A new COVID-19 sub-variant has been detected in Victorian wastewater as the country recorded a further 35 virus-related deaths.
Victorian health authorities are monitoring the new BA.4 or BA.5 Omicron variant after samples were confirmed in a Tullamarine catchment, north of Melbourne.
The sub-variant has been recently detected in a small number of COVID-19 cases in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Denmark, the UK, and Germany.
The World Health Organization says there are currently no known significant epidemiological differences between the new Omicron strain and the more dominant BA.2 strain.
"There is no cause for alarm with the emergence of the new sub-variants," WHO regional director for Africa Dr Matshidiso Moeti said this week in a statement.
"We are not yet observing a major spike in cases, hospitalisations or deaths."
It comes as over 41,000 new infections were reported in Australia on Saturday along with 35 deaths, although seven of these were historical fatalities announced by authorities in Western Australia.
This follows almost 47,000 cases and 34 deaths reported nationally on Friday.
Net hospital admissions were up two dozen patients across the country on Saturday with seven more patients in intensive care.
The latest figures show 9,559 fresh cases were recorded in Victoria in the past 24 hours along with 13,601 new cases in New South Wales and 5,878 cases in Queensland.
In South Australia, 3,749 new infections were recorded overnight; 6,314 cases of the virus were reported in Western Australia; in Tasmania there were 1,334 new cases; 391 in the Northern Territory; and 856 in the Australian Capital Territory.
Thirty-five deaths were recorded across the country with eight in Victoria, 18 in New South Wales, one in both Queensland and in South Australia and seven historical deaths in Western Australia.
Victoria has 403 COVID-19 patients in hospital and 21 in Intensive Care Units (ICU). There are 1,491 patients currently hospitalised with COVID-19 in New South Wales, with 72 in ICU; 538 people are in Queensland hospitals, including 22 in ICU.
South Australia reported 223 hospitalisations with eight in ICU; Western Australia has 205 COVID patients currently in hospital, eight of those are in ICU; 48 patients are in Tasmanian hospitals with the virus, one in ICU; 28 patients are being treated in Northern Territory hospitals; and 60 in ACT hospitals with two in ICU.
