COVID-19 ICU admissions increase in NSW and Victoria, as Australia records 44 more deaths

The rise in COVID-19 ICU admissions in NSW and Victoria comes ahead of the National Cabinet meeting, following one of Australia’s deadliest days of the pandemic.

The number of people with COVID-19 being treated in intensive care has increased again in NSW and Victoria.

NSW recorded 29 deaths in its latest reporting period, while 2,722 are in hospital and 181 in ICU. That’s a drop from the 2,794 hospitalisations but an increase on the 175 patients in ICU recorded on Wednesday. 

Case numbers were 17,316 in NSW and 13,755 in Victoria.

There were 15 deaths reported in Victoria, with the state recording 1,057 hospitalisations and 117 patients in ICU, down on 1,089 hospitalisations on Wednesday but up from 113 in ICU.

Meanwhile, state, territory and federal leaders will discuss the capacity of Australia’s health system on Thursday following one of the country’s deadliest pandemic days.

Australia recorded 87 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday alongside more than 50,000 cumulative new infections.

The capacity of the country’s health system, an update on the vaccine rollout and supply chain issues will be on the table at the National Cabinet with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, premiers and chief ministers.

Slightly more than 93 per cent of Australians aged 16-plus are double-dosed, while only about 75 per cent of Indigenous people aged 16 and older have had two doses.

Labor’s Indigenous Australians spokeswoman Linda Burney will use the resumption of federal parliament in February to demand transparency about first doses for under-12s, as well as a breakdown of adult booster rates.

“The government should be reporting Indigeneity in the five-to-11 group, it doesn’t make any sense that they’re not,” she told AAP.

With AAP.

Source: sbs.com.au