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Plea to wear masks, get booster shots as cases skyrocket


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 * Politics
 * NSW
 * Coronavirus pandemic


PLEA TO WEAR MASKS, GET BOOSTER SHOTS AS CASES SKYROCKET

BY LUCY CARROLL, MARY WARD AND LUCY CORMACK

Updated December 15, 2021 — 8.22pmfirst published at 8.18pm
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Advice from the state’s top doctor is at odds with the government’s decision to
ease restrictions on wearing masks, with Kerry Chant urging people to keep
wearing them amid warnings NSW could hit 25,000 cases a day by January.

Despite the state’s daily infections tripling in a week, the government pushed
ahead with easing a raft of restrictions on Wednesday, including scrapping crowd
density limits, dropping QR codes and masks in most settings, ending vaccination
verification and having unvaccinated people rejoin society.



NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard, Premier Dominic Perrottet and NSW Chief Health
Officer Kerry Chant at a media conference on Wednesday. Credit:Janie Barrett

Chief Health Officer Dr Chant said it was a “matter for government in setting
those mandates” but her strong recommendation from a public health position was
to maintain mask-wearing, saying it was “a small price” to pay and a “very
community-minded action”.

“My clear advice is in indoor settings, people should be wearing masks. I feel
personally that it’s a small impost,” Dr Chant said on Wednesday, noting the
state was moving to “very light-touch contact tracing”.



Health authorities said modelling indicated it was plausible daily infections
may run into the tens of thousands in the new year and Omicron was expected to
become the dominant strain.

But as cases hit a three-month high of 1360 on Wednesday, NSW Premier Dominic
Perrottet urged people to instead focus on hospitalisations and intensive care
admissions.

Hospital rates on Wednesday remained stable, with 166 coronavirus cases admitted
and 24 in intensive care.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard said modelling by the public health unit at the
University of NSW showed “that by the end of January, we could be looking at
25,000 cases of the virus every single day”.

“That’s a big difference from 1360 today, which already is a cause for concern,”
he said, adding that the state’s health system was “well-equipped” to deal with
the surge in cases.

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Dr Chant said while the clinical severity of the new variant was still unclear,
emerging data emphasised the urgency of people getting a booster jab.

At the same media briefing, Mr Perrottet announced only household contacts of
positive cases would be required to go into isolation, asking people to take
personal responsibility for avoiding infection as restrictions lifted before
Christmas.

Under the new rules, only people who live with, or stay at, a case’s house will
be required to isolate for a week following their exposure, although Dr Chant
said health authorities may need to declare social contacts as close contacts,
particularly in high-risk settings such as nightclubs.


ISOLATION RULES FOR FULLY VACCINATED PEOPLE IN NSW

 * COVID-19 cases: People who have tested positive to COVID-19 using a PCR test
   (people who return a positive rapid antigen test must take a PCR test to
   confirm). Isolate until you are medically cleared through a text from NSW
   Health (usually minimum 10 days).
 * Close contacts: Household contacts of a COVID-19 case (including anyone who
   stays overnight at the home) as well as some social contacts in high-risk
   settings as determined by health authorities. Isolate for one week, PCR test
   on days 1 and 6. Avoid high-risk settings for a second week and test on day
   12.
 * Casual contacts: Social contacts, workplace contacts and other people who may
   have had particular exposure to a case. PCR test and isolate until you
   receive a negative result.’
 * ‘Monitor for symptoms’: An alert through the Service NSW app for people who
   attended a venue with a person while infectious, but who are thought to not
   be at high risk of having caught COVID-19. No isolation. Present for a PCR
   test if you develop respiratory symptoms and isolate until you receive a
   negative result.

UNSW’s Associate Professor James Wood, whose team ran the new modelling for NSW
Health, said the current growth rate could mean more than 10,000 daily cases
“sometime in the next few weeks”.



“At the current rate of growth, with a reproductive rate of 1.5, cases will rise
rapidly unless we choose to put measures in place to stop the spread,” said Dr
Wood, a member of the federal government’s Australian Technical Advisory Group
on Immunisation.

“But we don’t know if with higher cases people will naturally start to change
their behaviour ... and if we see issues with severity then restrictions may be
recommended.”

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NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has revealed a surge in COVID-19 cases
in Newcastle from a "number of super-spreader events", urging residents to
continue wearing their masks despite it no longer being mandated.

Immense pressure on the state’s testing system was also a concern, he said.
Queues at testing clinics have stretched into the hundreds in recent days, with
long waits at some sites.

“During Delta we maxed out at about 150,000 tests each day. We aren’t sure to
what extent our testing capacity will cope as cases rise.”




RELATED ARTICLE

CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC


CAUTIOUS OR CONFIDENT? SYDNEYSIDERS’ VIEWS ON EASED CORONAVIRUS RULES

Dr Wood said it would take a few more weeks as data emerges from the UK to
understand the clinical severity of the variant, but the risk of hospitalisation
could be “tenfold lower than during the Delta wave”.

“At the moment we are seeing cases doubling every three days. But we think
vaccines will hold up fairly well against severe disease and getting a booster
brings protection up to what it was after the second shot.”

The Premier said the government had considered various models throughout the
pandemic, but stressed his focus was on hospitalisations and severe illness, not
case numbers.

“We’re learning to live alongside the virus,” he said. “If there is a situation
where we believe there is substantial pressure on our health system, on our ICU
presentations, we will tailor our response accordingly.”



Moving away from placing social contacts in isolation did not lead to a
considerable increase in case numbers in Victoria, said Deakin University
epidemiology chair Catherine Bennett.

“If people have been exposed to a case, they are probably more likely to be a
bit more careful, and more aware of symptoms anyway,” she said.



Wednesday’s COVID-19 case count of 1360 was up almost 70 per cent on Tuesday’s
804 cases. It is the highest figure since NSW’s record 1599 cases on September
11, and the state’s eighth highest daily total of the pandemic.

An additional 25 Omicron cases were genomically sequenced in NSW overnight,
bringing the total number of cases with that variant to 110.



Dr Chant said it was believed NSW’s skyrocketing case numbers were the result of
the Omicron variant, which is mainly spreading among people in their 20s in
social settings.

“We have seen a rapid uptick in cases and what we believe is that Omicron is
driving that uptick,” Dr Chant said.

“A little bit of it is driven by Delta as we are getting out and about ... but
primarily we believe that Omicron is certainly driving the uptick in cases,
particularly in Newcastle area.”

On Wednesday night, NSW Health issued an alert for The Cambridge Hotel in
Newcastle after it was visited by multiple COVID-19 cases, including some who
likely have the Omicron variant.

Anyone who was at the venue between 6.30pm on December 10 and 2.30am on December
11 is a close contact and must immediately get tested and isolate for seven
days.



It’s the latest Newcastle venue to be exposed to COVID-19 after about 200 people
who visited The Argyle House nightclub on December 8 tested positive to the
virus.

Professor Dominic Dwyer, director of public health pathology in NSW, said it was
now “clear that we have outbreaks in different parts of NSW and Omicron is
becoming the dominant strain”.

“Evidence is showing us boosters are likely to be of benefit,” Professor Dwyer
said.

There were 104,501 tests in the 24-hour period to 8pm on Tuesday.

Stay across the most crucial developments related to the pandemic with the
Coronavirus Update. Sign up for the weekly newsletter.


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License this article
 * Coronavirus pandemic
 * Healthcare
 * Dominic Perrottet

Lucy Carroll is a reporter covering health for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect
via Twitter or email.
Mary Ward is a health reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via Twitter
or email.
Lucy Cormack is a state political reporter with The Sydney Morning
Herald.Connect via Twitter or email.
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