Another 9684 COVID cases in SA

This week, 9,684 people in South Australia tested positive for the virus, 684 more than last week, but the number of contagious people in hospital fell from 140 to 128.

PCR tests increased by just over five percent over the past week, with 4799 of 26,496 tests returning positive results, on top of 4885 positive rapid antigen tests.

The latest genome sampling results show that the majority — 61 percent — of the samples analyzed were BA.5 and related variants.

BA.2 and related variants accounted for 32 percent of the samples analyzed, followed by BA.4 with 1.5 percent of the samples.

SA Health reported 12 more COVID-19 deaths this afternoon among people between the ages of 30 and 90, including two deaths among people under the age of 70.

There are eight COVID-positive people in intensive care.

Professor Nicola Spurrier, Chief Public Health Officer, said last week that the curve of the latest COVID wave was rapidly flattening.

She said the state was “on its way to the top”.

“Until we actually see the number of cases coming down, I can’t tell you and say officially that we’re at the peak, but we’re definitely at that peak and at that plateau, which is obviously good news,” she said. .

About 37,796 people in New South Wales were diagnosed with the virus this week, 6,000 more than last week, while Victoria’s weekly total of nearly 27,000 was 5,000 more than last week.

– with AAP