<
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/australia-experiencing-a-covid-wave-on-wave-20240108-p5evwo.html>
"A new and fast-moving Omicron sub-variant is triggering a “wave on wave” of
COVID-19 in Australia, as experts warn it is on the rise in NSW and Victoria.
A health alert issued by Victorian authorities on Monday detailed a rapid
increase in hospitalisations caused by the sub-variant JN.1, which is also
being increasingly seen in NSW. The World Health Organisation has classified it
as a “variant of interest” because of its “rapidly increasing spread” globally.
Victoria’s chief health officer, Dr Clare Looker, said an unfortunate
phenomenon had occurred with JN.1 taking hold just as the state was emerging
from an earlier COVID-19 wave, creating what she described as a “wave-on-wave”
pattern.
“Part of the concern with this new variant has just really been the speed with
which it’s taken off. So over a few weeks, we’ve really seen it very quickly be
the dominant variant in the community,” she told this masthead.
In Victoria last week, an average of 377 people were hospitalised with
COVID-19.
This was higher than the earlier peak, which recorded an average of 326 cases
in hospital in early December, the same month antiviral prescriptions increased
to levels not seen since January 2023.
While NSW Health is yet to release surveillance data for 2024, for the last
week of 2023, COVID-19 activity in NSW was at “high levels”.
Genomics testing data published by NSW Health showed that the proportion of
JN.1 samples rose sharply in late November and early December."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: January 11, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-96291169
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
