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Looser COVID protocols and the return to school had been predicted to generate a quick explosion of cases, but it took almost a month before daily PCR and RAT returns began to escalate quickly.
National case numbers rose by an average of 43,800 a day across the past week.
Yesterday, COVID hospitalisations stood at 1939 across Australia, with 85 in ICU and 25 on ventilators.
IN THE NEWS
Such numbers are well down on late January, when hospitalisations peaked at more than 5300, ICU cases at 424 and ventilated patients at 141.
NSW hospitalisations are up slightly in recent days, having moved up and down between the mid-900s to the mid-1200s in the past month. Today's figures are 1124 in hospital, 33 in ICU and 15 on ventilators.
Johns Hopkins University figures show Australian deaths peaked in the last week of January, with 612 fatalities in seven days, compared with 142 deaths in the seven days up until yesterday.
Of 41 NSW deaths in the week to March 12, the most recent NSW Health weekly COVID data overview says 11 were triple-dosed, 22 double-dosed and eight with no dose or unknown.
But it cautions against misinterpreting these numbers, saying the numbers are a function of high vaccination rates: 95 per cent of over-16s double-jabbed and 60 per cent with three.
"When the size of the vaccinated and unvaccinated populations in NSW are considered, people who are not vaccinated remain far more likely to suffer severe COVID-19," the overview says, adding that "despite the substantial protection" of vaccination, "older age remains a significant risk factor for serious illness and death . . . particularly when combined with significant underlying health conditions".
A briefing note on Australian vaccinations from the NSW Health Critical Intelligence Unit says the four brands approved in Australia reduce onward transmission by 40 per cent to 50 per cent.
It says "real world effectiveness studies" show AstraZeneca (13.8 million doses), Moderna (3.8 million) and Pfizer (37 million) reducing hospitalisation rates by 71 per cent to 98 per cent.
Novavax was 100 per cent effective but only 35,500 doses had been administered.
Authorities have also cautioned against "anti-vaxxers" linking the deaths of Shane Warne, Rod Marsh and Senator Kimberly Kitchings to COVID vaccines.
WORLD-WIDE:
The intelligence unit quotes the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) to note 172 reports of post-vaccine "thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome" (TTS), which federal Health defines as "a new, very rare blood-clotting condition" involving low blood platelet production.
Of 11 reported deaths, eight were TTS, two were Guillain Barre Syndrome and one was "immune thrombocytopenia".
It notes 460 reports of "likely" myocarditis after Pfizer and 62 after Moderna, with no deaths.
It says 1.2 million children aged five to 11 have received Pfizer doses, with 836 reported adverse effects, most commonly "chest pain, vomiting, fever, headache and nausea".
A federal Health summary of the aged-care situation as of 8pm Thursday shows 1906 cases in 360 active outbreaks in residential facilities, involving 982 residents and 924 staff.
The summary records 1873 aged-care COVID deaths, or 33 per cent of the overall Australian total of COVID-related deaths, put yesterday at 5725.
ALL THE COVID COVERAGE HERE
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