Page 2 - Professor Esterman News Today

An Australian Covid expert warned the number of cases in the community is much higher than official figures and called for sweeping changes to restrictions.

Covid Tracker: Friday 18

University of Sydney epidemiologist Robert Booy said the return of restrictions would be sensible amid predictions the new BA.2 sub-variant will become the countrys dominant Covid strain.

Fears are growing about the latest Covid sub-variant sweeping Australia but one prominent expert says your risk of dying or getting seriously ill is now the same as Influenza.

The UKs vaccine advisory panel said last month over-75s and vulnerable people should get the jabs six months after their original booster. But it has over than six months now with no update.

Professor Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist from the University of South Australia, also estimated BA.2 was 40 per cent more infectious than the original Omicron.

An Australian expert has warned it is sheer luck we have not seen a deadlier Covid-19 variant as he warned most Australians will come into contact with the virus this year given how contagious it is.

Daily dashboard data shows 109,802 people tested positive across the UK - a jump of 77.4 per cent in a week. However, the figure includes four days of infection data from Scotland.

The new cases on Wednesday include 10,000 positive rapid antigen test results taken from Sunday and Monday that werent included in previous numbers due to a data processing issue.

While Mark McGowan constantly reels off the death tallies in states like NSW and Victoria, he often fails to provide an update on how other states are faring. The outcomes are much less grim.