NSW has recorded 92,264 cases of COVID-19 overnight after the state’s system for self-reporting positive rapid antigen tests results went live.
The number is high, but the reason for the spike is the backlog of positive RAT results that can be recorded this week but not logged.
30,877 positive cases came from PCR testing, while 61,387 positive RATs were reported yesterday (Wednesday), the first day of the new reporting system.
These test results date back to New Years Day, with 50,729 of these positive tests from the last seven days.
NSW COVID-19 update – Thursday 13 January 2022
In the 24-hour reporting period to 8pm last night:
– 95.1% of people aged 16+ have had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine
– 93.7% of people aged 16+ have had two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine pic.twitter.com/LGZvGmRbth— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) January 12, 2022
Almost 14,000 people reported their results through the Service NSW app within two hours of the online portal being launched on Wednesday morning.
NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello said that figure rose to more than 82,000 by the end of the day.
NSW has followed Vic in introducing the system to be able to include both types of results in the state’s daily COVID tally.
When Victoria first launched its RAT reporting system on January 8, the cases spiked from 21,728 To 51,256. The numbers have remained steady since then, and have dropped slightly on some days.
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has also announced that people who do not log their positive RAT results on the Service NSW app will be fined $1000 — though Dominello admitted it would be almost impossible to enforce.
“Yes, we will rely on the public, as we have done for the last two years, to get us through this,” he said. Tell us something we don’t know.
The results are easy to log, it takes two seconds, so even though you may not get fined, please do it.
Cases in this outbreak are expected to peak by mid-February, so it’s likely we won’t see them go down just yet.
The federal government has warned everyone to prepare to catch COVID in the coming days and weeks, and experts predict 60 per cent of the population will have had the virus in the next two weeks.
22 people died due to COVID-19 yesterday. There are 2383 people in hospital with the virus and 182 in the ICU.
