Almost all new COVID-19 infections in Canberra are from the highly contagious Omicron subvariant known as BA.2.
The number of Canberrans known to be infected surpassed 6,500 yesterday — close to the record peak — as this month's surge of cases continued.
ACT Health says BA.2 accounted for 82 per cent of all cases analysed last week.
Earlier this month, the subvariant made up fewer than half of the city's new infections.
BA.2 has now spread rapidly across the globe, barely a month after the World Health Organisation formally declared it a "sublineage" of Omicron.
It is believed to be about 25 per cent more infectious than the earlier Omicron strain, and poses no greater risk of severe disease.
ACT Deputy Chief Health Officer Vanessa Johnston said Canberra's current surge of infections was affecting all age groups.
But Dr Johnston said, "very reassuringly", the number of people in hospital due to COVID-19 had remained stable.
Dr Johnston also extended her condolences to the family of a woman in her 90s, a nursing home resident, who was the ACT's latest COVID-19 death.
As of Friday, Canberra Hospital had 42 patients with the disease, three of whom were in intensive care.
Winter boosters rolled out as Canberrans warned to 'get used' to disruptions
The latest ACT government modelling suggests the recent high caseload is unlikely to recede soon.
Dr Johnston said surges like the current one might become part of life in Canberra.
"Our modelling is forecasting daily case numbers will remain high — in the kind of range we're seeing at the moment — for the next few weeks," she said.
"We know the strain this puts on businesses and families, with people in isolation and quarantine.
To protect the community as winter approaches, the ACT government will offer vulnerable Canberrans a fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine from April.
The extra booster will be offered to people four months after their last shot, if they are:
- aged 65 and older;
- Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders aged 50 years and older;
- residents in aged care or disability care; or
- severely immunocompromised people aged 16 and older, even if they have already had a fourth dose.
Dr Johnson said winter boosters were a crucial defence for the community and would also be available to Canberrans who had already had the disease.
"People who have had COVID-19 infections can and should still get a booster dose to provide the best protection against further infection and severe diseases in the coming months."
Government defends lack of public information on outbreak
Meanwhile, the ACT government has responded to criticism that it releases little information about COVID-19 infections, saying it is restricted by privacy laws.
Throughout the pandemic, the federal government has largely left public health reporting to the states and territories.
However, each jurisdiction adopts widely varying approaches, from NSW's highly detailed publications to the relatively scant data provided by the ACT.
This week, The Canberra Times accused ACT Health of having a "systemic culture of secrecy and spin", after the directorate refused to say how many people hospitalised due to COVID-19 had pre-existing vulnerabilities.
Dr Johnston said yesterday that legislation and Canberra's relatively small size prevented the ACT from being as open as some states.
She also said the reluctance of some senior officials was based on concerns about the validity of data, rather than how it would be interpreted.
"We are really hesitant in releasing small numbers, whether it be by geographic area, whether it be by vaccination status, whatever, if it's not in the public interest," she said.
"We have to balance obligations under the Privacy Act and the Public Health Act to ensure that what information we do release balances the rights of those individuals for whom we're releasing information — without their consent — versus the rights of the public to know that."
ACT Health began providing daily information about infections in each Canberra district late in 2020, but abandoned those briefings after several months.
Dr Johnston said there was less need now to provide detailed accounts of the outbreak than when the deadlier Delta variant was spreading and the need to inform Canberrans was more urgent.
However, she said ACT Health would reconsider its approach.
"We are constantly reviewing what data we release into the public domain and, as part of that, we can look to how we improve on that in the future."
