NSW Health Minister says releasing worrying 25,000 case per day research ‘not appropriate’ as new daily record set
Brad Hazzard says it’s ‘not appropriate’ to release worrying research pointing to possibly 25,000 cases per day as numbers keep setting fresh records.
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NSW’s Health Minister has refused to publicly release recent University of NSW research suggesting the state could see a possible surge of up to 25,000 cases per day by the end of January.
Brad Hazzard was quizzed about the modelling after a whopping 2566 new cases were record on Sunday, eclipsing 2482 new cases on Saturday, which had been the most recorded in any Australian state or territory since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Modelling is only as good as the inputs that you have,” Mr Hazzard told reporters.
“I think it is considered to be excellent modelling but it is also modelling that has a lot of qualifications around it.
“It adds to our sense of heightened alertness but it isn’t definitive, it is not locked in.
“Besides learning to never say never in this job, the other thing as there is always an epidemiologist with a different view.
“So I think it is not really appropriate, particularly as it’s a cabinet document, to release that at this point.
“We’re seeing about 2500 a day, so hopefully we don‘t get to 25,000 (a day).”
The spike comes as Omicron emerges as the dominant variant in NSW.
Premier Dominic Perrottet was asked what it would take to reintroduce restrictions, but put the onus on the community, saying “the government can’t do everything”.
“We’ll look at that,” he said.
“What is key to us as well is personal responsibility. We have mandated masks in high-risk settings ... and that will be with us for some time.
“As we’re heading into Christmas, people are wearing masks in (certain) settings - we strongly recommend that.
“We are completely focused on keeping people safe. But ultimately in addition to that, we need to learn to live alongside the virus.”
He acknowledged case numbers would increase.
“This is all about taking personal responsibility,” Mr Perrottet said.
“And the people of New South Wales are doing just that.
“The government can’t do everything - it’s over to the people of our state.
“It’s the people of our state that have got us through the last two years and it’s the people of our state who will get us through the next two.”
Mr Perrottet was repeatedly pressed on masks, with one reporter remarking that doctors and nurses around the world were saying they should be mandated indoors “at least until we see what Omicron does”.
“There’s always different views, there’s always different debates,” the Premier responded.
“When we believe there’s evidence in front of us we need to potentially tighten restrictions, we will.”
Mr Hazzard made similar comments.
“If you’re in close proximity to people inside and it’s a big group of people, consider wearing a mask,” he said.
“We also have to live our lives in a more normal way coming into 2022.
“We’ll continue to strike the balance.
“We’ll continue to look at all the issues that are happening around the world, but also here in our state, and we’ll make sure that people’s mental health and the economy is also well looked ...
“We are on high alert, as you would expect us to be.
“As the premier said ... the government can only do so much.
“It really comes down to the community actually getting on board and I know they are tired ... I think we are all tired.
“But the reality is the one thing we know that will definitely help is vaccination.”
He said total hospital admissions were being closely watched.
NSW Health advised 227 people were in hospital with the virus, including 28 patients in ICU, 10 of whom are on ventilator.
“Nobody in the world is entirely certain at this point what exactly the impact of the Omicron variant will be in terms of those admissions,” Mr Hazzard said.
“It could be Delta, it could be a range of other variants causing some of the uptick,” he said, describing the uptick as “very modest”.
“It is very, very hard to distinguish or understand the full impact until we see more weeks of experience in what’s going on here New South Wales as to whether or not it is going to really lift our hospital intake or not.”
Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt had earlier been asked if NSW should bring back its broader mask mandate, responding: “There will be individuals who take actions that others may not agree with”.
“But overwhelmingly Australians have been extraordinarily aware of themselves, and their friends and colleagues,” Mr Hunt said.
Deputy chief medical officer Sonya Bennett urged Australians to wear masks regardless of what mandates were in place.
“I think we know mask mandates work,” she told reporters.
“My plea to the community is we don’t need to wait for mandates to tell us what is sensible to do.
“That particularly applies to masks.
“It’s a simple, easy, effective tool to continue to use when necessary.”
NSW Health said the Omicron variant would “likely” account for the majority of the new cases and it would be scaling back attempts to identify the new strain in confirmed cases.
“NSW Health will only undertake genomic sequencing for the Omicron variant in the circumstances where it will make a clinical difference to the care of a patient,” it said in a statement.
“For instance, where it will inform treatment choices as some therapies work with Delta but not for Omicron, and in situations where it will inform public health action.”
Originally published as NSW Health Minister says releasing worrying 25,000 case per day research ‘not appropriate’ as new daily record set
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