Tasmania’s active Coronavirus case numbers continue to climb, as the health authorities across the country deal with a new variant.
1,094 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours,
72 Covid-positive patients are in hospital, with three patients being cared for in the ICU.
One person are being monitored in a Community Case Management Facility, with 699 people registered under COVID@homeplus.
Public Health is monitoring 7,278 active cases across the state, up slightly from yesterday’s 7,174.
Over 4,000 of those cases can be found in the South of the state, while authorities report 1,720 active cases in the North and 1,227 active cases in the North West.
Vaccination rates are climbing slowly with over half of all kids aged 5-11 years old now fully vaccinated.
63.15% of children in the age group have received their first Covid jab.
Over 72% of Tasmanians 16 years and older have received their first booster.
That figure sits at more than 86% for locals over 50 years old.
Even though mask mandates have been lifted, Premier Jeremy Rockliff reminding us to keep up Covid-safe behaviours.
“Practice good hand hygiene, follow social distancing, test when you have symptoms and stay home when you are unwell.”
An infectious diseases expert thinks it’s better to encourage people to wear face masks, rather than reintroduce a mandate.
New Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are taking hold across the country, with new research revealing the infection rate for Omicron is five times higher than any Covid-19 strain.
Director of Infectious Diseases Dr Paul Griffin says there’s still no harm in choosing to wearing a mask.
In Tasmania, all confirmed COVID-19 cases and their close contacts must continue to wear a mask, and masks must be worn on board all commercial aircraft in Australia.
While masks are not mandatory, businesses and organisations may require staff and/or patrons and visitors to wear masks as part of their workplace health and safety practices.
