7NEWS Australia published this video item, entitled “COVID Omicron variant explained by NSW lung specialist Dr Lucy Morgan | 7NEWS” – below is their description.
NSW COVID-19: NSW lung specialist Dr Lucy Morgan today described the difficulty of working with some many patients who have contracted the Omicron strain of COVID-19.
“Then came Omicron. So similar in so many ways to Delta. A flu-like illness, with some minor, subtle differences in the way that it causes symptoms for patients. So, lots of aches and pains. Lots of headache. Lots of very sore throats. And for some people, still, severe illness. So, having Omicron does not mean that you’re just going to have a cold. Omicron, as a variant of the COVID-19 virus. It has the potential to cause very severe illness, just like Delta. And those at particular risk of getting very sick from Omicron are the same group who were at risk from Delta. Those who are incompletely vaccinated. Those with underlying health complaints or conditions and those who are frail – and that includes our elderly community.”
“It is true that most people who catch Omicron do not get so sick as to need my care or the care of my colleagues in the intensive care unit. Proportionally, most people do not get as sick. But it is so much more contagious than the Delta variant. The sheer number of people who get COVID is enormous in comparison. So, even if 9 out of 10 patients with Delta have symptoms that leave them feeling crook, but they can recover at home, there are still thousands of people every day who are sick enough to present to hospital.”
“Most are discharged from hospital. They’re assessed by clinicians in the emergency department or in the virtual hospitals and they’re discharged back to their own homes. But even so, thousands are admitted across the state every day. I think in the last 24 hours, and I’ve been on call for the 24 hours, there were more than 2,500 patients admitted to hospital.”
“So, why are we so full? Why are the hospitals so full and why are we so stretched if Omicron is supposed to cause less severe disease? Well, there’s four key things I’d like to mention to you. One is that there are still people who are incompletely vaccinated. So those people, some of whom have not had any vaccinations at all. Some of whom are yet to get through their three doses as Dr Chant mentioned – the two doses and then the booster. And there are a small group of patients who despite having all their jabs, that do not have an immune response that’s complete and able to render them able to fight the virus. So there are still, if we think about 8 million people in the state, even if there’s 1% unvaccinated, that’s 80,000 people who are still at significant risk of catching COVID and developing severe disease. Many of these are our community’s most vulnerable. Our homeless, our patients with very severe or uncontrolled poor mental health. Those living in disability support facilities, even aged care facilities, our frail and elderly. And our comorbid. That means people who have lots of things medically wrong with them. There are some people whose immunity has waned over the last two years, and this is a particularly important point about getting boosters. Those who were vaccinated in the first wave, the vaccination, which includes our healthcare workers and our elderly patients, are now coming to the time where they need boosters and their immunity is waning. And then there’s our hospital staff who, of course, are part of our community living at home with their families and who are now catching COVID themselves. If they’re not ill with COVID, they’re caring for their family members that have become close contacts.”
“These are not staff who caught COVID at work. Our PPE works and we know how to use it really, really well. But, these are people who are living with their families and therefore catching COVID in their family units, and therefore, can’t come to work. OK, these are the people that keep our hospitals running. Yes, it’s doctors, yes, it’s nurses. But it’s cleaner, it’s porters, it’s people who help to feed patients, to wash patients, to clean the wards and to get food to the patients. And those who are left standing are carrying a much higher burden because we’ve got so much of a gap in our workforce at the moment. I think yesterday, there were 6,000 staff members in the state unable to work.”
Latest Details: https://7news.link/322UyGC
7NEWS Australia YouTube Channel
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