The ACT has recorded eight new cases of COVID-19, bringing the territory's outbreak to 102 total cases.
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All the new cases were linked and none were infectious in the community, but the territory's chief health officer conceded a shift in the territory's reporting systems made Saturday's figure "artificially low".
Two people are in hospital, but they are there for unrelated issues. More than 14,600 people in Canberra have been identified as close contacts.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the news showed the territory was turning the corner, but warned against complacency.
"This is the lockdown working, but we are however starting to see exposure sites post the start of the lockdown," he said.
"This is a general warning to the community to please be careful when you're outside your home. The lockdown has significantly reduced the risk around new exposure sites, but there will still be some."
But Mr Barr warned the ACT's lockdown, due to expire in early September, would not end until the outbreak was crushed entirely.
"We would require day after day of zero cases and people not infectious in the community," he said.
The territory, which recorded 4683 tests on Friday, has also adjusted its reporting cut-off period to 8pm.
Chief health officer Kerryn Coleman conceded the shift made Saturday's cases artificially low. She expected Sunday's case numbers to return to where they were on Friday.
"[But it] gives us more time to analyze the data and give you more understanding about whether they were in quarantine or not and whether they were linked. This will help us see where the transmission chains continue to occur," she said.
"This is just a realignment; we will not be hiding or not reporting cases."
Dr Coleman revealed there were two cases yet to be traced to their source, including the first reported infection and a Downer Community case.
"We know that someone was infectious, and there has been spread to other cases. We don't know how that was introduced, it must be someone who was at that location at the time," she said.
"We're not interested in telling people off, what we really want these people to do is come forward [to get tested].
"It may be that there are two introductions from NSW, it may not be ... just the one ... It doesn't matter. What we want to stop is all of the ongoing chains of transmission."
The government also announced that Floriade and Nightfest would not go ahead this year, given the risk.
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Mr Barr revealed 6804 businesses had reached out for support schemes offered by the ACT government in concert with the Commonwealth.
"Our aim is to get this support to businesses as soon as possible, recognising the financial pressures that are being experienced," he said.
Doherty modelling flagged a staggered reopening once Australia vaccinates 70 and 80 per cent of the over 16 population. But Mr Barr said he raised concerns at National Cabinet over a sudden reopening once those thresholds were met, given the jab took weeks to become effective.
"When the nation hits 70 per cent, I want Canberra to be closer to 80 [per cent] in it. And when the nation hits 80 [per cent], I really want Canberra to be closer to 90 [per cent]. We will do everything we can to achieve that," he said.
"Our jurisdiction continues to be a nation leading vaccination jurisdiction. I'm hoping that Canberra will exceed the national vaccination targets."
It comes after NSW recorded another 825 locally-acquired cases on Saturday, as the state government faced criticism over its delayed Sydney lockdown.
Mr Barr said the outbreak, which has skipped the ACT border, was proof "you need to take this seriously from the outset".
But he claimed regional lockdowns showed NSW was belatedly improving its approach.
"What is emerging is a very different approach. The NSW government, it would seem, is not repeating the Sydney mistake in regional NSW. That's a great thing, and that helps us," he said.
A number of new post-lockdown Covid exposure sites were identified in Canberra late on Friday night, including a number of shops at Westfield Belconnen. There are now more than 290 exposure locations in the ACT.
ACT Health named a number of shops in the Belconnen mall as casual-contact exposure locations during the first Sunday, Monday and Tuesday of the lockdown.
The shops include, Gift n Lotto Xpress, New Guardian Pharmacy, The Reject Shop, Coles, Aldi, the Food Forum, Woolworths and BWS. Aldi is also listed as close-contact site for Thursday, August 12.
The exposure site update includes close-contact listings for Chapman Primary After School Care on August 10 and 11.
There is a close-contact warning for Ginninderra Early Childhood Centre on August 17.
Easi Mart on the Kingston Foreshore has been listed for casual contact on Monday, August 16.
The arrival of 50,000 vaccination doses next week is set to bolster the ACT's campaign against Covid as the pandemic crisis escalates in the nation's two largest cities.
Dr Coleman expressed cautious optimism on Friday, one week into Canberra's lockdown.
"These cases that we have been seeing are what we would be seeing if we had not locked down anyway," Dr Coleman said on Friday.
"Now is the time at which we start seeing the impact of the lockdown."
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