New South Wales has recorded 21 deaths from Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night, making it the state's deadliest day in the pandemic but the figure was bolstered by several historic fatalities.
Photo: AFP
Chief health officer Kerry Chant said seven of the 21 deaths confirmed in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday came before Tuesday and dated back as far as September.
Dr Chant said authorities had been waiting on the findings of coronial inquests before officially linking those fatalities to the virus.
The number of people being treated for the virus in hospital grew to 2242 and 175 people were in intensive care.
This morning a new feature allowing people to register positive rapid antigen tests (RATs) was launched, as Premier Dominic Perrottet said fines would apply for failing to alert authorities of infections diagnosed at home.
There were another 34,759 new infections recorded on Tuesday, with 134,411 tests conducted.
NSW Health said yesterday the dropping number of PCR tests being conducted meant reported cases did not reflect the true number of infections in the community.
Victoria reports 40,127 new cases
In Victoria, the number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals was 946, as the state recorded 40,127 new cases and 21 deaths.
It marked a sharp jump from 861 patients on Tuesday and continued a rising trend in hospitalisations, which surged by 549 in the past fortnight.
Of the Covid-19 patients in hospital, 112 were in intensive care, including 31 patients on ventilators.
On Tuesday, Premier Daniel Andrews said while the record number of Covid-19 hospital patients was extremely challenging, so far the number of severely ill patients had remained relatively low.
The number of active cases had risen to 209,715, although the true number was much higher as testing systems had been overwhelmed for weeks.
Of the new cases, 18,434 were reported through at-home rapid antigen tests, with the remainder detected through PCR testing.
There were 61,630 PCR test results received on Tuesday, suggesting around one in three people presenting for PCR testing at the moment are infected.
The death toll from the current outbreak had risen to 792.
Roughly 18 percent of Victorian adults have received three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Queensland reports 22,069 cases - 30 people in ICU
Queensland has recorded 22,069 new cases of Covid-19 and 525 people are being treated for symptoms in hospital.
Thirty people were in ICU, with eight of them on ventilators, Health Minister Yvette D'Ath said.
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard said there was now enough data for patterns to emerge on the type of patients needing hospital care for Covid-19.
"If you are unvaccinated, you are nine times more likely to end up in hospital than if you have received a boosted vaccination," he said.
"We know that double vaccination is not as good as triple vaccination in terms of preventing hospitalisation and particularly [we're] seeing a large proportion of the hospitalised are more vulnerable."
Gerrard said without a vaccination programme the health system in Queensland would have been overwhelmed.
- ABC