Australia reports 80 new COVID-19 deaths but hospitalisations fall in NSW, Victoria

New South Wales has reported 46 new COVID-19 deaths, the highest number ever recorded on a single day since the start of the pandemic.

New South Wales reported 46 COVID-19 deaths on Friday, the highest number of fatalities the state has recorded since the start of the pandemic, while Victoria reported 20 fatalities.

Deaths from the virus were also reported in Queensland, which had 13 fatalities, and Tasmania which had one.

Hospitalisations in both NSW and Victoria have fallen over the last 24 hours – down nine per cent in Victoria from 1,206 to 1,096 and more than one per cent in NSW, from 2,781 to 2,743.

Of the hospitalised patients in NSW, 209 are in ICU, down from 212 on Thursday, while the figure also dropped in Victoria from 122 to 121.

Dr Kerry Chant, the NSW Chief Health Officer, said seven of the deaths were from December and early January and had been added to the figure after coronial inquests.

In addition, Dr Chant confirmed the death of a baby from the Hunter New England area who died with the virus in December.

In Victoria, there were 18,167 new cases, taking the total number of positive cases in the state to 252,399, while NSW recorded 25,168 new cases.

Tasmania recorded its first coronavirus-related death since reopening its borders to mainland hotspots in mid-December.

The 90-year-old woman, who was unvaccinated, was a resident of the Barrington Lodge nursing home in Hobart.

“Our thoughts are obviously with her family and friends at this difficult time,” Premier Peter Gutwein told reporters on Friday.

The state was free of virus cases when it reopened its borders to high-risk areas on 15 December.

Tasmania recorded 866 new virus infections on Friday and has 5,984 active cases.

Booster wait cut in Queensland

Queensland recorded 16,031 new cases as the state moves to cut the waiting time for those waiting to get a booster vaccine.

The new virus cases emerged after 37,121 tests in the 24 hours to 6.30am on Friday, taking the number of active cases in the state to more than 100,000.

There are 855 patients being treated for COVID-19 in hospital and another 54 in intensive care and 22 people on ventilators.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says 62 per cent of those eligible have had a booster and the waiting time for a third jab will be cut from four to three months from Monday.

The figures came as Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan delayed the WA border reopening indefinitely, amid fears opening up to the Omicron variant would result in “lots of people dying”.

The WA border was scheduled to open on 5 February.

“Unfortunately, the world changed in December; Omicron arrived,” Mr McGowan told reporters on Thursday evening.

“Omicron is a whole new ball game … We can’t just shut our eyes and hope that it is different,” he said.

Source: sbs.com.au