Canberra's COVID-19 outbreak has dropped below 800 new cases in the latest 24-hour update from ACT Health on Sunday.
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There were 795 new COVID-19 cases reported in the ACT during the 24-hours to 8pm on Saturday, including 453 positive PCR results and 342 positive rapid antigen tests.
There are now 6093 active cases of COVID-19 in the territory.
There were 62 people in hospital with COVID-19, three of whom were in intensive care. Two people required ventilation.
In their daily update on Saturday, ACT reported the death of a man in his 90s with COVID-19, bringing the number of lives lost in the territory since March 2020 to 45.
ACT Health recorded 959 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, including 572 positive PCR results and 387 positive rapid antigen tests.
COVID-19 infections are expected to remain around the 1000-a-day mark over the next couple of weeks before slowly declining, internal modelling on the ACT health system shows.
But Canberra's health system is facing increasing pressure due to COVID-related staff shortages, while also continually exhausting its casual pool of staff.
A weekly report on the COVID-19 situation in the ACT released on Friday by ACT Health showed BA.2 Omicron sub-variant infections made up 88 per cent of sequenced cases, up from 86 per cent in the previous week.
ACT Health conducts genome sequencing on 3 per cent of positive PCR results.
Across Australia
In New South Wales, eight lives have been lost to COVID-19 in the NSW Health update covering the 24-hours to 4pm on Saturday.
The state has 1492 people hospitalised with COVID-19, including 56 people in ICU.
The outbreak in NSW remains high with 15,683 new positive COVID-19 cases, including 7292 positive PCR results and 8391 positive rapid antigen tests.
Victoria has lost one additional life in the pandemic. The state's hospitals have 356 patients with COVID-19, with 16 in ICU and one on ventilation.
The state has seen 9150 new cases, including 3876 positive PCR results and 5634 positive rapid antigen tests.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 vaccination boosters are a step closer for 12- to 15-year-olds, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration giving provisional approval for a third Pfizer shot for the cohort.
The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation will still need to sign off on the booster program for that age group.
The TGA on Friday recommended that 12- to 15-year-olds receive a third shot six months after their first two, regardless of which approved vaccine they had received as their primary course.
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Harley Dennett
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
Former federal politics bureau chief for the Canberra Times, via a career that's taken me from rural Victoria to Washington DC. Telling the stories of my local LGBTI community brought me to political journalism, where I've covered eight budgets, four national elections in two countries, Defence, public service and international governance.
