COVID-19: ACT cases below 1000 for second day after BA.2 rise

The ACT has reported 898 new cases of COVID-19 in the latest reporting period, after numbers dropped below 1000 for the first time in days on Sunday.

There were 39 people in Canberra hospitals with COVID in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday, including four people in intensive care.

ACT now has 6014 active cases of coronavirus, with the spread of the virus adding to the pressure on Canberra hospitals, with staff among those furloughed after being deemed close contacts.

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ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said on Monday discussions between ACT Health and the education department to reduce quarantine requirements for close contacts within the school community were under way.

"Once you start reducing quarantine requirements your potential for people to then have COVID and pass it on is more significant if they're not in quarantine, but on the other hand, it does allow people to continue to go to school and work," Ms Stephen-Smith told ABC radio.

"They're just working through some of those requirements."

A two year-old child with no other known illness has died due to COVID-19 infection at Sydney's Westmead hospital.

Tragically, the previously healthy child was one of four people who died with the virus in NSW, which recorded 14,970 cases in the 24 hours to 4pm on Sunday.

There was no deaths reported in Victoria, with 7531 new cases in the latest reporting period.

New transport data revealed Victorians were venturing out again after the pandemic lull, with the network experiencing its sharpest increase in activity since March 2020.

There was 1304 new cases of coronavirus recorded in Tasmania in the latest reporting period.

Tasmania had 24 COVID hospitalisations which included two people in intensive care.

Queensland recorded two COVID-19 deaths and 6206 new infections, taking the number of active cases to 41,852.

- with AAP

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