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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Jasper Lindell

ACT records 52nd territory death as hospitalisations dip

Everything you need to know about the BA.2 Omicron subvariant | February 1, 2022 | ACM

A man in his 90s has died with COVID-19 in the ACT, the 52nd person to die with the virus in the territory since the pandemic began.

Health authorities reported 798 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday night, the majority of which were reported positive rapid tests.

There were 66 people being cared for in ACT hospitals with the virus, which was down from 69 in the previous reporting period.

There were two people in intensive care and no one was receiving ventilation support.

ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman on Sunday used a video update to warn the threat of COVID-129 was still very real.

Despite the high numbers, she said it was reassuring that "numbers have remained quite steady in the past few months".

"We have seen and we will continue to see some ebb and flow in these numbers, but we still know that for the majority of people, the Omicron variant is mild and most people will feel better in three to seven days," Dr Coleman said.

Dr Coleman urged people to continue being "responsible for the actions we take to minimise transmission and exposure to others by being COVID smart".

"Please do it to protect yourself and protect others," she said.

In Sunday's video update, Dr Coleman spoke about the ACT surpassing 100,000 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

Sixty-nine people were in hospital with the disease as at 8pm Saturday, compared with one fewer previously. Three are in intensive care with none requiring ventilation in the period.

Around Australia

NSW reported the deaths of five people with COVID-19 on Monday, along with 7723 new infections of the virus.

It was the smallest number of new daily cases reported by the state's health authorities since February 28.

Victoria reported one death and 8109 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, along with a drop of nine people being cared for in the state's intensive care departments.

Close contact isolation

Household contacts of people infected with COVID-19 are no longer required to isolate in any Australian state.

Tasmania on Monday became the last jurisdiction to eliminate the requirement for people to isolate for a week if a member of their household had the virus.

There are around 330,000 active coronavirus cases around the country, with more than 3000 in hospital with the virus.

Meanwhile, NSW and Victorian health authorities confirmed last week they had detected evidence of two new sub-variants of the Omicron strain - BA.4 and BA.2.12.1.

The World Health Organisation has declared the BA.4 strain a highly transmissible variant of concern.

Our coverage of the health and safety aspects of this outbreak of COVID-19 in the ACT is free for anyone to access. However, we depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support. You can also sign up for our newsletters for regular updates.

Health authorities have warned the threat of COVID-19 is still real in the ACT. Picture: Sitthixay Ditthavong
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