People who test positive for COVID-19 will have their post-infection isolation exemption period cut from 12 weeks to 28 days.
Australia's expert medical committee - made up of federal, state and territory chief health officers - has recommended anyone who tests positive to COVID-19 more than 28 days after ending isolation from a previous infection be reported and managed as a new case.
ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Kerryn Coleman confirmed the new reinfection period would be in place in the territory from July 12.
Dr Coleman said the decision reflected increasing evidence prior COVID-19 infection provides relatively limited protection against the latest Omicron subvariants.
"This means that you can be reinfected with the virus as early as 28 days after a previous COVID-19 infection," Dr Coleman said.
"People who test positive outside of the 28 day period will now be treated as new cases. If you test positive on a RAT you must report your result to ACT Health. Positive PCR tests will be automatically reported to ACT Health."
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee has also warned Australia was at the start of a new wave of COVID-19, driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.
"We expect that this wave will lead to a substantial increase in infections, hospitalisations and sadly, deaths, at a time when our communities and health systems are already under strain," the committee said in a statement on Friday.
"Without increased community and public health actions, this impact may be similar to that experienced during the BA.1 wave in January this year."
The latest COVID-19 report from ACT Health said 60 per cent of sampled coronavirus cases in the week ending July 3 were BA.5, up from 33 per cent in the preceding week. BA.5 is expected to become the dominant strain in Australia and the ACT.
The report also said 3 per cent of new cases in the week ending July 3 were in people who had had more than one episode of COVID-19 reported to ACT Health.
"This percentage is anticipated to increase over time as immunity wanes following COVID-19 infection, vaccination, and as the BA.5 subvariant replaces BA.2 as the dominant variant in the ACT and nationally," the report said.
A record number of Canberrans had COVID-19 on Thursday, with health authorities reporting another 1701 cases which took the number of known cases in the territory to 7781.
Canberra hospitals were caring for 137 people with COVID-19 on Thursday night, including four patients in intensive care. Three people were on ventilators.
A significant portion of people in hospital with COVID-19 are understood to be more than seven days from their initial positive test. On Sunday, July 3, 40 per cent of hospitalised people with COVID-19 remained in hospital more than seven days after their positive test.
"Hospitalisations continue to be consistently highest in the 65+ age group despite being the age group with the lowest case rate. This highlights the increased risk of severe disease including hospitalisation in this older age group," ACT Health's weekly epidemiological report, released on Friday, said.
The Australian Health Protection Principal Committee on Friday said it remained the shared responsibility of individuals, employers and governments to minimise the impact of COVID-19, pointing to vaccination, mask wearing, ensuring indoor spaces are well ventilated, and remaining at home if people have symptoms.
"All of these actions become important during significant waves of COVID-19. If all Australians continue to work together, through early and collective actions, the impact of the BA.4/BA.5 wave can be reduced," the committee said.
"Now is the time for all of us to act to protect ourselves, our loved ones, the health system, those who are more at risk and the broader community."
Dr Coleman on Thursday said the ACT was likely at the start of a new wave of COVID-19 cases, probably driven by the BA.5 subvariant. The wave may peak at the start of August.
The new wave was not expected to be anymore severe and the reason health authorities were not panicking was because Canberra continued to enjoy high vaccination rates, she said.
"My preference is always not to mandate if I don't have to ... I'm considering strong recommendations and I hope we'll have more to say about that next week. ... My aim would be to make strong recommendations rather than mandates," she told ABC Radio.
Dr Coleman again encouraged people to wear masks when in public, noting she chose to wear a mask in the supermarket.
"If you've got a little bit slack, please have a look at what you can do to protect yourself and those around you," she said.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr told The Canberra Times this week no interventions were left that would stop the spread of COVID-19 in the community, while a mask mandate would prove unenforceable and only have a marginal effect on curbing the virus.
"A mask mandate universally would be unenforceable. People just won't do it. There would be widespread civil disobedience and it would just be impossible. I don't think any government is countenancing that," Mr Barr said.
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