COVID-19: we're not out of the woods just yet!
I just wanted to share some of the key (and somewhat disturbing) messages from the Deputy Chief Health Officer's COVID-19 Primary Care Response update this week:
- in the first 4 months of 2023, despite substantially lower rates of testing / reporting, there have been over 413,000 reported cases and more than 2,000 deaths... compared to the 28,408 cases and 909 deaths for the 10 months to 31 December 2020
- hospitalisations in the past week are up from 1,963 to 2,096
- while 1/3 of all aged care residents are not eligible for boosters or flu shots, the rate of uptake of both vaccinations is far too low for those who can have them
- active cases in residential aged care still number more than 2,000, with 400+ documented outbreaks across the country
You can access the weekly newsletter the Department produces here and subscribe to their regular updates if you haven't done so already. The main message of course is that we need to be active in encouraging boosters for all patients who have had a 6-month gap between either their last dose or last positive RAT, especially with the weather turning arctic for those of us in the south-east.
The parliamentary inquiry into Long COVID has also concluded now, and I note that Professor Michael Kidd has kindly agreed to present to GPSA's membership on the report and, more importantly, the part supervisors of GP / RG registrars can play in identifying and managing patients with this multi-system illness. Details for the webinar will be provided in coming weeks, but in the meantime please add your questions for Simon to run through with Professor Kidd in the comments here.