The ACT has recorded 992 cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm yesterday.
The number is the ACT's highest daily tally of the pandemic and takes the territory's total active cases to 3,565.
There are 20 patients in hospital as a result of the virus, including two in intensive care and on ventilation.
The ACT's vaccination rate for residents aged 12 and over remains at 98.5 per cent. However, ACT Health has introduced a new booster category into its reporting system.
18.9 per cent of Canberrans aged 18 and over have received their booster shot so far. This number is expected to increase from January 31, when the interval between the second vaccine and the booster is further reduced to three months.
Canberra man dies with COVID-19 in NSW
Also today, NSW Health announced that a man in his 20s from the ACT has died from COVID-19.
The man, who was being treated at St Vincent's Hospital, had received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine and had no known underlying health conditions.
The man was among five other people who died with COVID-19 in NSW's latest reporting period — four other men and one woman, from the Lake Macquarie area and western Sydney.
"NSW Health expresses its sincere condolences to their loved ones," NSW Health said in a statement.
New COVID-19 rules for the territory
The ACT's record number of cases comes as the territory enters its first day of new COVID-19 rules.
From today, hospitals have ended the complete segregation of COVID-19-infected patients from others.
Designated COVID-19 wards will now only be used for infected people who have respiratory symptoms or a high infection load; patients with a mild or asymptomatic form of the disease will be put in "the most appropriate ward for their condition," ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said.
The government has also taken a step back from tracking the virus, and the familiar definitions of close or casual contacts have been removed.
Instead, Canberrans are being asked to make their own decisions about their exposure to COVID, and a new system of high, moderate and low categories comes into play.
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Canberrans are also being asked to notify their own contacts if they test positive for the virus.
Ms Stephen-Smith acknowledged the changes were "a big shift" for Canberrans.
"I think for most Canberrans they're more likely to err on the side of caution than to be sort of blase about the risk of transmission either to themselves or others, so I think we'll probably see people over-classifying themselves in terms of contact," she told ABC Radio Canberra.
Ms Stephen-Smith said she didn't expect Canberrans "to have all of this information in their head".
"You'll need the information that's relevant to you at the time," she said.
"If you're identified as a case, or you're identified that you know someone who contracted COVID and you were spending time with them, go onto the website and have a look at the information that's available there for you.
Rapid antigen test recording from next week
Ms Stephen-Smith announced that ACT Health are creating a database for Canberrans who receive a positive rapid antigen test, to officially record their infection.
"We are working on a mechanism in the ACT for people to be able to record those positive rapid antigen tests," she said.
"But also actually keeping an eye on what the larger jurisdictions are doing because the more consistency we can provide with the responses of the larger jurisdictions, the better."
She said once the system was up and running it would be important for the ACT to consider what larger jurisdictions were doing and consider if those changes were suited to the ACT as well.
"The decision Victoria has made to create a new category of probable case is a very interesting one, and one that we're looking at very closely in terms of potential changes to the [ACT] public health directions," she said.
She said that until the RAT recording database was complete, Canberrans should continue to get a PCR test to confirm their COVID status.
Ms Stephen-Smith also said ACT Health was considering recording negative RAT test results to assist vulnerable Canberrans in "screening" those they have contact with.
"Vulnerable people that have people caring for them or who want to visit them, they want to know that people have a a negative test before they visit," she said.
"So that's one of the other things that we're looking at, is how can we support people to look after themselves in terms of that screening testing that they might be doing."
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIyLTAxLTA2L2FjdC1yZWNvcmRzLTk5Mi1jb3ZpZC0xOS1jYXNlcy1hcy1jYW5iZXJyYS1tYW4tZGllcy1pbi1zeWRuZXkvMTAwNzQxMTU00gEA?oc=5
2022-01-06 04:32:19Z
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