A man in his 60s has become the 46th person in the Territory to die with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, according to ACT Health.
The department extends its condolences to the man’s family and friends.
As is usual following the weekend, case numbers have again remained below 800 today (11 April).
To 8 pm yesterday, there were 775 new COVID-19 infections reported in the ACT.
In its most recent weekly epidemiological report, ACT Health attributed the fall in cases over the weekend to “less testing demand”.
ACT Health was unable to confirm whether there have been any cases of the hybrid “Deltacron” variant detected locally.
The first Deltacron (a mixture of Delta and Omicron) case in Australia was reported in NSW on Friday and, on Saturday, Queensland Health confirmed a number of cases in that state.
It was first detected in France in mid-February this year but much about how this hybrid will behave is still unknown.
A small proportion of COVID-19 cases in the ACT – around three per cent since 1 January 2022 – are being sequenced to determine what variant of the virus a person was infected with and only test results returned via PCR can be examined.
In the week ending 3 April, only 154 samples were sequenced.
Of these, 87 per cent were the BA.2 sub-lineage of Omicron and 17 per cent were the original Omicron. Two per cent could not be determined.
Currently, whole genome sequencing is being prioritised for cases from outbreaks in high-risk settings, returned overseas travellers, hospitalised cases, and deaths.
The 775 (408 PCR and 367 RAT) new cases of COVID-19 reported this morning brings the Territory’s local active caseload to 6050 (3435 PCR and 2615 RAT).
The ACT recorded 795 new infections yesterday.
There are once again 62 people in hospital, including two in the ICU, both of whom are being ventilated.
Yesterday there were 62 people in hospital with three in ICU and two being ventilated.
The double-dose vaccination rate for the ACT’s five-plus population is 96.4 per cent, and 74.2 per cent of residents aged 16 and older have now received a booster.
Of ACT residents aged five to 11, 59.8 per cent have received two doses.
Since the pandemic began, 87,634 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the ACT.
Interstate, NSW has reported three deaths overnight and 13,468 new cases.
There are now 1568 people in hospital with the virus and 62 people in ICUs around the state.
Victoria has reported one new death overnight and an additional 9597 cases of COVID-19.
There are now 381 people hospitalised with the virus, while 20 patients are in the state’s intensive care units.