Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Lucy Bladen

ACT records 18 new cases of COVID

The ACT has reported 18 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Friday as testing centres continue to be inundated with demand.

There are now 89 active cases in Canberra.

There are three people in hospital, and no COVID-19 cases in intensive care.

There were 3362 negative test results received on Friday.

Long queues for testing sites had already formed early on Saturday morning. As of 9am, all sites had at least a one-hour wait.

A large portion of the tests are people needing to receive a negative test result for domestic travel.

The EPIC drive-through testing site has now closed and has been replaced by a new site in Tooth Street, Mitchell. The Tooth Street site is smaller than EPIC.

To curb the demand, a pop-up site at Dickson College is operating this weekend.

The ACT's two-dose vaccination rate for the eligible population is 98.3 per cent.

Around Australia 

NSW reported a record number of daily cases on Saturday with 2482 cases and one virus-related death.

But the number of people in intensive care remains stable at 26. Overall, there are 206 virus patients in NSW hospitals.

This number was the highest number of daily infections reported by any Australian state or territory since the pandemic began.

Meanwhile, in Victoria there were 1504 new COVID-19 infections and another seven deaths.

There are 384 patients in hospital, 84 of whom are actively infected with the virus in intensive care and 43 on ventilators.

A new testing site in Tooth Street Mitchell has opened on Saturday. Picture: Elesa Kurtz
Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.