The ACT faced another day of COVID records as hospitalisations went beyond 100 and new cases remained in the thousands.
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Canberra had 1116 new cases, making the total number of people infected to 6089 while there were no deaths.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith previously said on Friday that Canberra Hospital was "completely full" while Calvary was "also very busy" with bed block expected to remain frequent over the winter.
The total number of lives lost since the pandemic took off in March, 2020 is 78. There have been 152,199 cases altogether.
Beyond COVID, the ACT is also facing an extreme flu season as 1383 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases were made to ACT Health up to June 19 this year.
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The number of hospitalisations that have occurred this year are up to 50 patients under the ACT's public hospitals, however ACT Health stated it was important to note that "hospitals have up to 60 days to report a diagnosis coding".
"Confirmed influenza cases only make up a small part of the impact that people with flu-like symptoms and respiratory illnesses have on the public hospital system," a spokesperson said.
"So far in 2022 there have been 839 patients recorded as admitted under diagnosis codes that match these symptoms."
The chief operating officer for Canberra Health Services Cathie O'Neill said some health issues have "come back with a vengeance this year" such as children's respiratory viruses and "flu and flu like illnesses".
"We've certainly seen a surge in children with respiratory viruses coming into the hospital at the moment, our pediatrics department is incredibly busy," Ms O'Neill said.
"Fortunately, most of those children only need to stay a night or two."
Other wards that have people "being admitted into and then discharged out" every day are general medicine, oncology and geriatric areas.
Simultaneously, those visiting the hospitals are more sick than usual, meaning they often require a bed for longer.
"We are seeing probably sicker patients coming in and that again, is replicated in other hospitals around the country and that's really unexplained at this point in time," Ms O'Neill said.
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Olivia Ireland
Olivia is a reporter for the Canberra Times. She has covered federal politics and public sector, court and crime, local news, arts, education and business. Olivia started as an intern in August 2021 and began her career with the Times after completing her studies in November 2021.
Olivia is a reporter for the Canberra Times. She has covered federal politics and public sector, court and crime, local news, arts, education and business. Olivia started as an intern in August 2021 and began her career with the Times after completing her studies in November 2021.
