One more death, huge drop in cases to 2921

SA has recorded a massive decrease in new Covid cases – down more than 1100 to 2921 cases, and one death. Meanwhile, close contacts can get two free rapid tests from Thursday.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is no longer being updated. Go here for SA Covid updates from Wednesday, January 12.

SA has recorded a huge drop in new Covid cases, down more than 1100 on Tuesday to 2921, as Premier Steven Marshall said the Omicron peak would be “short and sharp”.

Tragically, one more person has died – a woman in her 50s – while the number of people in hospital has risen by 23 to 211, and 22 people are in intensive care, Mr Marshall said, with four on a ventilator.

Delivering the daily Covid update from isolation, Mr Marshall said SA had “avoided massive disaster” by introducing restrictions on December 26.

He said cases were “stabilising” but increases could be expected before SA hit the Omicron peak, which is expected in late January.

REPLAY TODAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE

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Mr Marshall said an updated hospital plan would be released in the next 24 to 48 hours, but promised about 500 extra ward beds and 60 dedicated ICU beds, to be ready by the peak of the outbreak “which is not far off”.

There were 18,433 Covid tests on Monday, while a booster-only vaccination centre at Mile End opens on Wednesday. About 700 self-reported rapid tests were sent to SA Health.

Nearly 500 SA Health staff are on furlough and about 40 ambulance officers are Covid-positive.

From this Thursday, close contacts can register with SA Health and then choose a testing site from which they can pick up their two free rapid tests.

Mr Marshall said he hoped for more concrete news on the first day back at school, hopefully by Friday.

He said the extra beds were possible thanks to private hospitals and cancelling of non-urgent elective surgery.

Yesterday, Mr Marshall said the current Omicron wave was stabilising ahead of a “short and sharp” peak by the end of the month.

He revealed “some real green shoots” as a doubling case rate had slowed to a week and said restrictions had helped slow the spread.

“It is good news that the numbers are stabilising,” he said.

Mr Marshall last week had dinner with his infectious daughter Georgie, 22, who is doing well.

He had test results within six hours due to the importance of his role and being a close contact with chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier and the media.

Service SA centres closed

Two Service SA centres will be closed for the remainder of the week due to Covid-related staff shortages.

The Port Adelaide centre on Nile St, and Naracoorte site on Butler Tce, were closed from Monday and are expected to reopen by the end of the week as staff complete isolation.

A spokesman from Service SA said the Elizabeth also closed on Tuesday afternoon due to similar staff shortages, but was expected to re-open on Monday morning.

The closure of the Naracoorte centre means anyone requiring in-person service must drive more than an hour to Mt Gambier Service SA.

Reopening depends on how the Omicron outbreak affects staff availability, a Service SA spokesman said.

“Customers are reminded that many Service SA services can easily be completed online at service.sa.gov.au.”

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MONDAY JANUARY 10 UPDATE

There were 4024 new cases of Covid in SA and two deaths announced on Monday.

The people who died while infected with the virus were a man in his 90s and a woman in her 80s.

Announcing the figures from his home, where he remains in isolation, Premier Steven Marshall said there were 188 people in hospital, up from 176 on Sunday.

There are now 21 patients in intensive care and four are on a ventilator.

“We’re seeing an increase in hospitalisations … we are not at the peak yet,” Mr Marshall said, adding that he expected the outbreak to peak around the end of January.

Mr Marshall said “some real green shoots” were emerging as a doubling case rate had slowed to a week.

He said the Omicron peak would be “short and sharp” as restrictions slowed the spread.

“It is good news that the numbers are stabilising,” he said.

“They will jump around but our ‘doubling rate’ is now the slowest in the country – an incredible turnaround in the past two weeks.”

SA Health’s senior leadership team was grilled by a parliamentary committee on Monday, where they said the agency would receive just 70,000 paediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine this month – fewer than one dose for every two SA children aged 5-11.

SA Health receives about half the vaccine supplies in SA, with other doses provided directly to GPs and pharmacies.

While SA Health’s deputy chief said there were some supply issues with the vaccine, the federal government insists the pipeline of doses will be adequate to meet demand.

Mr Marshall said it was Canberra’s responsibility to supply the paediatric vaccine, and he was confident every eligible child would be able to receive their first dose in the next few weeks.

But he conceded it would be “a disruptive start of the year” for parents, students and teachers.

The second wave of business and hardship payments has now started for hospitality venues, gyms and other industries who have suffered a significant downturn in trade. 

Mr Marshall said plans were moving quickly for rapid antigen tests (RATs) to replace PCR tests for initial diagnosis. Information on how eligible patients can pick up RATs will be released in the next few days.

Workforce shortages and supply chain disruption are a problem across the nation, Mr Marshall said, but SA authorities were working on plans to allow Covid-positive workers and close contacts “to go back to work in a controlled way” to ease these issues.

Amid reports of panic-buying of supplies interstate, Mr Marshall said “South Australians are better than this”.

“Yes, there are going to be some shortages but we don’t have nearly the problems they are seeing interstate,” he said.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 has struck SA’s Parliament House with the parliamentary library closed for a week after a staff member tested positive for the virus.

And a charter bus scheduled to go to the APY Lands was cancelled on Monday night after pre-departure screening in Adelaide revealed “an unacceptably high level of Covid-19 cases among booked passengers”.

People are only permitted to enter the Lands if they have tested negative to Covid.

There are three confirmed cases of Covid in the APY Lands and they, along with 18 close contacts, are isolating in Adelaide.

SUNDAY JANUARY 9 UPDATE

On Sunday, SA recorded one death and a new high of Covid cases, 4506 – although 336 of them are people who self-reported their result after a positive rapid test, Premier Steven Marshall said.

In a Facebook video from his home in isolation, Mr Marshall said he had returned a negative Covid test after becoming a close contact.

SA recorded a rise in hospitalisations to 176, 12 more than Saturday, with 18 people in intensive case, one in a critical condition, “well within” SA’s hospital capabilities. One person has died, a man in his 90s.

Between 20 and 25 of the patients in hospital with Covid are not there for Covid-related reasons, Mr Marshall said. There were 23,478 tests in SA on Saturday.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier and Premier Steven Marshall at last Friday’s press briefing. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

SA will move to rapid tests for close contacts and positive cases leaving isolation from Thursday.

“If you self-identify or have been identified by the Communicable Diseases Control Branch as a close contact, you will get two free rapid antigen tests – one for day one and one for day six,” Mr Marshall said.

“There is no requirement from Thursday for a confirmation PCR test for anyone who returns a positive on their RAT.”

Health Minister Stephen Wade said the Covid Ready Committee was “united on a desirability” for the school year to start as planned with face-to-face learning but would not be drawn on whether this was locked in.

“That’s the work we’ve got to do this week,” he said.

There are more than 400 people in SA Health who are Covid-positive, meaning 679 SA Health staff were now either positive or furloughed.

NSW recorded its deadliest day so far in the Covid pandemic, with 16 people dying with the virus. It recorded 30,062 cases, Victoria 44,155 and four deaths, while Queensland’s cases skyrocketed after it added self-reported RAT results to its tally on Sunday, totalling 18,000.