Premier Steven Marshall addressed the South Australian public this afternoon with the latest information on the evolving COVID-19 situation in SA.
In the past 24 hours, there has been an uptick to 3777 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in SA with hospitalisations decreasing slightly to 290.
Marshall said that sadly there have been 11 deaths with 2 women and 9 men passing away while positive with COVID-19. He said 5 of these people were in aged care facilities.
There was an increase in ICU patients, with currently 29 in intensive care, an increase to nine on a ventilator. A total of 3,550 cases recovered from COVID-19, with Marshall saying SA is reporting well below their seven-day average.
South Australia continued to see another high testing day, with a total of 20,829 tests administered in the last 24 hours. This result is a combination of 15,000 PCR tests and the 5,,800 rapid antigen tests (RATs).
Marshall said that we have now reached 90% 2nd dose vaccination rate for people aged 12 and over. He said 22,431 vaccinations were administered yesterday with 4177 paediatric doses. He said this was a fantastic number which is above national average in administration of vaccine doses for paediatrics.
He said people should look at PCR testing site operating hours which may change with the extreme weather conditions ahead for the state.
“We do have some extreme weather is South Australia so please check those RAT test opening sites as we tend to close them between 10am-4pm in the afternoon when there is extreme heat.
Marshall reported that there has been an outbreak in aged care in Mount Gambier. A rapid response team are being sent for assessment and see what we can offer for support.
Marshall commented on TGA’s provisional approval of the Novavax vaccine which was announced with morning.
“It has been approved by the TGA and will go to ATAGI in the coming days,” Marshall said.
Australians can expect the vaccine to be available in late February.
He said that the TGA has received application from Pfizer regarding 16-18 year olds which would see them have the same dose as adult vaccinations. It is expected that for the approval of booster shots for this age group will come in the coming days.
Marshall added that they are still on track to be releasing the finalised education policy tomorrow.
He commented on the rejection of altering the quarantine time of positive COVID cases from 10 days to 5 days.
“We completely reject moving to five – SA will remain at 10 days,” he said.
“It’s still 10 days for COVID positive cases. The strong health advice is that five days would create more problems than it would solve.”
He said that of positive cases at the five day mark, 40-50% of people still showing symptoms and could be infectious to the rest of the community.
You may not always receive a call, SMS or email from SA Health.
You must follow the relevant health advice even if you have not been contacted.
If you have any COVID-19 symptoms, no matter how mild, please seek testing as soon as possible.
For more information on health advice and requirements for households, visit www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/COVIDcontacttracing.
Find your nearest testing site at www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/COVIDtesting
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