COVID-19 case numbers in NSW have spiked like it’s December ’21, doubling to 20,402 overnight as the BA.2 subvariant spreads.
Yes, we’re really back there again.
Daily case numbers were steadily rising since the first case of Omicron BA.2 was recorded in the state at the end of January.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said BA.2 was more infectious than the BA.1 strain that walloped us in December and January and had become dominant in NSW.
Case numbers doubled in 24 hours after NSW recorded 10,689 infections on Tuesday. This was down from a the most recent peak of more than 16,000 on March 11.
FYI the NSW Health update said the state recorded 30,402 but don’t worry, this includes 10,000 RAT results from Sunday and Monday that were previously not counted due to a “data processing issue”.
NSW recorded 12,748 RAT and 7654 PCR positive results on Wednesday. Five people also died overnight, 1016 people were in hospital and 36 in ICU.
COVID-19 update – Wednesday 16 March 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 4pm yesterday:
– 95.9% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
– 94.5% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/J4OPAGd8XN— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) March 15, 2022
Wednesday’s numbers exceeded predictions from health experts who said our next peak was at least a couple of weeks away.
UNSW School of Population Associate Professor James Wood said daily case numbers would reach “the 20,000 to 30,000 range in early April” before declining in May.
“We’ve started to see that pattern in a number of other countries like the UK and now we’re getting data that’s confirming that’s the case in Australia, in particular NSW,” he told the ABC on Friday.
He also said BA.2 was already the dominant subvariant and had been for “about a month”.
“We think by the end of the month [BA.2] will be 90 per cent of the cases [in NSW].”
Why have NSW cases doubled in the last few days? Vic is going up. Seems this pretending it’s over isn’t working. Masks on might help.
— Lou (@loulouleeisme) March 9, 2022
NSW Health asked the State Government on Saturday to reintroduce of some COVID restrictions, including a ban on singing and dancing, to combat the spread of the BA.2. Nothing is confirmed yet but FML this cannot be happening.
Cases also rose in Victoria to 9,426 today up from about 7,000 on Tuesday.
Eight people died overnight, 201 are hospitalised and 24 are in ICU.
We thank everyone who got vaccinated and tested yesterday.
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/8hW5j0DYDS
— VicGovDH (@VicGovDH) March 15, 2022
Please everyone wear your masks, do regular RATs and get your goddamn booster! If we don’t follow these tiny measures, we’ll be slapped with major ones that I simply cannot handle anymore. I just want to dance without getting sick.
