Planning is under way for a winter rise in COVID cases in the ACT, as authorities ensure there is enough bed capacity in the territory's hospitals and testing centres to handle demand.
The ACT government is considering advice around scrapping isolation rules for close contacts and what would be appropriate in the lead-up to winter.
The ACT reported 704 new COVID cases on Saturday. It was also two years since the first COVID case was recorded in the territory. There were 30 COVID-19 patients in hospital. One was in intensive care but not on a ventilator.
Canberra health authorities are in the process of planning for winter, with the flu season likely to place even greater demand on the health system.
ACT acting chief health officer Vanessa Johnston said the health directorate and Canberra Health Services were working closely on bed capacity.
"We do winter planning every single year for the flu season. Thankfully, we haven't had a flu season for the past couple of years but with open borders we expect we will," Dr Johnston said.
"[Planning] is around bad capacity and flow through the hospital."
Authorities are also looking at COVID testing capacity, in an attempt to avoid the system being overwhelmed like it was during the summer Omicron peak.
"If we start to see significantly higher numbers again we'll need to rely more heavily on our rapid antigen test stock, which luckily is flowing more freely than it was in the summer," Dr Johnston said.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr reaffirmed on Saturday restrictions may need to be tightened if the situation deteriorated or if there was a new variant.
"The ACT may need to tighten health measures in response to a new COVID-19 variant, particularly if increased transmission leads to pressure on health system capacity," he said.
"Any new restrictions will be proportionate to the level of risk, with a focus on reducing impacts on our hospital and public health systems and protecting vulnerable Canberrans."
ACT health authorities are preparing for a rise in COVID cases as the BA.2 Omicron sub-lineage is expected to become the dominant strain in the territory.
But while case numbers are expected to increase, authorities don't anticipate a rise in hospitalisations.
Leaders agreed at a national cabinet meeting on Friday to remove the isolation requirement for close contacts as soon as possible.
Leaders asked the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee to provide advice on the appropriate transition for each jurisdiction. The territory government has not made any decisions around its timeline for ditching the rules. Mr Barr said decisions on public health settings would be based on the latest health advice.
"The AHPPC will meet in the near future to make recommendations on key settings over winter. Further details of any proposed measures and the implications will then be considered out-of-session by national cabinet," Mr Barr said in a statement.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled the quarantine rules for close contacts as "redundant" on Saturday.
