Australia has recorded it’s heaviest death toll since the pandemic begun with 80 deaths.
In a nutshell, the numbers that have been reported so far per state, are as follows:
- NSW: 46 deaths out of 25,168 reported cases. Hospitalisations have risen to 2,743 with 209 patients in ICU.
- Victoria: 20 fatalities with 18,167 new infections. Hospitalisations sit at 1,096 with 121 in ICU.
- Queensland: 13 deaths out of 16,031 cases. We do not yet have a report on how many are currently hospitalised with COVID-19.
- Tasmania: 1 death; 866 new cases and 31 people in ICU.
Meanwhile, Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has also confirmed that Queensland will reduce the time period between people’s second and third vaccine shot to three months.
She has also stated her plans to bring rapid antigen test manufacturing to Australia after she raised the idea at national cabinet yesterday.
She says the federal government is happy to help the state fast track this process to get a manufacturer approved by the TGA.
Western Australia on the other hand has decided to not reopen its border WA Premier Mark McGowan said.
Its plan to bring down the borders on February 5 has been ditched, with no clear path ahead for when WA will reunite with the rest of the country.
On a more positive note, the Omicron outbreak appears to have peaked in New South Wales, Victoria and other parts of Australia, according to epidemiologist and biostatistician at the University of South Australia Prof Adrian Esterman.
The effective reproduction number, which measures how many other people someone with Covid will infect, on average – had dropped below 1 in both states, Esterman said.