we've started looking the other way.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said he was asked to provide advice on whether isolation periods should be scrapped, and said he recognised there were low rates of COVID-19 transmission and high vaccination rates.
"It does not in any way suggest that the pandemic is finished," he said.
"We will almost certainly see future peaks of the virus into the future, as we have seen earlier in this year.
"However, at the moment, we have very low rates of … cases, hospitalisations, intensive care admissions, aged-care outbreaks and various other measures that we have been following very closely."…..
Professor Kelly's advice to national cabinet noted that "continued capacity to surge the response if required" remained a necessary consideration…...
The Sydney Morning Herald, 1 October 2022:
Australian Medical Association president Steve Robson warned that dropping the requirement for COVID patients to isolate for five days could potentially lead to new waves of infection.
“Whenever there’s a new wave it has an enormous effect on hospital capacity,” Robson said. “If you are in a vulnerable place, just wear a mask. If you do get sick, try and minimise transmission by isolating.
“And while this is going on, let’s rethink how we can organise better air circulation and ventilation.“
Robson also urged people to remain vigilant about vaccination. “People aren’t bothering to have boosters, we’ve got waning immunity in a big way,” he said.
He said that hospitalisations were currently low because so many people had COVID over the past few months – but that number would rise as people become reinfected.
“The COVID numbers look artificially low because the government has made it harder to get a PCR, and no one gives a rat about RATs,” he said.
Robson, who was voted president of the medical body in August, earlier conceded that attitudes to the virus had shifted since the beginning of the pandemic, but said that any approach that involved ″living with COVID″ meant simultaneously increasing the capacity of health systems across the country……
Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation assistant secretary Lori-Anne Sharp said if more variants of the virus emerged, there would be extra pressure on hospitals…...
BACKGROUND
Globally, as of 6:20pm CEST, 30 September 2022, there have been a cumulative total of 614,385,693 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 6,522,600 deaths, reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO). A total of 325,602 new confirmed cases and 1,668 COVID-19 deaths were reported to WHO in that same 24 hour reporting period.
In the Western Pacific Region which includes Australia on 28 September 2022 there were 92,674 new confirmed cases and 120 COVID-19 deaths. It should be noted that the Western Pacific Region is sometimes characterised by WHO as lagging in reporting COVID-19 infection data.
While in Australia the federal Dept. of Health’s latest report available on 30 September 2022 was for COVID-19 data as a cumulative infection count for 2022 only and a ‘trends’ count of 7 day averages as at 27 September 2022.
Leaving other sources to reveal Australia’s COVID-19 data for the 7 days up to 30 September 2022 as:
A total of 39,564 new confirmed COVID-19 cases including 282 deaths. A total of 1, 563 people in hospital with COVID-19 infection of which 46 were in intensive care units. The national infection rate stood at 0.94.
Included in this count over 7 days were 12,592 new confirmed cases in New South Wales including 82 COVID-19 deaths. As well as 1,057 people hospitalised with COVID-19 infection of which 24 were in intensive care units. [Prof. Adrian Esterman, Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of South Australia, writing as @profesterman]
As of 28 September 2022 a total of 16,161,728 individuals aged 5 to 90+ years had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in an Australian population of 25,890,773 people (Australian Bureau of Statistics March 2022). Only 4,879,507 individuals were fully vaccinated with four doses. Those numbers represents a mere 62.4% and 18.84% respectively of the total population.
On 28 September 2022 people were being infected with COVID-19 and re-infected across the entire age range of the population.
It should be noted that from July-August 2020 onwards there have been reliable media reports that there is an ongoing and significant under reporting of COVID-19 infection in Australia and its state and territories.
An 8 September 2022 Public Statement by Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), the key decision-making committee for health emergencies. It is comprised of all state and territory Chief Health Officers and chaired by the Australian Chief Medical Officer:
The AHPPC notes the need for a proportionate approach to isolation for those with COVID-19 infections at this stage of the pandemic. The AHPPC further notes that while balancing a proportionate approach to isolation for all Australians, it is important to ensure the continued protection of those most vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19 especially in settings where there is increased risk of outbreaks occuring.
Noting this, while COVID-19 cases with no symptoms after five days may leave isolation, the AHPPC strongly advises that these individuals should be excluded from attending high-risk settings (such as residential aged care facilities, disability care facilities and hospitals) until at least seven days following their positive test result and they remain symptom-free. This applies to both staff and visitors.
It remains important for people who continue to have respiratory symptoms after five days following a positive test to continue to isolate until symptoms have resolved.
For those who test positive to COVID-19, please refer to your state or territory website for information about the period of infectiousness, what symptom-free means, how to access antiviral treatment and the steps you can take to reduce the risk of infecting others.
No changes are recommended to the management of close contacts. Close contacts should continue to monitor for symptoms, avoid high-risk settings, wear a mask when outside the home, test for COVID-19 and stay at home should symptoms develop.
The AHPPC notes the importance of workplaces in using a workplace safety framework whilst implementing this transition, and reiterates the shared responsibility of all Australians in minimising the ongoing impact of COVID-19.
The AHPPC continues to reiterate the importance of other risk mitigating strategies to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on individuals and the community. This includes the following:
Ensure you are up to date with recommended vaccinations;
Stay home if you are unwell, and get tested;
Speak to your healthcare professional about eligibility for treatments should you become unwell with COVID-19;
Consider wearing a mask when outside your home and especially when in crowded, indoor environments such as public transport;
Keep indoor spaces well ventilated;
Practise good respiratory and hand hygiene.
NOTE: Concerning Dr. Paul Kelly's unsupported letter of advice to the Prime Minister, dated 29 September 2022.
The letter was prepared within a day and provides one individual’s advice and underpinning rationale to end mandatory isolation for COVID-19.
— Public Health Association Australia (@_PHAA_) September 30, 2022
The role of AHPPC, which is meant to advise national cabinet, is not mentioned in this letter.
