With South Australia still sitting at the top of its latest COVID wave, health authorities are encouraging people to take precautions this Christmas.
The festive season in South Australia looks very different to last year, when social distancing restrictions were enforced following record case numbers.
But while there are no longer any restrictions on gathering limits, masking wearing or mandatory isolation for positive cases, the state's chief public health officer urged South Australians to take precautions to avoid spreading the disease.
"If you get a sniffle, do a RAT [rapid antigen] test … if you have any symptoms don't go out and spread it around please," Nicola Spurrier said.
South Australia reported 10,474 new cases over the past week, 280 less than the week before — the first time numbers have dropped week-on-week since October.
Professor Spurrier said there was "still a lot of COVID in the community" and, while she did not expect the holiday season to lead to a jump in cases, she urged people to maintain COVID-safe behaviours.
"Nobody wants to feel responsible for making someone else ill," she said.
Professor Spurrier encouraged people to be particularly mindful of family and friends that may be more vulnerable to the disease, such as elderly relatives.
"It's always nice to give your nanna a kiss and I'm sure nanna will appreciate it but it's always best if you make sure you have a clean bill of health beforehand," she said.
"So if you have any symptoms, even if they are mild, stay away."
With mask wearing and rapid antigen testing encouraged particularly around vulnerable groups, SA Health will be giving away free masks in addition to free rapid antigen tests, at metropolitan SA Pathology testing sites from today.
There were 24 deaths over the past week, up from 21 the week before.
The number of people in hospital has been rising over the past few weeks and currently sits at 193.
Authorities had previously expected COVID numbers to drop before Christmas, but Professor Spurrier said today the lingering peak could be due to slightly increased numbers of "recombinants", where two variants mix.
Professor Spurrier said the state was "still at the top of the plateau" but there was a "slight suggestion" that numbers may be starting to decline.
"I think it's still too early to call it, I'm hoping over the next couple of days and the next week we'll see a more substantial drop," she said.
"Certainly Victoria's case numbers are going down so of course the expectation is the same will happen here at some point."
