THE ACT has now reached the Omicron peak and should start to see a gradual decrease in hospitalisation in coming weeks, says Chief Minister Andrew Barr.

Through prepared notes following today’s (January 27) national cabinet meeting, Mr Barr says that with COVID-19 patient numbers stabilised at around 70 in recent days, the Canberra Health Services internal modelling indicates the ACT has likely now reached the peak of this outbreak.

“More than half of our COVID-19 positive inpatients are in hospital for a reason other than COVID-19, with many of these asymptomatic or experiencing only mild symptoms. In recent days, COVID-19-specific admissions have stabilised at 3-4 per day. It remains a consistent trend that those patients requiring an ICU admission, and mechanical ventilation, are largely unvaccinated,” he says.

“Case numbers have stabilised between 800-1000 each day the ACT. High vaccination rates and the less severe illness associated with Omicron mean the average length of stay for patients hospitalised due to COVID-19 remains around two days. Only a small number of patients require ICU care. Most of these patients have longer stays in hospital and report they are either unvaccinated or have had only one dose of a vaccine.

Mr Barr says the territory is preparing for winter when the ACT is likely to face a further covid wave combined with the annual flu season.

“High levels of vaccination across the community will help to protect against this dual threat,” he says.

“The ACT will be focusing our efforts on accelerating our vaccine booster program and completing the 5–11-year-old primary vaccination program. Also we will undertake a significant annual flu vaccination program.”

He says the ACT led the nation on vaccinations – 62 per cent of children aged 5-11 have received a first dose since January 10, the highest proportion of any jurisdiction in the nation. Nationally, the coverage is around 35 per cent and 43.5 per cent of Canberrans (18+) have already received their third dose of a vaccine, again well ahead of the national figure of 27.4 per cent.

“Now is the time for Canberrans to get their booster,” the Chief Minister says. “It is the best defence against the Omicron variant by reducing the risk of serious illness as well as reducing transmission and disease. The ACT will be adding 16- and 17-year-old Canberrans to our booster program shortly.”

In the past week, the ACT has conducted 15,865 PCR tests.

“The test positivity rate is approximately one in six having reduced from one in three at the peak of the outbreak,” Mr Barr says.

“In the last week approximately 10,000 rapid antigen tests have been provided to Canberrans at testing centres. Supplies of rapid antigen tests are starting to arrive in greater numbers but the advice from retailers is that it will still be several weeks before supply exceeds demand.”