Australia Covid news live update: mask mandates in place across most of Australia as Omicron cases soar

Restrictions return in most states and territories; SA allows sale of rapid antigen tests; testing centres at breaking point. Follow all the day’s news live

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McLaws is asked whether we’re going to see exponential growth of Covid cases from here. She says it’ll be “quite likely” if we don’t quickly administer booster shots.

There has been increasing pressure on ATAGI to reduce the interval between doses from five months down to four:

We have had so much evidence given to us from around the world at the WHO meeting that waning antibodies started about three months, certainly the Israel experience and all other countries now show that, you know, at about four, 4.5 months before that booster you’re at a great risk particularly if you’re young because you have so many social engagements. So I was disappointed that this booster hasn’t been rolled out to at least be given at four months because the majority of the country have had their shot for at least four, five months.

It would be really very helpful to hear from the authorities about how mild these cases are and, of course, how many of them are going into hospital. I think it’s too early to be highly disappointed in this...is this infection more severe, more deadly? All of these things are far too early to know because particularly in New South Wales, it’s always been an about a 10-day to 14-day delay between peak numbers of infections and peak hospitalisations and let’s hope that we don’t see that same pattern again, that Omicron may be more mild and not need hospitalisation.

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