- Health authorities are urging Australians who haven't yet received their COVID-19 booster vaccine to take up the third dose, with coronavirus case numbers expected to rise in the coming weeks.
- The increasingly dominant Omicron BA.2 subvariant, thought to be more transmissible than its widely circulating cousin BA.1, has experts predicting that COVID-19 cases could jump significantly.
- Department of Health data shows 66 per cent of Australians over 16 have received more than two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
- While booster vaccines are, in most cases, not mandatory, they're recommended for everyone aged 16 years and over to help maintain immunity against COVID-19.
- Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist from the University of South Australia, said NSW was heading for its second Omicron wave, being driven by the new BA.2 sub-variant.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping said the country will "stick with" its zero-Covid strategy, as the world's most populous nation battles its largest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic in 2019.
- The highly transmissible Omicron variant is posing a stern challenge to that strategy, prompting authorities to close off cities, including the southern tech hub of Shenzhen, home to 17.5 million people.
- The world's second-largest economy has gone from reporting under 100 daily infections just three weeks ago to more than 1,000 per day for over a week.
- More than 2,400 cases were reported Thursday, according to the National Health Commission and tens of millions of people are currently under stay at home orders across China to try and stamp out the latest outbreak.
COVID-19 Australian Stats
New South Wales reported 1,060 patients hospitalised with 32 in intensive care. There were 6 deaths and 20,050 new cases of COVID-19.
In Victoria, 199 people are in hospital with 23 in ICU and 5 on ventilators. There were 9 deaths and 9,036 new infections.
Tasmania has recorded 1,779 new COVID-19 cases. There are 23 people with COVID-19 in hospital, with 3 requiring intensive care.
In the ACT 37 people are now in hospital with COVID-19, 4 of them requiring intensive care and 1,123 new infections have been reported.
In Queensland, there were 6,103 new COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths. 245 people are hospitalised with COVID-19, with 20 patients in ICU.
In Western Australia there were 6,176 new cases of COVID-19, with 134 people currently in hospital and 4 patients requiring intensive care.
In South Australia 136 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19 and 5 of them are in ICU, 3 are ventilated. There were 4,274 new cases and 3 deaths.
In the Northern Territory there were 258 new cases of COVID-19 and 21 people are now in hospital with one patients in ICU.
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