Australia’s most populous state New South Wales has reported a record number of new Covid cases during the weekend amid the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Cases in the state have surged over the last two weeks. The state on Sunday reported 6,394 new infections, an increase from the 6,288 cases reported on Saturday.
Over 70 per cent of the cases in some Australian states are related to the Omicron variant. New South Wales, however, does not routinely carry out genome testing to identify the variant, reports said.
State health minister Brad Hazzard has indicated that Omicron is widespread.
“We would expect that pretty well everybody in New South Wales at some point will get omicron,” he said on Sunday. “If we’re all going to get Omicron, the best way to face it is when we have full vaccinations including our booster,” he added.
Across the state, at least 458 patients with Covid were admitted in hospitals, a sharp increase from 388 patients the day before.
Meanwhile, over 400 people were falsely notified that their Covid test results were negative on Saturday night.
Anthony Dodds, the medical director of the SydPath laboratory from which the people were sent notifications, said they were being contacted and informed of the error.
“An emergency response team is now investigating the cause of this mistake, which is believed to be due to human error. We sincerely apologise,” he said.
Doctors and pharmacists in the state have said they are running short of vaccine doses as prime minister Scott Morrison last week ruled out the possibility of a lockdown during the Christmas holidays.
“Despite the rising cases, hospitals and health systems remain in a strong position,” the prime minister had told reporters after chairing an emergency cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
A day later, mounting cases had prompted New South Wales to reimpose mask-wearing indoors.
The country’s second-most populous state Victoria reported 1,608 new Covid cases on Sunday.
Over 30,000 people in Victoria spent Christmas at home, unable to celebrate with family or friends.
