COVID in Hunter NDIS sector as NSW hits record 633…

COVID in Hunter NDIS sector as NSW hits record 633 cases

Government breakdown of Australia's coronavirus cases by age and gender. The most recent graph available yesterday, for Tuesday, August 17. Picture: COVID at a glance

A ONE-DAY jump of almost 40 per cent to a another state record of 633 new cases was not the sort of news that anyone wanted to hear yesterday.

As well, Victoria added another 24 and the ACT another 22: smaller numbers, but going the wrong way, regardless.

The Hunter recorded 15 new cases, the third-highest total since the first instance of Delta variant was confirmed early this month, bringing the August total to 143 cases across the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens and Singleton local government areas.

The same graph from a year earlier, August 17, 2020. The case numbers are smaller, but the ratios of infection by age and gender are little changed a year later in the 2021 graph. The only obvious differences is that women were outnumbering men in the 50 to 69 age groups, whereas men have since overtaken women. So despite more mask wearing and the advent of the more contagious Delta variant, the ratios of infection by age have changed very little in a year. Picture: COVID at a glance

Worryingly, authorities have confirmed that nine people employed in the Hunter's disability sector tested positive for COVID-19, triggering concerns in various service providers, at least some of whom care for people with "severe and profound" disabilities.

The coronavirus threat is two-fold in the disability community.

The group home system and its rosters of task-specific care providers can mean staff working at multiple sites.

As well, many group home residents have significant health challenges - "co-morbidities" in the language of COVID-19 - making them more than usually susceptible to the impacts of the virus.

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The latest Commonwealth assessment of the National Disability Insurance Scheme shows 35 participants and 69 workers with active cases, and all in NSW, the only jurisdiction in the NDIS presently impacted.

Thankfully, the Hunter's daily case totals have not risen the way they have in Sydney, probably because the numbers were much smaller when the regional lockdown began.

Vigilance remains necessary, but the Hunter may well see its restrictions eased well before Greater Sydney, which Premier Gladys Berejiklian has said could remain in lockdown until November.

With vaccination apparently the only route out of lockdown - and with the fear that COVID-19 could take years yet to bring under global control - attention is turning to younger Australians.

Deaths have been mostly among the over-70s, but as the accompanying graph shows, case numbers peak with those aged 20 to 29.

The corresponding graph from a year ago has an almost identical spread of cases.

It is this age group, and the 30 to 39-year-olds, that the public health task will need to address if we want to suppress, and perhaps even eradicate, the virus.

ISSUE: 39,647

Tuesday's national table of deaths from COVID, showing the clear aged-based trends. Women greatly outnumber men in the 90-plus age bracket, largely because far more women than men make that age. Picture: COVID at a glance

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