South Australia has recorded its highest ever number of Covid-19 related deaths over a 24 hour period.
The state recorded 3777 new cases on Thursday as well as 11 deaths in two women and nine men, aged between their 50s and 90s.
Premier Steven Marshall said he had spoken to chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier about the “unusually large” number of deaths.
“She said it’s quite possible it was an accumulation for a number of days,” he said.
“There is no urgent reporting requirement from residential aged care facilities in to SA Health related to Covid so sometimes there is a bit of a catch up.
“Nevertheless, its very sad news today and we express our sincere condolences.”
While today’s daily figure was higher than yesterday’s 3482 infections and three deaths, Mr Marshall said it was still below the seven day average.
Currently, 290 people are in hospital, down from 294, while 29 people are in intensive care and nine are on ventilators.
On Wednesday, there were only four ventilated patients.
The state’s daily number of infections has gradually decreased after it reached a record 5679 cases last Friday.
The double dose vaccination rate for residents aged 12 and over has now reached 90 per cent.
Meanwhile, the premier has ruled out cutting down quarantine time for Covid positive patients, despite authorities in other jurisdictions considering decreasing the required isolation time to just five days.
Ahead of Thursday’s national cabinet meeting where the topic will be discussed, Mr Marshall was quick to rule out slashing the quarantine time which currently stands at 10 days.
He also rejected the idea of reducing the time to seven days, but said it could be considered in future.
“It’s very clear to me that we still have a huge number of people with symptoms after day five, and we would just be literally lighting a fire in South Australia if we allow them to leave quarantine after five days,” the premier told ABC Radio.
“They would just be out there infecting other people and then we’d have another wave.
“It's possible that could change down the track but we certxjmtzywainly won’t be signing up to that today.”
Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly on Wednesday said the nation was continually learning about the virus from its own experiences as well as overseas.
Over in the United States and United Kingdom, there is a five day isolation rule for positive cases in place.
“Even though we’re extremely busy working with this peak — or close to peak — of Omicron cases all through Australia, we need to consider and spend time thinking about what happens in the future,” Professor Kelly said.
“The more you go down that path of shorter isolation periods, the higher the risk of transmission within the community.
“We will continue to look at the evidence on this.”
