New South Wales residents are being urged to step forward for their COVID-19 booster shot, with 70,000 appointments not taken up in the past week alone. 9News
Case numbers appear to be stabilising in the state, but 36 COVID-19-linked deaths were reported yesterday in what was NSW's deadliest day of the pandemic.
Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said that while vaccines dramatically lessen the chance of severe disease, they are "not necessarily protective" against acquiring the Omicron variant of COVID-19.Dr Chant said of the 36 people who died overnight with the virus, 33 were vaccinated."For Omicron, we know that the protection is lower and we need that next boosting to get that higher level of protection," Dr Chant said.
But the stabilising case numbers have seen experts considering that the Omicron variant has begun to peak in Australia. "New South Wales is a bit ahead of the other states and that's not surprising, they started earlier, but they are close to peaking if not already," federal Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly said yesterday.It would come as a relief to health workers around the country - as will the injection of 100,000 extra staff into the public health system.