Aussies urged to get fourth COVID-19 jab amid latest wave

The Omicron wave is building across Australia again with rising infection rates putting pressure on hospitals as we head deeper into winter.

Dr Mukesh Haikerwal told A Current Affair the number of people dying was like losing "a bus across the cliff every day in Victoria and a 737 across Australia every week".

Leading epidemiologists and doctors are urgently calling for those eligible to get a fourth shot, as soon as they can.

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"The publicity has dropped off around booster shots," Haikerwal said.

"COVID has gone off the news, off people's minds. So there's not enough thinking about this.

"But COVID is there. It continues to be there. We're looking to get a big peak, unfortunately, at the end of this month ... into the middle of August."

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From Monday, another 7.4 million Australians can get their fourth COVID-19 shot, as those aged over 30 are now eligible.

The worry is, only about 71 per cent of the population has had three doses and with immunity waning, experts are warning the worst is yet to come.

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Professor Nancy Baxter said it's extremely alarming that on average 300 Australians are dying from COVID-19 a week.

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"This is going to be one of the top killers of Australians this year and we already have 400,000 people with long COVID right now in Australia," Baxter said.

"So we could do better than we're currently doing in terms of avoiding sickness and death and it's not that hard to do that."

Those who have had a third booster may be wondering why they need a fourth.

Baxter said it's to protect us from variants circling in the community.

"It does protect us against BA4 and 5 [variants]. But the main protection is upping our immunity against having severe disease if we get it," she said.

"So if we get BA4 and 5, we're less likely to go to hospital, we're less likely to die. So that's really good."

To ease the impending COVID-19 winter wave, the federal government has expanded access to two cheap antiviral treatments, sold as Paxlovid and Lagevrio.

Those eligible are people aged over 70, people aged over 50 with risk factors, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people aged over 30 with risk factors and immunocompromised people aged over 18.

Because the antiviral treatments are on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, prices come down from $1000 to $6.80 for a concession card holder and about $40 for everyone else.

"Antivirals are really important in terms of actually reducing how many people die of COVID, and how many people need to go to hospital from COVID," Baxter said.

"So they have [a] major impact, but they have to be given within five days of getting COVID."