Highlights:
- Australia recorded 20,000 excess deaths in 2022
- Research shows newer bivalents vaccines offer 1.6 times more immunity than original single-strain vaccines
- Department of Health and Aged Care said annual influenza vaccination to begin from April
New South Wales Health said there was an increase in the number of people with COVID-19 presenting at the emergency departments seeking admissions.
It said these increases are "likely to mark the beginning of a new wave in transmission".
"There is still a highly mixed group of variants circulating. We are seeing continued growth in CH.1.1 and XBB sublineages, particularly XBB.1.5," the NSW Health noted in its latest weekly report on Thursday.
"These subvariants share mutations that confer advantages in immune escape and or transmissibility."
On Friday, NSW reported 7,871 new weekly COVID cases compared to 7,163 last week.
Victoria also reported a slight increase in weekly cases. The cases grew from 3,016 to 3,319 this week.
Australia will cease pre-departure requirements for passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong and Macau at 12.01 am on 11 March.
“I would like to thank all travellers from China and airlines who complied with these testing arrangements," Minister of Health and Aged Care Mark Butler said.
Australia recorded more than 20,000 excess deaths in 2022. Researchers attributed these deaths primarily to the COVID-19 pandemic.
New research from Curtin University showed materials such as silicon, gold, and copper can destroy the spike protein of coronavirus.
Lead researcher Dr Nadim Darwish said these materials could be used to capture coronaviruses in air filters, as a coating for benches, tables and walls or in the fabric of wipe cloths and face masks.
"By capturing coronaviruses in these ways, we would be preventing them from reaching and infecting more people," Dr Darwish said.
Research by UNSW's Kirby institute showed newer bivalent vaccines offer 1.6 times better immunity against COVID-19 than the original single-strain vaccines.
Department of Health and Aged Care said annual influenza vaccination should occur from April to provide protection for the peak of the influenza season (June to September).
"Vaccination can occur as soon as vaccine stock is available. Influenza vaccines can be co-administered (given on the same day) with any COVID-19 vaccine," it said.
There was a 58 per cent decline in global COVID cases and a 65 per cent decrease in deaths in the past 28 days compared to the previous 28 days, the World Health Organization said in its latest report on 8 March.
The US, Japan, China, Germany and Russia reported the highest COVID cases at the country level.
WHO said weekly BA.5 cases have declined from 55.7 per cent to 27.2 per cent, while cases attributed to recombinant variants increased from 25.1 per cent to 44.1 per cent.
Weekly global cases. Source: WHO Credit: Sahil Makkar
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