After Saturday’s record numbers of 1,533 new COVID-19 cases and then back to 1,485, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced at 11am today that the numbers had gone back to 1,281 cases of community transmission in New South Wales, and five people lost their lives.
‘Last week I received late last week I received modelling on when our health experts think the peak will hit in terms of the number of cases, what the ICU requirements might be and what the number of people in hospital might be and I’m pleased to say that today we’ll be making all of that public.
‘I do want to qualify all of that to say that modelling depends on a number of things number of variables and too many of us do the wrong thing and there are too many super spreading events we could say, those numbers not being what they are.
The Premier said that there are currently 177 patients in NSW our intensive care units with COVID. ‘At any given time in our hospital system, there’d be around 400 People with non-COVID related issues in ICU.
‘Our surge capacity including staff in our Intensive Care Unit is 1,550, just to give people that reassurance – we certainly don’t want to have to use all those beds and that staff because we know what pressure will put on the system, but I want everybody to very assure that the capacity is there.
Ms Berejiklian said that according to the modelling she has received, we’re likely to reach a peak in cases in the next week or so. ‘That’s what the modelling tells us, and therefore a likely peak in intensive care beds required around early to mid-October. That’s what the best modelling tells us at this stage but I do want to qualify that by saying that a number of variables are associated with that modelling.’
NSW Health’s ongoing sewage surveillance program recently detected fragments of the virus that causes COVID-19 in Byron Bay.
No recent cases have been detected but everyone is urged to monitor for the onset of symptoms, and if they appear, to immediately be tested and isolate until a negative result is received.
Recent stories, information and updates regarding COVID-19
New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Life shows life expectancy in Australia has decreased slightly for the second year in a row. An international team of researchers has found more evidence that COVID-19 came from animals in a Wuhan food market. The lab-leak theory that Covid-19 came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology – instead of a nearby wet market – was thrashed about in public recently, with the US Senate Homeland Security Committee holding a hearing into Covid-19. Eighteen schools in the Northern Rivers division of Richmond have received $25,000 each as part of the federal government’s School Upgrade Fund, Labor Member for Richmond Justine Elliot said last week. COVID-19 reversed earlier trends toward longer life expectancies. During the pandemic, life expectancies globally dropped by 1.6 years according to a new study published in the Lancet medical journal. Let’s not forget that Covid-19 is still a big issue in our community with 31,935 cases reported across Australia in the last week – an average of 4,562 cases per day. The Global Carbon Budget is about to be refreshed, giving the world a critical insight into how efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are (or are not) progressing. Masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport from tomorrow, Wednesday 21 September. SW Police are urging festival-goers at this weekend’s music festival to celebrate in a safe and responsible manner, whilst also being aware of COVID-Safety measures. The Northern NSW Local Health District reports that to 4pm yesterday, Sunday May 22, there were 40 COVID-19 positive patients in hospital in Northern NSW, with one of these in ICU.
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