Two thirds of the growing number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care in NSW are unvaccinated.
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NSW Health said on Monday that 35 of the 55 patients in the state's ICUs had not been double-vaccinated, a significant over-representation given 93.5 per cent of the adult population has received both doses.
The figures, though preliminary, lend credence to the view that the omicron variant is evading vaccines but mostly protecting the vaccinated from serious illness, even though the state reported its first known omicron death on Monday.
NSW recorded 6324 new infections on Monday and the Hunter New England Health district registered 579.
The Hunter's daily case numbers have fallen slightly since peaking at 976 on Thursday last week, but testing stations have been operating at limited capacity since Friday.
The statewide case count has stabilised in the past three days but has more than doubled in a week.
The Hunter now has 7140 active cases of COVID-19, including 21 patients in hospital and two in ICU.
The number of hospitalised patients has jumped from four to 21 in two weeks after several omicron super-spreader nights at Newcastle clubs.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said on Sunday that omicron was a relatively mild illness for most vaccinated people, but that has not stopped the NSW hospitalisation rate tripling from 171 to 520 in two weeks.
A vaccinated man in his 80s with underlying health conditions died in hospital after catching the omicron strain at a North Parramatta nursing home.
Two more vaccinated elderly people with other health conditions, a woman in her 90s on the Central Coast and a man in his 80s from Sydney's inner-west, also died with COVID-19.
NSW Health has not published its "weekly" COVID-19 surveillance reports for two weeks, but its latest data on December 11 showed that most omicron infections had been occurring in young people.
Those aged under 30 accounted for more than half of all confirmed omicron cases, while over-50s accounted for just 12.5 per cent.
The December 11 figures, which will change as the full effect of omicron emerges, show unvaccinated people over the age of 12 have accounted for almost two thirds of hospital admissions since June 16, 71 per cent of ICU admissions and 70 per cent of COVID deaths.
Newcastle (93.3 per cent) is the only council area in the Hunter not to reach an adult double-dose rate of 95 per cent. The full vaccination rate for indigenous people aged 15 and over in the Hunter is 86 per cent.
Of the 579 new HNEH cases, 200 were from Lake Macquarie, 123 from Newcastle, 57 from Cessnock, 55 from Maitland, 27 from Port Stephens, 21 from Upper Hunter, 20 from Muswellbrook, 12 from Singleton, seven from MidCoast and one from Dungog.