The number of Hunter residents currently hospitalised with COVID-19 is the highest it has been at any stage during the pandemic.
In the past seven days, 82 people have been admitted to hospital, five are in ICU and tragically 12 have died.
Hunter New England public health physician Dr Tony Merritt says the region must brace itself for the latest onslaught of COVID-19.
“It’s this next wave that we’re very concerned about. It’s a very real thing,” he said.
“We had a wave in December and again in April, but right now we’re seeing a lot more COVID.”
Dr Merritt says new variants of the deadly virus are very concerning.
“Big waves are something that may feature for years to come, they may be separate to the seasons, we just don’t know,” he said.
“We are used to the idea that flu hits us in winter predominantly, but COVID’s behaving quite differently.
“This next COVID wave is being driven by these new Omicron variants (BA.4 and BA.5). They are improved versions of the previous COVID viruses, they’re a lot more infectious.
“They’re quite extraordinary, they are getting up closer to something like measles – which is extraordinarily infectious.”
The new variants, he warns, remian a risk to those who are fully-vaccinated or have had COVID-19.
“We’re all at risk of catching these new COVID variants,” he told the Newcastle Weekly.
“There is lots of COVID about in the Hunter and across the state at the moment, it’s on the rise.”
In NSW there are currently 152,668 active cases of COVID-19, 2,202 are in hospital, 55 are in ICU, and 15 are on ventilators.
“There’s more people in hospital with COVID-19 than at any stage in the pandemic,” Dr Merritt said.
“We’ll see in the next few weeks, we don’t know when it will peak, probably into August is likely, an increase number of cases, and an increase number of people in hospital.
“That puts a huge pressure on our hospital colleagues.”
And, while he’s reluctant to discuss possible lockdown measures, Dr Merritt says we can all play a part in helping protect one another while the next wave crashes upon us.
“Vaccination remains really important. Anyone who is eligible for the winter booster, the fourth dose, we strongly encourage you to get that now,” he explained.
“That makes a big difference in protecting from serious disease – and hospital.
“Because this new strain [of Omicron] is more infectious, and because we now know you can be reinfected with the virus it is important we all take measures to stop getting infected.
“That means ensuring you have good ventilation, we know ventilation makes a big difference, whether it’s at your workplace or home, meet outdoors if you can.
“Masks work really effectively. If I don’t know that I’ve got COVID, but I have a mask on it will stop me from spreading it.
“It also protects me if I have my mask reliably on.
“If we’re indoors and we can’t separate from other people, we have to take responsibility for making sure we’ve got a mask on, particularly in these next few weeks while this wave is upon us.”
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