The ACT has recorded 30 new locally acquired confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, a record figure for Canberra.
Four people have been hospitalised with or due to COVID-19 with one person now in intensive case. Of these cases two are COVID-positive but have been hospitalised for unrelated issues,
The other one is receiving care for COVID-19 but does not require any intensive support.
Twenty-five of the new cases have been linked to existing ones, while the other five remain under investigation.
Of the linked cases, 21 of the 25 are household contacts. The remaining four come from existing clusters.
Thirteen of the 30 new confirmed cases were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.
Eleven of the other 17 were known to be infectious in the community; the remaining six are still being assessed.
“I know this case number today will cause concern,” ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said.
There are now 167 cases associated with this outbreak.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman said the figures are higher than previous days but not unexpected.
“What we’re actually seeing now is our household and close contacts coming up from transmission,” she said. “We have seen this pattern in other jurisdictions at the start of these outbreaks as well.”
A total of 5,655 tests were conducted yesterday, an increase on previous days.
As of today, almost 400 exposure locations have been detected across the ACT.
Over 12,100 close contacts and 6,100 casual contacts have self-identified and are in quarantine.
Dr Coleman expects that number to wax and wane in the coming days and weeks, but gradually trend downward.
“We’re seeing people come out of quarantine associated with earlier exposure locations, but I think we will gradually see that number decrease due to lockdown,” she said.
The Gold Creek pop-up and Erindale testing site are today being commandeered for specific testing as school groups are brought back for their end of quarantine testing.
Today, Nicholls Early Childhood Centre and Gold Creek School are going through Gold Creek pop-up and Lyneham High is going through Erindale.
On Wednesday and Thursday, the Harrison School community will go through for testing at Gold Creek.
This testing is for close contacts, meaning students, teachers and staff who were actually on the school sites on the identified potential exposure days.
“These are large groups of people who need to get through testing,” Ms Stephen-Smith said. “Please, if you are not a close contact do not seek to be tested.”
In other news, a UC Hospital team member who works in a support service role has tested positive.
Ms Stephen-Smith said Canberra Health Services responded “immediately”, with all staff members who are close contacts of this team member have been identified and are in quarantine.
The team member was wearing a surgical mask and goggles while in clinical areas while they were unknowingly infectious.
“The risk to staff and patients is very low,” she said.
Yesterday more than 12,000 Canberrans aged 16-29 registered on MyDHR website for a Pfizer vaccine at an ACT Government-led clinic.
Bookings for this age cohort will open in September with jabs slated to commence in October.
There are 85,000 Canberrans aged 16-29, of whom 21,000 are already vaccinated as part of earlier priority rounds.
“It will take some time based on the available supply of Pfizer,” Mr Barr said.
Given the supply constraints, the Chief Minister said it is “seriously worth considering” an AstraZeneca jab following a discussion with a health professional.
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