NSW Health Deputy Secretary Susan Pearce claimed authorities were “increasingly confident” the tens of thousands of cases would begin to slow from next week.“We expect that pressure on our hospitals to continue for at least the next few weeks, although what we are starting to become increasingly confident of is that we will see a plateauing next week and that is pleasing,” Ms Pearce said.“That plateauing is obviously still at a relatively high level of Covid patients in this our hospitals and in our ICUs … but it does give us a degree of confidence about where we are headed as I said into the next couple of weeks.”NSW reported 29 more deaths from the virus on Friday and 63,018 new cases including almost 38,000 detected on rapid antigen tests. nsw health jan 14Authorities are still cautious about the future of the current outbreak, but data from early January showed a reduction in test positivity rates when measured by the days PCR swabs were taken.National chief health officer Professor Paul Kelly on Thursday said that NSW is “close to peaking, if not already”.He said other jurisdictions across the world have seen a “very rapid rise” before a decrease in cases.Prof Kelly said NSW could expect to see a change at the end of January or early February.“We have a lot of real data now. In the past couple of weeks, there has been a levelling off in terms of hospitalisations, particularly in New South Wales,” he said.“What we know from previous forecasting, that we do every week, is that New South Wales is a bit ahead of the other states and that is not surprising, they started earlier. They are close to peaking, if not already.“The other states are a bit further behind. End of January and early February is when we will probably be where we start to see a change. That is we have seen around the world, a very rapid rise in and a decrease.”NED-5306 How to register your positive RAT result NSW chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant said of today’s deaths, 15 were men and 14 were women.Three were in their 40s, five in their 60s. five in their 70s, 11 in their 80s and five in their 90s.Dr Chant also said NSW is “moving away” from classifying people as close contacts and instead focusing on “those most at risk”.“Everyone probably can understand that household contacts are the group that’s most at risk if you have got an infectious case in that setting,” Dr Chant said.She reminded positive cases they need to tell their household members to stay home for seven days, get a RAT test immediately and then another on day six.But she also asked people to stay vigilant for the seven days after they leave isolation too.“Whilst you’re most likely to acquire your infection in the first seven days after being exposed to a case we need people to be aware that the risk really extends for the full 14 days,” she said.“A smaller number that can arise in that second seven days, so just be aware of that and take some precautions in terms of avoiding vulnerable settings where you can.” NED-5192-DT-App-Banner
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