Fully Vaccinated Sydney Man in His 90s Dies From COVID

A student receives the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Sydney, Australia, on Aug. 9, 2021.(Dean Lewins/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A Sydney man in his 90s has died from COVID-19 at the Royal North Shore Hospital on Aug. 11 after receiving two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

He was originally diagnosed with COVID on July 31 and was a resident at Wyoming Aged Care in Summer Hill before being transferred to the hospital.

Another gentleman in his 90s also died on the same day. He received one dose of AstraZeneca.

“I express my deepest sympathies to the families of those two gentlemen who passed away, and we recognise that these deaths are extremely painful for those families, and our heartfelt condolences to you,” Deputy Chief Health Officer Marianne Gale told reporters on Aug. 12.

“We can understand people in their 90s are frail and vulnerable,” she added.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian reported that the state saw an additional 345 infections on Aug. 11.

Greater Sydney was originally placed under a five-week lockdown due to an outbreak of the Delta variant of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus.

This lockdown was extended by another four weeks on July 28, with the government citing low vaccination rates as the reason behind the stay-at-home orders.

Nine local government areas (LGAs) within Sydney are subject to tighter restrictions in an attempt to control localised outbreaks.

Residents cannot leave their council areas unless for essential reasons, including work, shopping, or exercise within 5km of home.

An additional three were added to the mix on Aug. 12, with Premier Berejiklian announcing that the LGAs of Bayside, Strathfield, and Burwood would be included.

Over the past week, eight LGAs in regional NSW have also come under lockdown, including regional centres Northwest NSW, Dubbo, Armidale, Tamworth, Byron Bay, and the Hunter region.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard has resisted calls for a full, state-wide lockdown (an approach adopted by fellow Australian state Victoria).

“There is a defining difference between NSW and other states - we have always tried to keep as much of NSW open as possible,” he told reporters.

“We will progressively look at those areas that have problems, but at this stage, I don’t see any reason on the advice I’ve had to date why we would move further than (where) the problems are.”

Overseas in the United States and Israel, reports have emerged of patients dying or contracting COVID, despite being fully vaccinated.

A July report from the New Jersey Health Department stated that 49 fully vaccinated individuals died from COVID. However, this came from a pool of 4.8 million vaccinated residents.

While in Israel, doctors estimate that “85 to 90 percent” of recent COVID hospitalisations were fully vaccinated.