THE Hunter continues to battle surging numbers of COVID-19 cases and further fatalities, with 15 lives lost to the virus in the week ending July 23.
Australia-wide the daily COVID-19 death tally is spiking as the nation pushes closer to chalking up 12,000 virus-related deaths.
For the past three days straight there have been 100-plus COVID-19 deaths, elevated by historical COVID-19 fatalities hitting the system in Victoria. Another 41 were reported nationally on Sunday - taking Australia's total toll across the pandemic to 11,845 - along with almost 30,000 new cases.
The Hunter New England region recorded the second highest number of cases in NSW in the two weeks ending July 23 with more than 11,832 cases, a total of 312,786 this year.
NSW is continuing to experience a wave of transmission driven by the BA.4 ad BA.5 COVID-19 subvariants which is expected to peak - in the number of cases and hospitalisations - in mid to late August. Those remain the dominant strains, accounting for 94 per cent of infections at the end of this week, compared to 90 per cent the previous week, but NSW Health says there is no evidence of a difference in disease severity.
The number of people in hospital has increased by 10 per cent state wide, as one in 12 public hospital beds across Australia are filled by a COVID-19 patient, despite fewer people ending up in intensive care than during previous waves of the virus.
In the Hunter New England region, 97 people were admitted to inpatient care in the two weeks to July 23, including seven being cared for in an ICU.
The rate of transmission is highest among people over 90 years old, with children up to the age of 19 with the lowers rate of infection, although that is rising in association with the return to school. NSW Health is now recommending a 'winter booster' dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for adults aged 30 through to 64.
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said hospitals are "heaving" under the coronavirus caseload, with more than 5000 beds occupied by positive patients.
"We're numbering about 330,000 cases on a seven-day average per week at the moment, but we know from sampling from the positivity rates that we're getting for PCR tests, that the real number is probably at least twice that," he told the Australian Medical Association national conference on Saturday. "It is an extraordinary number of infections with this highly infectious new (Omicron) subvariant."
The take-up of third vaccine doses had "stalled to quite an alarming extent", with around five million people yet to receive a booster after their two initial shots, Mr Butler said.
