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The Canberra Times
The Canberra Times
National
Alex Crowe

ACT records slight drop in daily coronavirus cases as downward trend continues

There has been a small drop in the number of people testing positive for coronavirus in the latest reporting period, while hospitalisations remain steady.

The ACT has recorded 729 new cases of the virus in the 24 hours to 8pm on Thursday. There were 874 cases reported the day before.

There were 81 people in hospital with COVID, one fewer than the day before. Of those in hospital, one required intensive care and none were on ventilation, according to the latest report.

The latest ACT epidemiology report - for the week ending May 29 - show a decline in weekly case numbers.

There were 5465 new cases recorded in the ACT in the week ending last Sunday, down from 6326 the week prior.

The average caseload over seven days has decreased from between 850 to 950, compared to last week's average of 850 to 950 cases per day.

People in the 25 to 39 year age group continue to be the worst affected by COVID in terms of infection rate, with 26.4 per cent of cases in that demographic.

As of last Sunday, 750 people in the ACT had reported testing positive for coronavirus more than once.

Approximately 76 per cent of those people had their first positive test in December 2021 or later, after the Omicron variant was first detected in the ACT.

ACT Health has reported the risk of testing positive for COVID twice will likely increase as immunity wanes from infection and vaccination and as new subvariants emerge.

ACT hospitals continue to care for large number of patients affected by COVID-19, ACT Health reports.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr has said ACT will call for an extension of the National Partnership in COVID-19 Response, ahead of its expiry in September.

The agreement, signed by all jurisdictions in March 2020, recognised joint responsibility for protecting Australians against poor health outcomes caused by coronavirus.

Mr Barr said the pandemic had caused a backlog for elective surgery and the ACT was seeking a partnership with the Commonwealth to help clear it.

"We recognise across the nation there's a backlog and we're going to need to catch up," he said.

"That's going to require resources and that's something that the Commonwealth and the states and territories can work on."

Speaking to ABC, the Chief Minister said a pathway back to 50-50 health funding between state and territories and the Commonwealth was needed.

"That would be the Commonwealth meeting the states and territories halfway on the biggest funding area - the biggest drain on every state and territory budget - that continues to grow as our population ages," he said.

Coronavirus continues to put strain on health services around the country, with Victoria recording 22 deaths and 9583 cases in the last reporting period.

NSW recorded 11 deaths from COVID and 7412 new cases in the latest 24-hour reporting period.

New research has found teenage girls were more stressed than boys during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, and their mental health should be a greater focus if there is a similar outbreak in the future.

"Mental health responses during the pandemic should consider this significant gender difference and the effect of gender roles when developing stress management programs," James Cook University neuroscientist Zoltan Sarnyai said.

Prof Sarnyai and PhD student Riana Marie collaborated with the Canadian Centre for Studies on Human Stress on the research.

- with AAP

The COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Clinic closed this week. Picture: Sitthixay Ditthavong
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