Another 28 cases of coronavirus have been recorded in the ACT in the 24 hours to 8pm Tuesday.
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Sadly, a woman in her 70s who was receiving end of life care at Calvary Haden aged care facility has also died, that brings the total of lives lost to six.
The new cases also include a baby who was diagnosed at Canberra Hospital's Centenary Hospital for Women and Children.
ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the patient had been in the special care nursery for some time and became symptomatic on Tuesday evening.
She said the child had been moved to a COVID-19 ward and family members had been advised to get tested and to quarantine.
Staff and other families who were also classified as high risk were being contacted and told to isolate, Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Of the 28 cases reported on Wednesday, 19 are linked to known cases or ongoing clusters. Eleven were in quarantine for the entirety of their infectious period while at least five were in the community while infectious.
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There are now 1066 reported cases associated with this outbreak, and 663 people have recovered, leaving 395 active cases in the ACT.
Of those cases, 16 people were in hospital. Eleven of them are unvaccinated and five have had one dose. There are seven people in intensive care, four of them are requiring ventilation.
The ACT also reached two milestones in vaccination, with more than 95 per cent of Canberrans aged 12 and over having had one dose and 66 per cent now fully vaccinated.
Ahead of the delivery of the ACT budget today, Ms Stephen-Smith said the government would invest more than $90 million to continue the COVID-19 public health response and push forward with the vaccine rollout.
Almost $65 million of this will be allocated to manage the impact of the virus on the ACT community, Ms Stephen-Smith said.
As part of the budget, the ACT hardship fund, which provides financial assistance to casual workers who can't work because of COVID-19, has been extended until June 30, 2022.
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The past week has seen a large increase in the number of COVID-19 case in the ACT, with a new record number of 52 cases in a 24-hour period reported on both Friday and Saturday.
These larger daily numbers mean the average caseload per week has increased to 132, up from 123.5.
ACT Health has also reported more than 38 separate clusters since this outbreak began in mid August.
Health authorities have warned that as restrictions ease, it was expected larger daily case numbers would continue and higher hospitalisation rates were a possibility.
Wednesday's COVID update follows a push from the ACT government for Commonwealth funding reforms to better prepare the territory's health system.
Ms Stephen-Smith said health systems across the country had been under pressure prior to the pandemic.
"COVID is an extra layer of pressure on top of that and this is why it is so vital that the Commonwealth come to the table and talk about, not just funding reforms, but fundamental reforms in the way that we structure and fund our health system," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the 50-50 funding arrangement for additional COVID expenditure should be extended to the National Health Reform agreement.
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