A Canberra man in his 20s has died from COVID-19 in a Sydney hospital, despite being fully vaccinated and having no underlying health conditions.
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NSW Health on Thursday said the man, who had received two doses of a vaccine, died at St Vincent's Hospital. He was one of six people to die from COVID-19 in the latest reporting period.
NSW reported 34,994 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday.
"NSW Health expresses its sincere condolences to their loved ones," the state said in a statement.
There were 16 people in Canberra hospitals at 8pm on Tuesday night with COVID-19, including one person in intensive care who required ventilation support.
Up to 60 patients could be treated in ACT hospitals with COVID from next week, modelling has shown.
Meanwhile, Canberrans will be asked to do more to identify their contacts if they test positive for COVID-19 and assess the risk of their exposure if they encounter a case, as health authorities ready the ACT to manage more than 1000 new cases a day.
The changes come as significant community transmission of the Omicron variant takes hold in the ACT, driving a fast rise in people testing positive for the virus and needing care. However, health authorities have not recommended tightening restrictions.
Chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman on Wednesday said the virus was predominantly transmitting at social gatherings and she recommended Canberrans limit the number of people they interacted with to reduce their risk of contracting the virus.
She said there had been 40 high-risk settings with at least one exposure, but onward transmission had been lower than in previous outbreaks.
"We do know that we will now exceed well over 1000 cases a day. I'm just waiting for that day and it will come soon. But what this means is we need the community to help us out a little bit more," Dr Coleman said.
"We need you to let know other people around you if you have received a positive COVID test or if they have been exposed to COVID. We won't be able to continue to do this for everybody."
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Some of NSW's poorest residents will be able to get 10 free COVID-19 rapid antigen tests, but calls remain for them to be free for everyone amid 34,994 new cases and six deaths.
The state's new cases came from 111,231 tests to 8pm on Wednesday, meaning about 31 per cent of tests were positive.
The six deaths came as the number of people in hospital (1609) and intensive care units (131) continued to rise.
Many of NSW's testing sites and pathology labs remain strained.
Victoria's COVID-19 case numbers have rocketed up again, with 21,997 new cases recorded.
The figures come from 64,861 test results, meaning one in three people getting tested has returned a positive result in the most recent reporting period.
Six more people have died.
Hospitalisations are up slightly again, to 631 on Thursday from 591 the day before.
There are now 51 people in intensive care and 22 on ventilators.
By 9am on Thursday there were 35 state-run PCR testing sites closed because they were over capacity.
Queensland reported 10,332 cases of COVID-19 and Tasmania reported 751 cases.
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