New COVID-19 wave expected in NSW within weeks

New South Wales has been warned that a fresh COVID-19 surge is beginning, prompted by the growing prominence of new sub-variants. Health officials are renewing their calls for people to get their booster shots and have a plan in place in the event of infection.

NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant says there has been a noticeable rise in COVID cases and that is expected to lead a to a new wave of the virus within weeks. Credit: NSW Health

New South Wales is seeing an increase in infections.

The number of COVID-positive people rose more than 11 percent this week, compared to last week.

The federal Health Minister Mark Butler is urging people to stay up to date with vaccinations.

New sub-variants - XBB, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 - are expected to become the dominant variants across the country.

But the World Health Organisation says at this stage, there is no data to suggest an increase in disease severity when compared with the other Omicron sublineages.

Meanwhile, new research from two national studies has found that more than two-thirds of Australians have been infected with COVID-19, but the rate could be as high as 90 per cent among children - particularly when including unvaccinated children.

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