Struggling health systems brace for 5,000 Covid-linked daily hospital admissions amid early flu peak

This comes amid a turbulent start to the flu season that has also led to more than 1,300 admissions to a group of major hospitals across the nation so far this year.

On Tuesday the federal health minister, Mark Butler, said modelling suggested the peak of the current Covid wave was yet to come and it could take as long as six weeks until case numbers and hospitalisations fell.

Butler said hospitalisations, driven by the highly infectious Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, could rise by 25% to just over 5,000 a day across Australia, similar to the January peak of almost 5,400, according to modelling based on data from the commonwealth and the states and territories.

The Queensland government has said more than 2,300 healthcare workers were currently off work due to Covid.

Thomas said the government would instead empower individuals to make their own decisions.

The Victorian Department of Health advice suggested hospitalisations could rise to 200 admissions a day, but increased mask wearing could reduce those numbers to between 150 and 180 a day.

The Deakin University epidemiologist Prof Catherine Bennett said the focus should not be on mandates but on tweaking messaging, to ensure high-risk groups and those with repeat infections understood their risk.

This week, the number of Covid cases in NSW hospitals surpassed 2,000 for the first time since February.