Amendments to the state’s public health orders signed by Health Minister Brad Hazzard late on Thursday night replaced references to “the diagnosis of” COVID-19 with “notification the person has tested positive to”, as the state moves away from reliance on more sensitive PCR tests.
Epidemiologist Allen Cheng said the high positivity rate from PCR testing was an indicator there was a “reasonable amount” of COVID-19 cases in the community going undetected.
Asked if it was inevitable that most Australians would get COVID-19, Professor Cheng said he believed most would be exposed at some stage.
“If you look at places like the UK and the US where there’s been a lot of infection, the proportion that have antibodies would suggest the infection was probably well over 50 per cent,” Professor Cheng said.
A spokesperson for the Kirby Institute said it would work with the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance to conduct a survey in early 2022, to assess the reach of Omicron.
Using residual blood specimens from blood donors, pregnant women and people undergoing general pathology testing, researchers can test for virus antibodies to determine what proportion of the community has likely been infected with COVID-19.
Previous surveys were conducted in Sydney in 2020, confirming low numbers of cases in the community at that time.
With another long weekend to ring in the new year, a number of PCR testing clinics in Sydney will shut or operate at reduced hours until Tuesday. Queues of more than six hours occurred at some clinics this week, after public holidays on Monday and Tuesday squeezed the system.
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Premier Dominic Perrottet thanked front-line staff and the public after a “difficult and challenging year”, which has ended with more than 2000 NSW Health staff furloughed due to a virus exposure and paramedics experiencing record call volumes, largely from COVID-19 cases who do not require transportation.
“No one is saying these people are not sick, but there are more appropriate services to access than triple zero,” NSW Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said.
After 21,151 new cases were reported on Friday – the state’s highest daily total and a figure well ahead of state government modelling which indicated there would be 25,000 daily cases by the end of January – Dr Chant said the rate of infection “reflects the international experience with Omicron” but it would be “sensible to slow the spread” of the virus due to the strain on health services.
Virus hospitalisations have doubled in the past week, with 832 patients now requiring hospital treatment. Thirty-nine of the 69 cases in intensive care were not vaccinated.
There were six COVID-19 deaths reported in NSW on Friday, including two fully vaccinated aged care residents who caught the virus at their facility, a woman in her 80s from Windsor and a man in his 70s from Toronto.
Two men in their 70s, a woman in her 60s and a man in his 90s, all from Sydney, also died. One of the men in his 70s was unvaccinated and the woman had only received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
With Amelia McGuire
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Official coronavirus tally falling behind real virus numbers
Source: Philippines Alive
