Health authorities are increasingly confident the ACT has passed the peak of its winter COVID-19 wave, but Chief Minister Andrew Barr warned the next peak would come in summer.
One hundred people have now died after becoming infected with the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, with the deaths of three more people reported in the 24 hours to 8pm on Wednesday.
ACT Health reported the deaths of a man in his 70s, a woman in her 80s and a woman in her 90s, along with 641 new cases of COVID-19.
Mr Barr said health authorities expected a new peak of infections to coincide with the northern hemisphere winter, sometime in the next four to six months.
"National cabinet is very well aware that we will need to have plans in place to respond to whatever new variant of the virus will hit the world in the northern hemisphere winter," Mr Barr said.
"We're very determined that the mistakes that were made by the previous federal government over December and January of last year and earlier this year not be repeated this coming summer."
Mr Barr said there would be no policy changes in the ACT after the national cabinet discussion, where state and territory leaders, along with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, were briefed by the Commonwealth's chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly.
"No policy change out of national cabinet this morning, but an awareness whilst we may be coming off the peak of this wave, that the expectation is there will be a new wave over summer," Mr Barr said.
Mr Albanese said it remained important for Australians to get booster vaccination doses if they were eligible.
It was important the country did grow complacent about a future spike in COVID infections, even though the government was hopeful the peak had passed, with hospital numbers falling, Mr Albanese said.
Canberra hospitals were caring for 147 patients with COVID-19, including four people in intensive care and one on ventilation. The number of hospitalisations increased by four since the previous day, but the number remains well down on the July 18 peak of 171 patients.
The ACT has 4200 known active cases of coronavirus, about 250 fewer than the day before.
Two schools in the ACT sent some cohorts into remote learning due to high levels of staff absences. Ainslie School and Latham Primary School sent years 3, 4, 5 and 6 to learn at home on Thursday. All ACT public school and Catholic systemic school students will have a pupil-free day on Friday as a staff planning day.
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