ACT Health says the ease of PCR testing and Canberrans’ diligence with reporting rapid antigen test results could be reasons why the ACT has higher rates of the virus per capita than other jurisdictions. Photo: ACT Health.
The Territory has recorded 719 new COVID-19 infections in the 24 hours to 8 pm yesterday and there are now 152 people in Canberra’s hospitals with the virus. Sadly, two men in their 80s have died with the virus.
Of these, 1 is in intensive care and no one requires ventilation.
Yesterday, the ACT reported 1007 infections and there were 147 COVID-patients in hospital.
There are now 5444 active infections and since the pandemic began, 190,302 cases of COVID-19 have been locally recorded.
Vaccination updates are now provided weekly by ACT Health.
The directorate’s latest epidemiological report – which covers the week ending Sunday, 24 July – shows that both COVID-19 cases and influenza infections are continuing to decline.
There were 6926 new cases reported compared to 7900 cases in the previous week
Total cases for Week 29 were previously reported as 7995, which has decreased following data cleaning, including the removal of duplicates.
As has been the subject of much debate over the past week, this decline could be because the current wave has peaked earlier and at a lower level than previously anticipated or a change in behaviours across the community and reduced transmission during school holidays.
But it’s also been reported that despite declining caseloads, the Territory continues to have higher rates of infections when compared on a per capita basis to other jurisdictions.
The health directorate says this could be due to easy access to government testing clinics and the ongoing diligence of Canberrans reporting their positive RATs.
The ACT has the highest PCR testing rate in Australia. In other jurisdictions, including Victoria, PCR testing is only encouraged for vulnerable or at-risk individuals.
Of the new almost 7000 new cases recorded this week, five per cent were reported by individuals who had more than one episode of COVID-19 reported to ACT Health.
This percentage has increased over the past few weeks and has long been expected as immunity from a COVID-19 infection and vaccination wanes.
PCR numbers have decreased this reporting period to 18,024 down from 19,434 tests in the previous week. Based on PCR tests only, the test positivity 7-day rolling mean has decreased slightly to 24 per cent from 27 per cent.
92 per cent of sequenced cases in the week were BA.5. The remaining samples returned BA.4, B.2.12.1 and BA.2 results.
There were a total of 11 COVID-19 outbreaks in ACT Residential Aged Care Facilities and a total of 82 new cases in residents in these facilities. Five disability support providers were affected by COVID-19 exposures.
There were no intstitutional influenza outbreaks in the week.
Interstate, NSW has reported 46 deaths overnight and 13,425 new cases of COVID-19.
Victoria has reported 61 deaths overnight and 8,937 new cases of COVID-19.
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