The ACT has recorded 16 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm Monday as the Chief Health Officers said the territory was unlikely to get back to zero cases.
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Nine cases have been linked to previous cases and the rest are still under investigation.
Of the new cases, three were in quarantine for their entire infectious period, at least 11 were in the community for part of their infectious period.
There are 10 patients with COVID-19 in Canberra's hospitals and two people are in intensive care, both requiring ventilation. The ICU patients are in their 40s and 50s. The rest of the hospital patients are aged from under 12 to 90s.
There has been 641 cases in the ACT this year, with 414 cases recovered and 227 active cases.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman said two new exposure locations would be added today: a casual contact site at Calwell Early Childhood centre and a close contact site at Kambah Medical Centre.
Four of nine linked cases were household contacts of previous cases and none of the new cases were associated with public sites of transmission.
Dr Coleman said the prospect of getting back to zero new COVID-19 cases was unlikely considering there were 77 cases that have not been linked and at least 10 separate introductions into the ACT.
She said people were still delaying getting a COVID-19 test after symptoms appear.
"We still see 40 per cent of cases waiting two or more days after developing symptoms to get tested, 10 per cent of cases are waiting five or more days," Dr Coleman said.
"If you have any symptoms, immediately go and get a test."
The median age of ACT's cases is 26 years, with an age range of under 5 to over 90 years.
Dr Coleman said 189 cases were in children under 18 years, which represents 31 per cent of cases in the current outbreak.
Seventeen per cent of cases were in children under 12, 8 per cent were in children aged 12 to 15 and 5 per cent were in adolescents aged 16 to 18.
Nine children under 18 years have hospitalised with COVID-19 in the ACT and six of these were younger than 12 years old.
Dr Coleman said there were 77 cases where the contact or source of the virus was unknown, up from 50 cases last week. ACT Health has linked 90 per cent of cases, with over two thirds caused by transmission in the home from household contacts.
Other transmission had occurred in essential workplaces, such as childcare, restaurant kitchens, construction sites and rideshare.
Dr Coleman said the main factors leading to transmission in these workplaces included working in close proximity to each other and not wearing a mask.
The virus has been introduced at least 10 separate times and two of these events led to significant community transmission, the Chief Health Officer said. Some people who entered the ACT were granted exemptions and were in quarantine when they tested positive.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced a $14 million boost for mental health services, including a $3.6 million COVID-19 support package and $10.3 million of funding in the 2021-22 ACT budget.
Meanwhile, NSW has recorded 1022 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and 10 deaths in the 24 hours to 8pm Monday.
Southern NSW recorded nine new cases, including three in Goulburn, three in Yass, two in Queanbeyan and one in the Upper Lachlan Shire.
The NSW local government areas of Byron Bay, Kempsey and Tweed will go back into lockdown from 5pm after a COVID-19 case was infectious in the community.
NSW also announced it would bring in a friends bubble to allow children to visit their friends within the same local government area during the school holidays.
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