Two ACT residents in their 80s have passed away with COVID-19 while 52 new cases have been recorded; Chief Minister Andrew Barr has declared it “the toughest day of our pandemic response so far”.
The ACT’s two new COVID-19 deaths were residents of the Calvary Haydon residential aged care facility receiving end of life care prior to contracting the virus.
Despite this, the Chief Minister gravely noted the pair had “lost their lives to the virus”.
Alongside the two deaths, the ACT also recorded the highest daily figure of new COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic with 52 new cases overnight, 40 have been linked to existing cases or ongoing clusters with the remaining 12 under investigation.
More than half of today’s new cases, 27, are household contacts.
Of the 52 new cases, 17 were in quarantine their entire infectious period with at least 31 spending some time in the community while infectious.
Eleven people are currently hospitalised with or due to COVID-19; three are in ICU all requiring ventilation.
The youngest patient is in their 20s, the oldest in their 80s.
The ACT’s total case number associated with the outbreak now stands at 887 with 612 having recovered, leaving 275 active cases.
3,875 tests were conducted yesterday but with today’s new case load several additional exposure sites have been listed.
A surge in demand for testing is expected as a result.
“Today’s increase in case numbers will come as a shock to many,” Mr Barr said.
The Chief Minister stressed the next two weeks will be “the most difficult so far”, but warned Canberrans not to let their guard down while vaccination numbers are still on the up.
“We can’t let this get out of control in the next two weeks,” he said.
He warned however that once vaccination targets are met and restrictions in turn eased, daily case numbers like today’s will become “the norm”.
The ACT has become the first Australian jurisdiction to accomplish 90 per cent vaccination in the population aged 12 up with a first dose; 329,312 Canberrans.
“That is a tremendous achievement,” Mr Barr said.
The Chief Minister expects 90 per cent of Canberrans to be fully vaccinated by the end of October.
Currently a little over 62 per cent of the eligible population have received two jabs.
The Chief Minister also revealed the agenda for this afternoon’s national cabinet meeting, which includes:
- Vaccine rollout;
- Indigenous and disability vaccination strategy;
- Booster and third dose policy, public health system capacity;
- New Doherty institute modelling;
- Future approaches to TTIQ policy;
- Future home quarantine policy;
- Authenticated vaccination record policy;
- Overseas travel for vaccinated Australians;
- Aged care visitation policy;
- Mandatory vaccination for healthcare workers policy;
- The role of ventilation in indoor spaces in reducing the risk of transmission;
- The reopening of schools;
- Community mental health support; and
- Economic and business support.
Mr Barr said firm decisions on the “broad and far-reaching” agenda will be made over a matter of weeks and months.
“Given the breadth of the issues to be discussed today many of the policy decisions will require consideration over multiple meetings.”
Any decisions made this afternoon will be reported to the community at tomorrow’s press conference.
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