COVID cases in the ACT increase by 20 per cent

But it is not known how many people are in Canberra hospitals due to the virus.

ACT Health said a technical issue prevented the reporting of hospitalisation statistics, which comes in the same week the government launched its new digital health record.

There were 1449 new cases reported in the seven days to 4pm on Thursday. This was up from 1194 in the previous week. There were no deaths from COVID reported in the week.

The increase was tipped, as the ACT is in the middle of a fourth wave of infections.

Foreshadowing the increase on Thursday, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said cases would not increase as much as authorities had initially expected.

"It is looking pretty stable but certainly an uptick from what it was looking like a few weeks ago," she said.

"We're definitely seeing an upward trajectory but it's not actually as steep as we might have expected."

Despite an increase, ACT health authorities have not introduced new restrictions or recommendations around public health measures.

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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.

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.

Robyn Walker, executive group manager of the ACT COVID-19 response, 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.

Meanwhile, cases in the nation's three most populous states have more than doubled in the space of two weeks, although the number of serious infections remains low.

NSW, Victoria and Queensland reported 58,373 new infections on Friday, up from 42,264 the previous week and 27,103 two weeks ago.

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