NSW reports an extraordinary surge of 804 Covid cases in the past 24 hours after Premier declared ‘no more lockdowns, ever’ – as millions of ‘pingdemic’ alerts put Christmas at risk
NSW has reported 804 Covid cases in the past 24 hours in an extraordinary surge in case numbers.
It is the highest number of daily cases since September 7.
The development comes after Premier Dominic Perrottet promised ‘no more lockdowns’ for the state in an interview with Alan Jones on Facebook Live last night.
Restrictions are set to ease on December 15.
A ‘pingdemic’ of health alerts has meanwhile forced thousands into isolation as the state opens up to the rest of the world, with almost two million Covid alerts issued by Service NSW over the past fortnight.
NSW has reported 804 Covid cases in the past 24 hours in an extraordinary surge in case numbers
However infectious disease expert Peter Collignon warned Australians should no longer be looking at Covid cases as a metric for how well the nation is dealing with the virus.
‘Case numbers should not be our focus. We should be looking at hospitalisations and death,’ the Australian National University physician told The Australian.
‘With Omicron, could get it worse? Yes it could. It probably spreads more. But we’re not seeing any evidence in South Africa of massive numbers of immunised people in hospital.’
Professor Collignon said the majority of cases in NSW in the past week had been found in under 40s – a demographic generally at a low risk of severe illness from Covid-19.
‘We have to be careful not to overreact until and unless we see real world data,’ he said.
Between November 29 and December 13 alone, NSW Health sent more than 1.9 million messages advising people to either monitor for symptoms, get tested, or quarantine after coming into contact with a positive case.
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