Antiviral use and COVID-19 deaths

This section focuses on people aged 70 and over with their first COVID-19 diagnosis between 16 February and 31 December 2022 (in line with the data coverage for analysis of deaths due to COVID-19 and supply of COVID-19 antiviral medication). To aid in interpreting findings, 95% confidence intervals are included to show the range of uncertainty around each estimate (that is, that 95 out of 100 times the estimate will fall between the upper and lower values). A wider confidence interval band means greater uncertainty. In this report, when confidence intervals of two different estimates do not overlap, the difference between estimates is likely to be statistically significant.

For people aged 70 and over, COVID-19 case fatality rates were 36% lower among people who were prescribed antiviral medications compared to those who were not (reduced from 1.1% to 0.7%) (Figure 13). For those aged 90 and over, the case fatality rate was 5% for those not prescribed antivirals compared to 2.8% for those who were prescribed these medications.

Figure 13: Deaths due to COVID-19 (number and case fatality rate) among people aged 70 and over by COVID-19 antivirals prescription and age group during Omicron (16 Feb 2022 to 31 Dec 2022)

Bar charts show COVID-19 case fatality rate by age group and COVID-19 antiviral prescription. Confidence intervals are represented by black lines. Menu options are available to view number or percentage for the disaggregation.

Bar charts show COVID-19 case fatality rate by age group and COVID-19 antiviral prescription. Confidence intervals are represented by black lines. Menu options are available to view number or percentage for the disaggregation.

Notes:

  1. Deaths due to COVID-19 include those that occurred after a reported COVID-19 diagnosis, regardless of time period, or up to 21 days prior to diagnosis.
  2. See Technical notes for details on cause of death information sources, the definition of people who died from COVID-19, and the antiviral methodology.

See Data tables to access downloadable data containing COVID-19 antiviral prescriptions and COVID-19-related deaths data.

Remoteness area and socioeconomic groups

For people aged 70 and over with COVID-19, case fatality rates were 27% to 42% lower among those who had been prescribed COVID-19 antivirals across all remoteness areas and socioeconomic groups (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Deaths due to COVID-19 (number and case fatality rate) among people aged 70 and over by COVID-19 antiviral prescription and population group, during Omicron (16 Feb 2022 to 31 Dec 2022)

Bar charts show COVID-19 case fatality rate by remoteness area and COVID-19 antiviral prescription. Confidence intervals are represented by black lines. Menu options are available to view number or percentage for the disaggregation, or disaggregation by socioeconomic group.

Bar charts show COVID-19 case fatality rate by remoteness area and COVID-19 antiviral prescription. Confidence intervals are represented by black lines. Menu options are available to view number or percentage for the disaggregation, or disaggregation by socioeconomic group.

Notes:

  1. Deaths due to COVID-19 include those that occurred after a reported COVID-19 diagnosis, regardless of time period, or up to 21 days prior to diagnosis.
  2. See Technical notes for details on cause of death information sources, the definition of people who died from COVID-19, and the antiviral methodology.
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