Latest SA Covid updates for January 16: Two deaths but new cases continue to fall with 3450 fresh infections

Two more patients battling Covid have died but the number of new cases, hospitalisations and patients in intensive care all fell on Sunday.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is no longer being updated. Go here for Covid updates from January 17, 2022.

Two more patients battling Covid have died but the daily case numbers, hospitalisations and patients in intensive care all reduced on Sunday.

One of the men who died was aged in his 70s, the other in his 80s.

There were 3450 new cases in the past 24 hours, with 220 patients in hospital, 26 in ICU and six requiring a ventilator.

Premier Steven Marshall said the reduction in daily numbers for two days in a row was a promising sign the Omicron outbreak may be peaking, although it was too soon to say for sure.

“We’re very hopeful that we are in that peak period at the moment,” he said. “We’ve had a drop-off in SA over the past two days (but) I do caution you because those numbers will bob around a little bit.”

There were 24,120 tests on Saturday. PCR tests detected 2401 of the positive cases and rapid antigen tests the other 1049.

Mr Marshall said the RAT rollout had helped cut lab processing times for PCR results to just nine hours, the lowest in months.

An extra 8000 booster appointments per week will become available from later this week as the state government expands its mass vaccination clinic at the Adelaide Showground.

The extra appointments will come online as a result of the Wayville clinic expanding into the Jubilee Pavilion from Thursday. The mass vaccination hub currently operates out of the Goyder Pavilion.

The clinic has already delivered half a million jabs into the arms of South Australians.

Mr Marshall said the number of additional booster appointments per week at the Wayville clinic would continue to increase to 15,000 over the coming weeks.

The move also allows the vaccination hub to increase appointments for five to 11-year-old children by 850 per day from Monday. This number will rise to 1000 per day by the end of next week.

“The additional space in the Jubilee pavilion will offer the Moderna vaccine for South Australians who have had their second dose of any vaccine at least four months ago, moving to three months at the end of January,” Mr Marshall said.

The latest data shows 88.6 per cent of South Australians aged over 12 are double vaccinated and more than 362,000 third booster shots have been administered.

After a licensed venue at Robe was fined $5000 for allowing stand-up drinking, singing and dancing, Mr Marshall said 132 recent inspections as part of SA Police’s Operation Limit had found 12 venues to be non-compliant. The other 11 venues received a caution.

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SATURDAY JANUARY 15 UPDATE

Dozens of South Australians have been sent the wrong results in a new major Covid-19 testing blunder that was undetected for several days.

In the second failure of its kind in a fortnight, SA Pathology on Saturday revealed that an IT bungle left 67 patients with false results earlier this week.

The failure, which has forced a second official apology, saw a text message sent to 34 patients advising them that an initial negative result was actually a positive reading.

A further 33 patients were told their positive results were wrong and they had been cleared.

Despite the blunder occurring on Tuesday, it was only discovered on Friday and publicly released on Saturday, meaning the infectious patients who thought they were negative were free to move in the community rather than serve 10 days in isolation.

“We currently have a team of doctors contacting each individual affected to explain the situation and apologise for any inconvenience caused,” an SA Pathology spokeswoman said.

“A text message will be sent with the amended result.

“We have reviewed and updated our processes, which will be implemented on Monday, to avoid a similar incident happening again.”

The same blunder occurred on New Year’s Eve and a similar review was implemented. That failure involved 11 patients. SA Pathology this week processed 123,044 tests.

Meantime, four more people infected with Covid have died as South Australia recorded 4349 cases on Saturday.

Premier Steven Marshall said there were 236 people in hospital, down from 246 on Friday.

There are 26 people in ICU, up from 20, and seven of those are ventilated.

“I’m very hopeful we will hit that peak in the next couple of days in South Australia,” Mr Marshall said.

He said 567 SA Health workers had tested positive, with a total of 918 furloughed due to close contact rules.

“This is really putting a huge stress on our SA Health workforce at the moment and is something we’re looking to address as positively as we can,” he said.

Almost 20,000 PCR tests were conducted on Friday, while 19,881 free rapid antigen tests were collected. A RAT collection point in Berri/Barmera will open on Sunday.

Mr Marshall said more than half of eligible SA adults had received their Covid booster shot, as he launched a new incentive scheme to boost jabs at GP clinics and pharmacies.

He also announced a new family-only vaccination hub would open on Monday at SA Health’s Enfield site in a bid to increase child doses.

Mr Marshall said 20,639 vaccinations were administered on Friday. So far, about 15,000 children aged five to 11 have received their first dose in SA.

Premier Steven Marshall speaks to media with Education Minister John Gardner (left) and Professor Nicola Spurrier (right) at a press conference in Adelaide on Friday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Emma Brasier

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14 UPDATE

South Australia is set to hit its peak of daily coronavirus cases as early as tomorrow, with infections reaching up to 10,000, authorities warn.

Premier Steven Marshall said modelling undertaken by Professor Joshua Ross at Adelaide University showed daily cases would likely peak between January 15 and January 25, where we will see about 6000 to 10,000 cases a day.

It is expected about 370 people will be admitted into hospital and 50 people of ICU at that peak.

“We believe we will be able to get to this peak and over it in a very short space of time,” Mr Marshall said.

It comes as South Australia recorded 5679 infections on Friday – its highest ever daily total.

He revealed a further six people battling Covid had died: two women in their 90s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 70s and two women in their 80s.

There were 246 people in hospital, up from 225 on Thursday, but the number of ICU patients has decreased from 26 people to 20, with seven on a ventilator.

Mr Marshall said 557 SA Health staff were sick, with 870 in total isolating, putting a “huge strain” on the department.

He urged people to look at Friday’s total with “a great deal of caution” as it included some positive results from a couple of days ago, along with 1747 positive results from rapid antigen tests.

Case numbers rose more than 2000 from the 3669 recorded on Thursday. The second highest number of daily cases was 4506 on January 9.

Mr Marshall said Prof Ross’s modelling showed SA was heading to a peak of 30,000 to 40,0000 daily cases by the third week in January if restrictions had not been implemented on Boxing Day.

He said the modelling showed a benefit in delaying the start of face-to-face learning for Term 1.

Schools will reopen on January 31 for children of essential workers and vulnerable children.

From February 2, face-to-face classes will begin for Reception students and those in Year 1, 7, 8 and 12. All other students will begin online learning on that day.

All students are expected to return to school for face-to-face learning on February 14.

“The median daily number of new cases on January 31 is estimated to be around 5800 cases,” he said.

“One week later, that will reduce to around 3600 cases, and two weeks later it will have reduced to around 1800 cases – dramatically decreasing our kids getting Covid in our schools.”

Mr Marshall said there were 24,796 PCR tests on Thursday. He said 4310 people collected rapid antigen tests from the state’s first free collection centre in the southwest parklands.

A new RAT collection site at Berri/Barmera will open on the weekend and two sites in Murray Bridge and Port Augusta on Tuesday.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said restrictions would need to stay in place during the peak and afterwards to ensure case numbers remained lower.