Health Minister Hazzard and Premier Perrott told us not to concern ourselves about the numbers of Covid cases and instead to focus on the numbers in hospitals, in ICUs, and deaths, as a measure of their strategy to "let it rip".
Note that the hospitalisations counted include only in-patient hospital stays, and exclude day-only hospitalisations, Hospital in the Home, and those only in emergency departments or ward types not routinely used for COVID-19 admissions.
The hospital figures are for those hospitalised with Covid and NOT hospitalised for a broken something or other and then found to have Covid as well as has been suggested across social media.
Note the case numbers below for NSW do not include private RAT test results. At the moment NSW does not have the mechanism for you to register a positive RAT test. The figures below only reflect those PCR tests that are now being carried out for travel etc...
Public health orders will also be updated next week to include a requirement that people report their positive rapid antigen test (RAT) results, to link people with COVID-19 to health support and advice.
The NSW Government has announced a range of precautionary measures to provide additional support for the health system and community ahead of an anticipated peak in COVID cases later this month.
To alleviate pressure on the hospital system and staff, the usual holiday suspension of non-urgent elective surgery will be extended through to February. Private hospital capacity will be utilised where needed, as was the case during the Alpha and Delta outbreaks.
