South Australia is still at the peak of a COVID wave, after hopes of a short, sharp spike appear dashed.
The latest stats show another 9,986 new cases in the past week — up by more than 300 than the same time seven days ago — as well as a surge in the number of deaths.
SA Health said it had been notified of another 35 COVID-linked deaths, of people ranging in age from their 60s to their 90s, since last week's figure of 12.
The number of active cases increased to 7,227 and there are 164 people in hospital, including seven in intensive care.
Health Minister Chris Picton said the ongoing high numbers were putting pressure on the hospital system.
"We are seeing this continuation of what seems to be a flat peak. We haven't seen a quick drop off in cases as we may well have wanted to see a few weeks ago," Mr Picton said.
"We are still seeing significant numbers of people in hospital with COVID."
Genome sampling suggests about 60 per cent of cases were BA.5 and its variants, while 27 per cent are BA.2.
Ambulance ramping again on the rise
Mr Picton said the high COVID numbers were in part responsible for continued high ambulance ramping times at Adelaide's hospitals.
The state government has released the ramping numbers for November, with 3,516 hours lost to the practice.
It is a slight increase on October, but still below the high of 3,855 recorded in June.
While ramping has reduced at some hospitals, it has increased at the Flinders Medical Centre and the Lyell McEwin Hospital.
Mr Picton said COVID was a particular challenge at Flinders.
"When you're dealing with a site like Flinders Medical Centre, COVID cases are more difficult to deal with," he said.
"You don't have the same number of single rooms as you do at say the Royal Adelaide Hospital or even at Lyell McEwin Hospital so that does place additional pressure on Flinders."
He said the problem at the Lyell McEwin was ongoing works on the emergency department upgrade, which are due to be completed next year.
"It's still operating in a disjointed way and the advice that we have from the Lyell McEwin Hospital is that's causing significant issues in the way the Lyell McEwin Hospital is operating, leading unfortunately to more ramping," he said.
Mr Picton said that despite the continued high ramping numbers, his government remains on track to fulfil its election promise to fix the crisis.
