Record number of COVID patients in hospital in ACT as Canberra records another death

The ACT had 80 patients in hospital with COVID-19 in the 24 hours to Monday 8pm.

There are five COVID positive patients in the ICU, with two people on ventilators.

The latest death brings the ACT COVID death toll to 59.

The ACT also recorded 1129 new COVID-19 cases.

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This was the highest daily case number since Friday.

Of those new cases, 521 were recorded using a PCR test and 608 through rapid antigen tests.

There were 6300 active cases in the ACT.

The vaccination rate for two doses in people aged older than five remains at 97.2 per cent. Of Canberrans older than 16, 76 per cent have had three doses.

In young children between the ages of five to 11, 80.6 per cent have had one dose and 67 per cent have received two.

The COVID-19 pandemic will impact the voting process in the ACT as Canberrans cast ballots in the federal election on May 21.

Meanwhile, the AIS mass vaccination clinic will close at the end of May after administering nearly 300,000 vaccines.

Medical experts are urging Australians to keep sight of the pandemic, saying it continues to take its toll on frontline workers.

Telephone voting will also be available for anyone isolating because of COVID-19, as the country gears up for a federal election on May 21.

NSW recorded 10,972 new COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths in the 24 hours to 4pm on Monday.

Victorian schools have been struggling with closures due to COVID, as hundreds of unvaccinated government teaching staff were turfed out of the system.

There have been 13,694 new cases and 20 more deaths in the state.

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