20 Deaths Added To COVID-19 Toll

October 24, 2022

Another 20 deaths were added to Queensland’s official COVID-19 toll on Friday, taking the total number of fatalities since the pandemic began to 2256.

All but seven of these deaths have occurred since the Omicron wave coincided with the re-opening of Queensland’s borders.

The latest deaths occurred in the seven days prior to midnight on October 18.

The Queensland Health statistics show there are currently 109 people being treated for COVID-19 in Queensland hospitals, including two patients in intensive care.

This is a tiny increase on the previous week’s statistics.

A total of 5283 new cases were officially reported to Queensland Health during the seven days, a figure which is known to be under-estimated as many people are no longer reporting positive RAT tests after the abolition of mandatory isolation.

Nationally, 1446 people were being treated for COVID-19 in hospital (down 2.7 per cent from the previous week), including 40 patients in ICU.

During the past week, 30,951 cases of COVID-19 were officially reported across Australia, at an average of 4422 new cases per day.

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Statistics released by the Australian Bureau Of Statistics last week show COVID-19 was the 34th leading cause of death in Australia in 2021, with deaths largely occurring during the Delta wave.

There were 1122 deaths due to COVID-19 registered, 98.9 per cent which occurred between July-December (ie. the Delta wave).

There were a further 31 people who died of other causes (eg. cancer) with COVID-19 as a contributory cause of death.

The profile of people who died from COVID-19 during the Delta wave differed from those who died during Waves 1 and 2 of the pandemic.

Of these Delta wave deaths:

The median age at death was 79.1. This compares with a median age of 86.9 in 2020.

Over half were male (660 male deaths, 462 female deaths). In 2020, just over half the people who died from COVID-19 were female.

Pneumonia was the most common acute disease outcome and was present in 60.0 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in 2021, compared with 31.2 per cent of COVID-19 deaths in 2020.

Cardiac conditions were the most commonly reported pre-existing conditions (287 deaths). The most commonly reported pre-existing condition in 2020 was dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease.