Elective surgeries may need to be halted if the ACT continues to see a dramatic increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, but only a small number of healthcare staff have so far been furloughed due to coronavirus exposures.
The rate of positive test results in the territory also indicates not all COVID-19 infections are being identified in the ACT, with health authorities conceding some cases will be missed as isolation requirements are wound back.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said she could not rule out the need to limit hospital procedures if the COVID-19 outbreak worsened, but said only 23 public hospital staff were currently furloughed.
"There is clearly a potential for this wave of Omicron variant to impact on our health workforce significantly enough that we would have to reduce some services. We're not in that space at this point in time, but again, it's one of those things where I would never say we're not going to do that," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
Meanwhile, the rate of people who tested positive for COVID-19 from tests conducted on Tuesday was approximately 4.3 per cent, just below the internationally recognised benchmark of 5 per cent, which indicated cases were slipping through undetected.
Ms Stephen-Smith said the test positivity rate was "clearly a bit of a worry" but a single day's data was not a useful indication of the level of COVID transmission in the community.
The minister said she had been assured by the chief health officer, Dr Kerryn Coleman, high vaccination rates in Canberra meant a high test positivity rate was less of a concern.
"We know that we have got community transmission of COVID-19. We absolutely know that we will miss some cases. There will be people who are asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms who won't come forward for testing," she said.
"They don't realise they've been at an exposure site or for whatever reason they choose not to, they think they're fine, then they might transmit the virus to other people. That is part and parcel of having community transmission of the virus in our community. There are undoubtedly cases that we've failed to detect before."
A spokesman for ACT Health on Tuesday said precise test positivity rates for the outbreak could not currently be provided.
Meanwhile, the Garran COVID-19 testing clinic would on Thursday and Friday only test close and casual contacts, people with coronavirus symptoms, people who had returned positive rapid antigen tests and returned international travellers.
ACT Health said in a statement it was prioritising testing for people with the highest risk of exposure, while others could be tested at Kambah, Nicholls and Mitchell testing clinics.
