A record 9,993 Covid cases were reported across Australia on Christmas Day as overwhelmed testing clinics were forced to close and tens of thousands of people spent the holiday in isolation.
The daily case total is expected to pass 10,000 on Sunday as Covid-19 infections surge across the country.
New South Wales has recorded its highest ever Covid daily caseload, with 6,288 new infections announced on Saturday.
Covid transmission also continued to surge in Victoria, where authorities announced 2,108 new Covid-19 infections and six deaths from the virus.
Queensland announced a daily record of 765 new cases, with the state’s health minister, Yvette D’Ath, declaring “this virus is everywhere now”. D’Ath confirmed 151 of those cases had the Omicron strain.
South Australia recorded 634 new cases on Saturday, down slightly from the 688 reported the previous day. So far, sampling of the state’s current outbreak indicates 81% of cases are the Omicron variant.
The Australian Capital Territory also set a new daily infection record, with 142 Covid cases. It was the fourth consecutive day that the ACT broke its daily infection rate.
Tasmania recorded 33 new Covid cases, while health authorities in the Northern Territory announced 19 new cases, 10 of which were travellers from interstate.
Western Australia reported two new cases, following the five cases that were announced on Friday. Both of the new cases were linked to a French backpacker who arrived in the state from Queensland on Sunday.
Genomic sequencing confirmed the backpacker had the Delta variant, with WA health authorities on Saturday saying “all cases related to this outbreak can be assumed to also be Delta”.
There are now more than 30,000 active Covid cases in NSW and more than 17,000 in Victoria, with isolation orders wreaking havoc on Christmas gathering plans, while testing delays and Covid exposure among airline staff have stymied travel plans of thousands of travellers.
In NSW, the record 6,288 new cases were detected from 149,261 tests conducted in the reporting period to 24 hours to 8pm on Friday.
NSW COVID-19 update – Saturday 25 December 2021
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) December 24, 2021
In the 24-hour reporting period to 8pm last night:
- 95% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
- 93.5% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/gUah4dFV5m
Hospitalisations remained relatively steady in the state, with 388 Covid patients in hospital on Saturday, up from 382 on Friday.
On Saturday there were 52 patients in intensive care in the state, down from 53 on Friday. Of those in ICU, 14 were on ventilators.
There were no new deaths in NSW, and the state’s first-dose vaccine rate ticked over to 95% after slowing in recent weeks.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) December 24, 2021
Our thoughts are with those in hospital, and the families of people who have lost their lives.
More data soon: https://t.co/OCCFTAtS1P#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/y8LYQfN8KA
In Victoria, 2,208 cases were detected from 83,456 tests. Hospitalisations remained steady at 361, with 71 cases in ICU in Victoria.
At least six testing sites in Melbourne became so overwhelmed they had to close by 9.30am.
Among the closed sites were the Alfred’s walk-through, as well as Monash University and Royal Children’s hospital drive-through sites.
Other sites had long wait times, including a three-hour wait at the Melbourne Showgrounds drive-through. A number of other testing locations closed for Christmas Day.
Meanwhile in NSW, testing queues grew throughout the day. As Sydneysiders flocked to Bondi Beach to enjoy the warm weather, the queue of cars at the local drive-through testing clinic snaked around to the northern tip of the beach by late morning.
There were 123,500 Covid-19 vaccine doses administered across Australia on Christmas Eve, 94,072 of which were boosters.
Many thanks to Australians for taking us well past two million boosters (2.078 million).
— Greg Hunt (@GregHuntMP) December 24, 2021
42.2 million doses including a heartening 94,072 boosters yesterday as part of over 123,500 shots on Christmas Eve.
94.2% 1st and 91.1% 2nd doses.
With Australian Associated Press
