ACT government says COVID is personal responsibility as AMA ACT calls for action

Residents are instead being urged to take personal responsibility to avoid the new Omicron subvariant, with health authorities reminding high-risk people to practice social distancing, wear masks and avoid large crowds.

Robyn Walker, executive group manager of the ACT COVID-19 response, said case numbers have risen again ahead of the release of this week's report.

"During this week, we've been in the mid 200s," Dr Walker told the ABC.

"Whilst it's an increase, it's not the serious wave that we had earlier in July when we we're up to sort of 1700 to 1800 cases a day."

NSW and Queensland have both strengthened their messaging in recent weeks, encouraging residents to wear masks on public transport and areas of high risk, including hospitals and aged care facilities.

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Dr Walker said ACT Health had increased communication via social media and it would continue to encourage people to take precautions, however, messaging around restrictions had not changed.

"We have as many complaints from people saying that we're interfering with their lives ... as we have people who are saying that we should make those recommendations," she said.

"So it is a balance and we try and make our language and our recommendations based on what we think is proportionate at the time."

However, Australian Medical Association's ACT president Dr Walter Abhayaratna has argued the relatively few people wearing masks in public indicated the recommendations weren't clear enough.

"I don't see as many people wearing masks now compared to previous waves, so for me, I don't think the response has been quite adequate," he said.

Dr Abhayaratna said the Canberra health system was not equipped to deal with a increase in hospitalisations, as were reported in last week's weekly COVID case numbers.

"I wouldn't want the ACT to have a higher spike than the rest of the country, we don't have the beds available in the ACT to be sparing," he said.

"We really are very tired already, so the last thing we want is unnecessary infections that then lead to hospitalisations."

Dr Abhayaratna said it was the role of elected officials and health specialists, including Dr Walker, to communicate recommendations in order for the public to adopt safety measures.

"Then it gets reported in The Canberra Times, as it has with the NSW government and previously the Queensland government, that this is now a strong recommendation," he said.

"The last thing we want is unnecessary infections that then lead to hospitalisations that could've been prevented with masks."

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