COVID by the numbers – Tuesday – 1 new Hawkesbury case – rise in Nepean Blue Mountains numbers

Welcome to Tuesday afternoon and the latest in-depth Hawkesbury numbers and COVID local news – the numbers are up to 8pm on Monday night.

This is the most up-to-date round-up of Hawkesbury COVID numbers you can get, compiled by numbers guru Kevin Pollard using NSW Health datasets.

Our thanks, as always, to Kevin for putting the numbers together in this easily accessible format.

Coupled with our regular news updates when we hear about new COVID venues, this builds into a useful daily source of information for Hawkesbury residents.

Today’s headlines:

* 1 new COVID case reported in the Hawkesbury in the last 24 hours – linked to other cases.

* There are 21 active COVID cases in the Hawkesbury (was 20 yesterday)

* The 27 new cases today in the Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, which includes the Hawkesbury, is the highest number of new cases in 11 days. There were 10 cases yesterday, 6, 4, 20, 24, 20, 15, 23, 20, 41, 35, 20, 33, 28, 15, 42 on previous days.

* There are 210 active cases (was 202 two days ago) in the Nepean Blue Mountains LHD

* There were 90,597 COVID tests reported to 8pm last night, compared with the previous days: 60,273, 69,107, 66,311, 85,000, 85,133, 88,988, 83,948, 86,155, 79,894, 103,388, 112,186 tests.

* 90,597 tests is the highest number in 11 days when 103,388 tests were reported.

* Only 0.30% of today’s tests in NSW came back positive. It’s the eighth day in a row in NSW where the positive rate was a low 0.40% to 0.48%. The highest was 1.21% positive on September 7 (1222 cases from 100,745 tests).

* 0.30% is the lowest rate of positive cases vs tests since 818 cases were reported from 311,083 tests (0.26%) on August 23.

* 5.56 million of NSW’s 8.2 million residents are now fully vaccinated, and 70 of those fully vaccinated have died of the virus.

* There are 4158 active COVID cases (was 4490 yesterday) active cases in NSW.

* There have been 66,101 locally acquired cases reported since 16 June 2021, when the first case in this outbreak was reported.

* NSW Chief Medical Officer, Dr Kerry Chant, said this morning, “We’re starting to see the rate of first doses for 12-15 year olds slow in the last few days, we’re encouraging the last 25% to come forward and get their first dose.”

“Over 92% first dose for those over 16 is a great achievement, but let’s get higher – let’s try and aim for 95%,” Dr Chant said.

Dr Chant also outlined what will happen in workplaces. “If you’re fully vaccinated but not wearing a mask in the office and one of your work colleagues that you were in close contact with tests positive, you still have to home quarantine for 7 days until you test negative. You must then work from home, not attended hospitality settings, day-cares, schools, hospitals or aged care centres for the next 7 days. If you were wearing a mask and fully vaccinated, the rules will be different on a case by case basis.”

* The ACT will reopen to NSW (for those who are fully vaccinated) from November 1. No need to quarantine.

* Victoria opened for fully vaccinated people from all of NSW today without the need for quarantining.

* Victorian Premier Dan Andrews: “We won’t be easing or changing restrictions for the unvaccinated even if we reach 90% fully vaccinated in this state as the virus will be here for a long time. The Melbourne Grand Prix is in April 2022 and I don’t expect we’ll see any unvaccinated fans at this event, or anywhere else for that matter.”

* Dan Andrews: “Unvaccinated tennis players are unlikely to get a visa to travel to Australia and play in the January 2022 Australian Open. If the unvaccinated did get a visa, they’ll have to quarantine for 2 weeks.”

* In NSW on December 1, many freedoms will return for the unvaccinated.

Meanwhile, let’s take a quick look at the UK, where they have high vaccination rates but cases of COVID are once more climbing, and it appears that’s mostly because of schoolchildren returning to face-to-face learning.

The UK had a record 49,156 new COVID cases in one day (Monday), the highest since July 17 and 16% higher than the week before. The death rate is up by 11.4%, the hospital rate is up by 6.9% from the previous week, and 869 people have died over the past 7 days.

The rise in UK cases is driven by infections among school children, older age groups who have children in school, far more people not wearing masks, large gatherings, waning vaccine immunity and the low number of third booster doses.

New COVID cases in the Hawkesbury by postcode

* 1 in the 2758 postcode (Bilpin, East Kurrajong, Kurrajong, Kurrajong Heights, Kurrajong Hills, Mountain Lagoon, Wheeny Creek, Mount Tomah, Berambing, Blaxlands Ridge, Devils Wilderness)

Total active COVID cases in the Hawkesbury – and postcodes they are in

* 16 in the 2756 postcode (Windsor, Sackville, Wilberforce, Bligh Park, Clarendon, Ebenezer, Mulgrave, Pitt Town, South Windsor, Freemans Reach, McGraths Hill, Upper Colo, Central Colo, Colo Heights, Lower Portland, Glossodia) – was 16 yesterday

* 3 in the 2758 postcode (Bilpin, East Kurrajong, Kurrajong, Kurrajong Heights, Kurrajong Hills, Mountain Lagoon, Wheeny Creek, Mount Tomah, Berambing, Blaxlands Ridge, Devils Wilderness) – was 3 yesterday

* 2 in the 2753 postcode (Richmond, Richmond Lowlands, Londonderry, Grose Vale, Grose Wold, Bowen Mountain, Hobartville, Yarramundi, Agnes Banks) – was 2 yesterday

* 0 in the 2754 postcode (North Richmond, Tennyson, The Slopes) – was 0 yesterday

COVID deaths and hospital numbers – 4 deaths in the last 24 hours – none in the Hawkesbury

NSW Health is reporting the deaths of 4 people – 3 men and 1 woman.

3 were in their 60s, and 1 person was in their 80s.

1 person was from Sydney’s northern beaches, 1 person was from south west Sydney, 1 person was from inner Sydney and 1 person from Wollongong.

2 people were not vaccinated, 1 person had received one dose of a COVID vaccine and one person was fully vaccinated.

There have been 481 COVID-related deaths in NSW since this Delta outbreak started on June 16.

At least 41 of the 481 have died at home, and of those, 23 didn’t know they had COVID at the time of death.

At least 70 of the 481 COVID-related deaths in NSW since June 16 were fully vaccinated.

The 70 deaths among people fully vaccinated were 3 people in their 50s, 4 people in their 60s, 23 people in their 70s, 23 people in their 80s and 17 people in their 90s.

The large majority of the people that were fully vaccinated and died of COVID had underlying health issues, and over half had significant health issues.

There are 589 people with COVID (was 606 yesterday) in hospital, with 128 (132 yesterday) people in ICU, 69 (71 yesterday) of whom require ventilation.

Dr Chant, reported this morning that there are two children aged 0-9 years and one aged 10-19 in ICU. Often children that are in ICU have comorbidities.

Vaccinated numbers – in NSW, by the end of today, October 19

16 years and over: 82.0% fully vaccinated and 92.7% first dose.

12-15 year olds: 40.1% fully vaccinated and 75.9% first dose.

16-19 year olds: 68.4% fully vaccinated and 86.7% first dose.

All 8.2 million NSW residents (aged 0 and over): 67.8% fully vaccinated and 78.7% first dose.

All 25.9 million Australian residents (aged 0 and over): 56.9% fully vaccinated and 71.6% first dose.

NSW COVID vaccination status (of cases during Delta outbreak from June 16 until October 18)

Based on NSW Health Surveillance Reports to September 25 and cases since.

481 COVID deaths: 67.8% not vaccinated (326 people), 17.7% had received 1 dose (85 people), 14.5% fully vaccinated (70 people)

1114 in ICU: 83.9% not vaccinated, 11.3% had received 1 dose, 4.8% were fully vaccinated

8371 hospitalised: 80.0% not vaccinated, 11.3% had received 1 dose, 8.7% were fully vaccinated

66,101 cases: 77.6% not vaccinated, 13.6% had received 1 dose, 8.8% were fully vaccinated

Big thanks to Kevin Pollard for crunching the numbers.

Our source information – link to NSW Health figures:

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/find-the-facts-about-covid-19

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