The ‘underlying health conditions’ people who died with COVID-19 had
Throughout the pandemic, the term “underlying health condition” has been used in relation to people who died with COVID-19.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), 47 per cent of the population have “one or more chronic conditions”.
That is a huge chunk of the population, and the term has been used fairly vaguely by health authorities.
But today NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant gave some more detail on the kind of conditions, sometimes known as comorbidities, people who died with COVID-19 had.
She spoke about 28 people in particular, who died between January 15 and 21.
Below is a breakdown of the health conditions they had:
- Ten had significant heart or valvular disease
- Six had obesity
- Six had chronic lung disease
- Two had asthma
- Seven had diabetes
- Six had significant kidney disease
- Two had significant rheumatological diseases
- Three had other autoimmune diseases
- Four had severe liver disease
- Four had cancer
- Five were significantly immunocompromised
- One had a significant mental health illness
- Four had chronic neurological disorders
- One was on a palliative care pathway pre-COVID diagnosis
- Four did not have any significant underlying health conditions
Dr Chant also said that each Friday she, or someone from NSW Health, would give a more detailed briefing about the conditions and vaccination status of those who died with the virus.
According to self-reported data to the ABS, around 2.7 million Australians (11 per cent of the total population) have asthma.
An estimated 1.2 million people in the country have diabetes, based on the same data set.
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Two in three adults over 18 are overweight or obese, while it’s estimated one in five people self-reported that they have a mental or behavioural condition.
Today in NSW 46 people died with the virus, and there were 25,168 cases.
The death of the “young infant” in December was also confirmed by health authorities.
