Deaths due to COVID-19, influenza and RSV in Australia - 2022 - July 2024

The ABS have reported extensively on deaths involving COVID-19 during the pandemic. The ABS mortality data is sourced from the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages and is separate from the National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System. While the registration-based deaths data takes longer to receive and process this dataset has provided important supplementary information to the surveillance system data. 

As the pandemic has progressed, there has been a re-emergence of other acute respiratory diseases. To reflect this, the ABS will now report on the number of monthly deaths due to COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). In this article, these viral diseases will be referred to collectively as deaths due to acute respiratory infections. Due to the higher number of deaths due to COVID-19 more detailed analysis will be included for this cause. 

All data presented in this article is provisional. It is expected that numbers of deaths due to these causes will increase for more recent time periods as more death registrations are received by the ABS. 

The table below shows the number of acute respiratory associated deaths reported on a medical certificate of cause of death by month and year. An acute respiratory associated death is one where the viral disease has either directly caused the death (the virus has caused terminal complications such as pneumonia) or the person has died with the virus (a person has died from another cause but the viral illness still contributed significantly to death). 

• COVID-19 has been the leading cause of acute respiratory infection mortality across 2022-2024. 
• After lower numbers of deaths between February and April, deaths involving COVID-19 started to rise in May and June. Deaths due to acute respiratory infections are typically lower in Australia in warmer months. For the first six months of 2024, deaths involving COVID-19 were 26.4% lower than in 2023 and 58.5% lower than in 2022.
• Deaths involving influenza were higher than usual for the first three months of the year, but have been comparable to levels in 2023 since April.
• Deaths involving RSV have been higher in each month of 2024 than either of 2022 or 2023. 

The ABS codes an underlying cause of death (UCOD) for all deaths in the national mortality dataset. The underlying cause of death is defined as the disease, condition or external event that started the chain of events leading to death. International coding rules are applied to disease and conditions appearing on the medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) to assign the UCOD. A disease or condition must be certified on the MCCD to be coded by the ABS. If COVID-19, influenza or RSV is listed as the underlying cause of death, the death is considered to have been caused by the virus. 

The following table shows the number of deaths due to acute respiratory diseases since 2022.

• The number of deaths from COVID-19 have been much lower in every month of 2024 than the same month in 2022. Deaths from COVID-19 in February, March and June 2024 have been comparable to the same months in 2023.
• The 72 deaths due to influenza in the first three months of 2024 were much higher than in either 2023 (23) or 2022 (<5). This is slightly slightly below pre-pandemic deaths due to influenza. For example, in 2019 there were 86 influenza deaths recorded in the first 3 months. In April, May and June the 151 deaths due to influenza were comparable to 148 deaths recorded in 2023. This is well below the number of influenza deaths recorded in May and June of 2019, a year with a high number of flu-related mortality. 

The table below shows the number of acute-respiratory associated deaths where the person has died with the virus (a person has died from another cause but the viral illness still contributed significantly to death).

• COVID-19 and Influenza are more likely to be assigned as the underlying causes of death rather than a contributing factor (i.e. a person died with the virus). The opposite is true for RSV - it is more likely to be listed as a significant contributor to death. To wholly monitor the effects of RSV on mortality, deaths with RSV should be taken into consideration. 
• There have been more deaths with RSV in each of the first six months of 2024 than in the corresponding months of 2022 or 2023. 
• There have been fewer deaths with COVID-19 in each of the first six months of 2024 than in the corresponding months of 2022 or 2023.

• More males have died from COVID-19 compared to females across 2022-2024. 
• Those aged over 90 years are the only age group to consistently record more deaths of females than males from COVID-19. Nearly two thirds of Australia's population of persons aged over 90 years are female.
• More females (166) than males (144) have died from influenza in 2024. This was also true for influenza deaths in 2022 and 2023.
• All three of these acute respiratory infections are more likely to cause death in older age groups than younger age groups. 

• As the most populous state, New South Wales generally records the highest numbers of deaths for acute respiratory infections. 
• Queensland has recorded the highest number of deaths due to RSV in 2024.
• COVID-19 has caused more deaths than influenza and RSV across 2022-2024 in all jurisdictions. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are at heightened risk of more severe outcomes from COVID-19. There are several reasons for this, including higher rates of socioeconomic disadvantage, higher rates of chronic diseases and limited access to culturally safe health care.

This section presents information on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died from COVID-19 (where it directly caused conditions leading to death) or with COVID-19 (where it was a contributing factor but did not directly cause death). For most of the analysis deaths from and with COVID-19 are presented together due to small numbers of deaths.

There have been deaths recorded in all jurisdictions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, the rest of this analysis focusses on deaths registered in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory only. Only these five states and territories have evidence of a sufficient level of Indigenous identification and high enough numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths to support mortality analysis.

There were 46 deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people involving COVID-19 in the first six months of 2024. This is lower than the first six months in both 2023 and 2022.

There were 423 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who had COVID-19 certified as a cause of death across the five jurisdictions. Of these people:

• 269 died due to COVID-19. This is where the virus caused complications that led directly to death. A further 154 people died with COVID-19. This is where another disease caused the terminal complication causing death but COVID-19 was a contributing factor.
• The age-standardised death rate for deaths from COVID-19 and deaths with COVID-19 are slightly lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females than males. The rate difference for deaths from COVID-19 and deaths with COVID-19 between males and females is lower for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people than for non-Indigenous people.
• Of those who died from or with COVID-19, a higher proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people died with COVID-19 as a contributing factor compared with non-Indigenous people (36.4% compared with 25.5%).
• The mortality rate from COVID-19 is 1.7 times higher in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people compared to non-Indigenous people.
• For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander females, the rate of mortality with COVID-19 is 2.7 times higher than that of non-Indigenous females.