New South Wales hit by new Covid wave: ‘Work with us’

All signs point to another wave of COVID taking over New South Wales.

On Thursday, the state’s chief health officer, Dr. Kelly Chant, said the state was not only seeing an increase in cases, but was also seeing a change in the subspecies.

She is showing medical professionals that NSW is about to go through another wave of COVID-19 due to a change in the prevalent subspecies.

“With all the local information we have and what is happening abroad, we believe that COVID cases will increase in the coming weeks,” she said in an update.

Immunization and previous infections continue to reduce the risk of serious illness.

However, older people and people with underlying medical conditions are at higher risk of developing more severe disease.

The most common variants in the state are A.4 and BA.5, but new variants and BA.2 substrains are also increasing.

“best protection”

Dr Chant said the best defense people have against COVID in the face of the looming wave is vaccination.

She also said the vaccine would offer the best protection against the latest subspecies.

Dr. Chant also suggested that we should look into whether an antiviral drug could be recommended.

“If so, make a plan on how to get tested and how to get antivirals as soon as possible,” she said.

Regarding protecting the most vulnerable people in the community, Dr Chant urged people to stay home if they are sick or have symptoms and get tested for COVID-19.

“If you have COVID or any symptoms, it’s imperative to stay home and stay away from places with high-risk people, such as hospitals and nursing homes,” she said.

In the week ending last Friday, 9,707 people were diagnosed with COVID-19 in NSW.

This is an 11.4% increase compared to the previous week.

In the week ending 29 October, 227 people were hospitalized with COVID and 18 were sent to the ICU, according to NSW Health’s latest COVID-19 surveillance report.

Last week, 17 people died from COVID-19, 4 of whom had not received 3 doses of the vaccine and 1 was under the age of 65.