South Australia's COVID-19 death toll has jumped by 12, after SA Health retrospectively included previously unrecorded deaths that occurred over the past three weeks.
The deaths were of five women and seven men aged from their 70s to their 90s.
SA Health said the updated statistics were because of "data reconciliation" that had occurred since April 19.
"Sadly, since the last report, SA Health has been notified that 12 people who tested positive for COVID-19, have passed away," it said.
SA today recorded 3,591 new cases, almost 400 more than yesterday, but coinciding with a rise in PCR testing.
There are 221 people in hospital, including 11 in intensive care and one on ventilation.
There are currently 22,821 active cases in SA, and have been 420,264 since the start of the pandemic.
The 12 deaths take the state's total to 366, and come days after Premier Peter Malinauskas expressed concern about the prevalence of COVID in aged care homes.
"We know that once COVID gets into an aged care setting, it's very hard to get it out," he said on Saturday.
"But this is something we're going to monitor."
Yesterday, it was reported that two new COVID variants had been detected in the state for the first time, after genomic sampling had found the virus in two international travellers.
Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said there was "no reason to believe" that the vaccines would prove less effective against the new variants, in terms of reducing the severity of illness and the need for hospitalisation.
Professor Spurrier also issued a reminder about the upcoming flu season, indicating that it would likely be the most severe for several years.
She said that, during the last two years, COVID restrictions had led to reductions in influenza numbers.
"Our international borders were shut — flu tends to come in from the northern hemisphere," she said.
"At the same time last year, we'd had 12 cases of flu notified. We've now got 187.
"I can't imagine how unwell you would feel if you ended up with both flu and COVID, either at the same time or one after the other, and it's perfectly possible for that to happen."
