Latest SA Covid update: Covid hospitalisations surge, two more patients die

SA Covid hospitalisations have surged in the past 24 hours and two patients have died, even as overall case numbers continue to fall. Watch the Premier’s daily briefing here.

This coronavirus article is unlocked and free to read in the interest of community health and safety. Get full digital access to trusted news – including the very latest Covid news, views, Q&As, guides and analysis – from The Advertiser with our great introductory offer.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is no longer being updated. See the latest SA Covid updates for Wednesday January 19 here.

Covid hospitalisations have surged in SA to 285 patients, an increase of 58 in the past 24 hours, while two people with the virus have died.

However, the number of cases has continued to fall with 3079 new infections, a decrease of 750 on Monday’s figure.

More people recovered from the virus on Monday than were diagnosed – 4046 vs 3079 – and Premier Steven Marshall said this was a further sign the state’s outbreak may have peaked.

There are 24 people in intensive care, five requiring a ventilator.

The number of new infections has fallen significantly from the peak last week, but it’s unclear how much of a role the state’s switch to rapid antigen testing (RAT) has played.

Covid update: South Australia has recorded two deaths and 3079 new cases with 285 in hospital and 24 in ICU and five on ventilators.
Premier Steven Marshall has also announced that 4046 recovered from Covid yesterday.#TheAdvertiserhttps://t.co/lOT5YDnSHtpic.twitter.com/VKXL8phn7n

— The Advertiser (@theTiser) January 18, 2022

Tuesday’s new cases comprised 2257 patients diagnosed via a PCR test and 822 diagnosed via a RAT.

There were 20,515 tests recorded on Monday, over which 13,319 were PCR tests.

The Premier urged anyone who had tested negative on a RAT but had Covid symptoms to get the more reliable PCR test.

He confirmed there will be RAT collection sites opened in Playford and Salisbury in the next 7-10 days “but my advice for people in the north who cannot get in (to the city) is to go and get a PCR test”.

Mr Marshall said there were a significant number of patients in hospital with Covid, but not because of Covid, and was hoping to get a detailed breakdown on this in coming days.

SA Health has 558 staff with Covid and 778 not at work – four days ago that number was nearly 1000.

The Premier has met with the Australian Education Union this morning to discuss their threat of strike action over the state’s back-to-school plan.

“They did request that we delay the start of term one for two weeks. I could not accept that request,” Mr Marshall said.

“It’s going to be a disrupted start to term one but I do believe we’ve got the middle course here in South Australia.”

He said the government had not yet decided on how to use rapid antigen tests in schools, and the complete back-to-school policy would be unveiled on Thursday or Friday after national cabinet meets.

Mr Marshall also announced a $30m upgrade for the existing Women’s and Children’s Hospital to address a resourcing crisis, as excavation and potholing work started at the replacement hospital site on North Tce.

WATCH THE BRIEFING

READ MORE

■ Teachers threaten to strike but minister urges patience
■ Moderna working on a one-shot flu and Covid vaccine
■ Latest interstate figures: Death tolls are soaring
■ Woolies cancels orders from Covid outbreak abattoir at Naracoorte
■ First Covid-only hospital opens in the Barossa
■ Back-to-school plan: All the details for parents and teachers
■ Booking sites to avoid – and those to use

MONDAY JANUARY 17 UPDATE

SA’s new Covid case numbers appear to have stabilised with another 3829 infections recorded on Monday. That’s a slight increase from 3450 on Sunday but significantly below the numbers recorded late last week. 

Premier Steven Marshall said there are 227 patients in hospital and 26 in intensive care, five of whom are on a ventilator. 

No deaths from patients with Covid were recorded on Monday, the first time in 10 days that the Covid death toll was 0.

“(The new case number) is below the seven-day average and gives further indication that we are at our peak in SA,” Mr Marshall said.

“We’re about in equilibrium – in fact over the last two days we’ve had more people recovered than are infected.”

However, he warned the state against complacency, particularly ahead of the return to school which has led SA teachers to threaten strike action.

Mr Marshall said it was “too early” to consider a strike and was confident the government would find a “middle ground” with teachers, schools and unions.

There were 14,873 PCR tests and around 6500 rapid antigen tests (RATs) conducted on Sunday. Around 138,000 people have received a vaccination – mostly children getting their first jab or adults taking a booster – in the past week.

Premier Steven Marshall with Police Commissioner Grant Stevens at Monday’s Covid briefing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

Mr Marshall said he recognised concerns about the aged care sector, where more than 100 facilities are locked down with outbreaks (either one resident or two staff testing positive) and experts say residents are upset, lonely and confused.

Across the aged care sector, 615 residents and 572 staff have tested positive, creating a significant staff shortage in 11 facilities.

“This is impacting about 2 per cent of staff and 4 per cent of residents in South Australia and this is at the lower end of the scale on a national basis,” Mr Marshall said.

He said chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier was working on a revised “return to work” framework that would provide more flexibility for aged care staff and homes. It is expected to be released in coming days.

Mr Marshall said SA had an ample supply of RATs with more tests arriving in the state every day.

Police Comissioner and state co-ordinator Grant Stevens said multiple new RAT collection sites would be rolled out in coming days at Port Augusta, Murray Bridge, Mount Gambier and in the Port Adelaide Enfield Council area.

Planning is under way for other collection sites in areas including the Charles Sturt and Onkaparinga council areas, Naracoorte, Port Lincoln and Adelaide’s northern suburbs.

COVID COMMITTEE CONTROVERSY

No official records are being kept of discussions held by an important State Government Covid-19 committee that aims to ensure SA is prepared to tackle pandemic-related issues.

The Covid-ready committee, chaired by Premier Steven Marshall, holds daily online meetings lasting up to 90 minutes to talk about the ongoing pandemic, but a parliamentary inquiry on Monday heard it has no terms of reference, agendas or minutes.

State co-ordinator Grant Stevens, chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier, Health Minister Stephen Wade and other public servants also sit on the committee.

Treasury and Finance Department chief executive David Reynolds told the parliamentary inquiry that Covid-related decisions were not made at the meetings.

“There aren’t any agendas or minutes taken from those meetings and there isn’t a secretariat,” he said.

“I think this meeting is established by the Premier for him to be able to inform himself about the range of issues that he needs to understand about Covid to be able to keep the community informed every day at his press conferences.”

SA Best MLC Frank Pangallo suggested the Covid-ready committee “appears to be effectively a method for the Premier to influence decisions ostensibly made by the Transition Committee”, while Greens MLC Tammy Franks questioned how the committee knew its purpose without an agenda or terms of reference.

“Do you think that this committee is probably indicative of how the state currently feels with there seeming to be no coherent plan?” she said.

Mr Marshall said the committee was “similar to most advisory groups that sit within government”.

SUNDAY JANUARY 16 UPDATE

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.

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.