With pathology laboratories under strain, pressure is growing on governments to provide more rapid antigen tests. Photo: Medakit Ltd.
The ACT has reported 810 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8 pm Tuesday, 4 January.
The additional cases of COVID-19 take the ACT’s total active caseload to 3069, and of these 16 people are in hospital, including one in intensive care and one being ventilated.
A total of 2683 negative test results were recorded in the 24 hours to 9 am today, Wednesday, 5 January. The total number of cases is 7006.
The percentage of the eligible population who are now fully vaccinated is at 98.5 per cent as of 4 January, 2022.
Long queues are again being reported for PCR testing clinics. The Garran and Mitchell drive through testing clinics were at capacity at 9:30 am. Long waits are expected at Nicholls and Kambah.
The Holt COVID-19 testing clinic has reopened today after being closed on Tuesday due to a power outage from recent storms in Canberra.
A new epidemiological snapshot of the territory’s COVID-19 situation will be released on Wednesday, when the chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman is expected to speak to the outbreak situation publicly for the first time since 23 December.
National cabinet is meeting today, where Prime Minister Scott Morrison is expected to offer additional rapid antigen kits to states to be given out for free from testing hubs.
The details on eligibility for free rapid antigen test kits are yet to be finalised. In response to questions from Region Media a spokesperson from the ACT Health Directorate said: “ACT Health is currently finalising its policy for the use of rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 public health reasons.
“These policies will be finalised prior to the ACT Government receiving its first significant delivery of rapid antigen tests later this month.”
Meanwhile, NSW has reported a second daily record number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalisations, with 35,054 new cases and eight deaths.
There are 1491 people in hospital with the virus. Of those, 119 are in ICU, with 27 being ventilated.
Almost one in three people returned positive results for the virus from the 108,844 tests conducted in NSW.
Wednesday’s case numbers represented an increase of more than 50 per cent — or almost 12,000 infections — on the previous record of 23,131 reported on Tuesday.
Victoria has also reported a new record of 17,636 new cases COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths. Today’s numbers are up on yesterday’s record of 14,020 cases.
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