Western Australia has reached a new record number of Covid-19 cases, with three people in intensive care as the state heads towards its most dangerous period of the Omicron wave.
WA Health reported a total of 4535 new infections overnight, taking the total number of active cases to 18,012.
There are 80 people in hospital — up from 67 people on Wednesday — with three of them in ICU. None require ventilation.
More than 2000 of the new infections were detected via rapid antigen tests.
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson told reporters on Thursday that WA was at the beginning of its “curve upwards of hospitalisations”.
The state is expected to reach its peak in the next couple of weeks.
“This is going to get difficult. We will see more people in hospital and more people in ICU,” Ms Sanderson said.
“If the modelling is correct, we hope to be over the worst of it by the end of this month … we would hope that the peak lasts hopefully no more than a week.
“WA is a bit of an experiment population. We haven’t had large amounts of Covid in the community.
“We have exceptionally high vaccination rates, so actually we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.”
Ms Sanderson said the number of unvaccinated people in hospital were over-represented.
“I certainly hope that the higher level of hospitalisation of unvaccinated people convinces people that they need toxjmtzyw get vaccinated,” she said.
“There’s no stronger evidence than this. This is in our community now, it’s in our hospitals. If you’re not vaccinated, please get vaccinated.
“Not only does it protect yourself and your family members, but importantly, it protects the healthcare workers who are going to look after you when you are sick.”
Meanwhile, Premier Mark McGowan has begun one week of isolation after travelling to NSW to give evidence before the Federal Court in-person for his defamation trial involving billionaire Clive Palmer.
Although Mr McGowan is not required to quarantine, he announced that he would do so to avoid anyone claiming he had manipulated the border rules in his favour.
The hard border came down last Thursday and he then travelled to Sydney.
Mr McGowan will leave isolation briefly on Friday to attend a national cabinet meeting but will wear a mask.
Ms Sanderson said the Premier wanted to set a good example and was paying for his quarantine himself.
“We want people to be safe. He was also very clear that he didn’t want any perception that somehow we had adjusted border arrangements to suit his travel arrangements, which is absolutely not the case,” she said.
