Health minister says real number of infections twice what is known, as one in 12 public hospital beds is filled by a Covid patient
Australia is getting closer to chalking up 12,000 Covid-related fatalities, as one in 12 public hospital beds across Australia is filled by someone with the virus.Another 27 have been reported nationally so far on Sunday – taking Australia’s total toll during the pandemic to 11,832 – along with almost 24,000 new cases.
While the number of Covid-infected people in Victorian hospitals fell by 69 on Sunday, Sutton had earlier warned hospitalisation figures were unlikely to plateau for another week or two.One in 12 public hospital beds across Australia is filled by a Covid-19 patient, despite fewer people ending up in intensive care than during previous waves of the virus.
Hospitals nationwide are “heaving” under the coronavirus caseload, with more than 5,000 beds occupied by positive patients, the federal health minister, Mark Butler, said. “We’re numbering about 330,000 cases on a seven-day average per week at the moment, but we know from sampling from the positivity rates that we’re getting for PCR tests that the real number is probably at least twice that,” he told the Australian Medical Association national conference on Saturday.
But he added that the take-up of third vaccine doses had “stalled to quite an alarming extent”, with around 5 million people yet to receive a booster after their two initial shots.
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