Medical staff transport a patient from the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne on Oct 9, 2021. (WILLIAM WEST / AFP)
YANGON / SINGAPORE / HANOI / MANILA / CANBERRA / SEOUL / KUALA LUMPUR / NEW DELHI – In all four waves of COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the highest proportion of deaths have occurred in people who are most disadvantaged, data has revealed.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released data, saying there were 12,545 deaths of people who have died from or with COVID-19 during the pandemic, whose deaths were registered and lodged with the ABS by Sept 30, 2022.
Lauren Moran, ABS Director of Health and Vital Statistics, said this data and analysis offer detailed information about how the pandemic has impacted people.
According to Moran, while almost all COVID-related deaths (99 percent) in the first year of the pandemic had COVID-19 recorded as the underlying cause, this had fallen to 72 percent by August 2022.
Nearly 80 percent of deaths from COVID-19 have occurred during the Omicron wave in Australia.
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"COVID-19 mortality during the pandemic disproportionately affected older people, with deaths among people aged 80-89 accounting for the highest proportion of deaths across all waves," Moran said in a media release on Wednesday.
COVID-19 mortality rates across all waves have been highest among people from areas of greatest disadvantage, with the highest proportion during the Delta wave at around 40 percent, said ABS.
The first wave and the Delta wave had a younger age distribution for mortality compared to the second wave and Omicron wave, according to the data.
Over half of the deaths during the Delta wave were among people aged under 80, with over a quarter aged under 70.
By comparison, around 30 percent were aged under 80 and 10 percent were under 70 during the Omicron wave.
Vulnerable populations, including people of older ages, people of lower socio-economic backgrounds and those with pre-existing chronic conditions have had higher rates of mortality during all waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chronic cardiac conditions, including coronary atherosclerosis and cardiomyopathies, were the most common pre-existing illnesses associated with coronavirus deaths, followed by dementia and diabetes.
A woman receives a shot of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine in Yangon, Myanmar, Aug 29, 2021. (PHOTO / XINHUA)
South Korea
South Korea reported 55,437 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Wednesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 26,412,901, the health authorities said Thursday.
The daily caseload was down from 66,587 in the previous day, but it was slightly higher than 55,357 tallied a week earlier, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
For the past week, the daily average number of new cases was 53,712.
Among the newly reported infections, 39 were imported cases, lifting the total to 70,640.
The number of infected people who were in critical condition stood at 380, down 31 from the previous day.
Sixty-seven more deaths were confirmed from the pandemic, taking the death toll to 29,862.
Malaysia
Malaysia reported 3,304 new COVID-19 infections as of midnight Wednesday, bringing the national total to 4,956,722, according to the health ministry.
There are four new imported cases, with 3,300 cases being local transmissions, data released on the ministry's website showed.
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Another eight new deaths have been reported, taking the death toll to 36,574.
The ministry reported 3,045 new recoveries, bringing the total number of cured and discharged to 4,891,983.
There are 28,165 active cases, with 90 being held in intensive care and 49 of those in need of assisted breathing.
The country reported 4,446 vaccine doses administered on Wednesday alone and 86.1 percent of the population have received at least one dose, 84.3 percent are fully vaccinated and 49.8 percent have received the first booster and 1.7 percent have received the second booster.
Myanmar
Myanmar has vaccinated more than 37.46 million people for COVID-19 as of Tuesday, the Ministry of Health said on Wednesday.
The figures comprised over 30.74 million people aged 18 and above and more than 6.72 million people aged under 18, the ministry said.
The ministry confirmed 60 new cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the tally to 632,865 on Wednesday.
It said that the health authorities tested 8,732 people for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, and the daily positivity rate was 0.69 percent.
The death toll from COVID-19 in the country remained unchanged at 19,486 on Wednesday as no new deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
A man shops for face masks in Divisoria, a local shopping district in Manila on May 17, 2022. (JAM STA ROSA / AFP)
Philippines
The Philippines reported 810 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, pushing the number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 4,020,965.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the number of active cases dropped to 18,824, while 12 more patients died from COVID-19 complications, pushing the country's death toll to 64,432.
Metro Manila, the capital region with over 13 million people, tallied 204 new cases.
India
India's daily COVID-19 caseload recorded on Thursday increased to 626 from 501 on the previous day, officials said.
According to federal health ministry data released on Thursday morning, the active caseload currently stands at 7,175 in the South Asian country.
The country also logged 11 new COVID-19-related deaths, taking the death toll to 530,546 since the beginning of the pandemic, the ministry said.
According to the health ministry, a total of 44,129,590 COVID-19 patients have been cured and discharged from hospitals in India.
A notice warning people not to gather in groups larger than five persons as part of restrictions to hald the spread of the coronavirus is displayed at Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on Jan 4, 2022. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore
Singapore reported 2,184 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, bringing the country's total tally to 2,146,706.
A total of 213 cases are currently warded in hospitals, with 13 of them in intensive care units, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
One new death from COVID-19 was reported on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to 1,698.
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A man passes walks past a billboard on the coronavirus in Ho Chi Minh City on Dec 4, 2021. (NHAC NGUYEN / AFP)
Vietnam
Vietnam recorded 502 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, down 78 from Tuesday, according to the country's Ministry of Health.
All the new cases were locally transmitted, said the ministry.
The newly-reported infections brought the total tally to 11,509,975. The country reported a new death from the pandemic in the southern Can Tho city on Wednesday, bringing the total fatalities to 43,167.