COVID-19 update: WHO says pandemic caused 15 million excess deaths in two years

This is your update on COVID-19 in Australia for 6 May.

NSW Ambulances park in the receiving bay for the Emergency Department at the Liverpool Hospital in Sydney. (file) Source: AAP Image/Bianca De Marchi

On Friday, Australia reported at least 29 COVID-19 deaths, including 11 in Queensland, nine in Victoria and seven in New South Wales (NSW).

Check the latest COVID-19 trends for new cases, hospitalisations and deaths in Australia here.

NSW has reported 11,309 reinfection cases, which means these many people were found COVID-19 positive for the second time after 91 days of their first positive result.

Western Australia's 80 per cent population aged 16 and over is now triple vaccinated. There were 9,328 new infections in the state on Friday. 

The World Health Organization has reported 14.9 million excess deaths between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021. These excess mortality are directly or indirectly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Indirectly-linked deaths are attributable to other health conditions for which people could not access prevention and treatment due to the overburdened health systems.

The US has restricted the use of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine for adults due to the risk of a rare blood clotting syndrome. Australia provisionally approved this vaccine in June 2021, but it's not part of its vaccination program. 

AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax remain the only approved vaccines in Australia.

A WHO funded study in Lancet claims that remdesivir treatment has no significant effect on patients already on ventilation with COVID-19. 

The treatment has a small effect against death or progression to ventilation among other hospitalised patients. Australia was among the first countries to authorise the use of remdesivir in 2020.

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