Two men who tested positive for COVID-19 have died in South Australia, where the number of patients in hospital with the virus has fallen.
Key points:
- The two men who died were aged in their 40s and 50s
- The number of known active cases is 24,792
- There are 16 COVID patients in intensive care and one on ventilation
SA today reported 3,070 new infections — about 900 fewer than yesterday, but coinciding with a drop in PCR testing.
One of the men who died was aged in his 40s, and the other was in his 50s.
The number of patients in SA’s hospitals with the virus has fallen by 21, to 229.
That includes 16 people in intensive care and one person on a ventilator.
“Hospitalisations tend to lag a few weeks behind the case rate, so we are expecting to fall over the coming weeks,” Health Minister Chris Picton said.
“[They] will stabilise at a figure, the modelling says, of around 120 to 200 people in hospital.”
The number of current active cases also fell, to 24,792.
Mr Picton said he expected that number to also stabilise, despite the relaxation of close contact rules.
SA Premier Peter Malinauskas yesterday expressed concerns about COVID in aged care homes, amid several outbreaks.
“We’ve got a number of facilities in South Australia where COVID unfortunately has got in,” he said.
“We know that once COVID gets into an aged care setting, it’s very hard to get it out. But this is something we’re going to monitor.”
Mr Malinauskas said he expected the cycle of “peaks and troughs” in COVID numbers to continue.
“There is a likelihood that there will be another wave but we don’t know when that will happen. What we see in South Australia is that that typically occurs behind the eastern states,” he said.
There have been 348 COVID-linked deaths in SA, and 409,717 cases, since the start of the pandemic.
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