03.08.2021
2 min read

Number of new COVID cases drops as 250 admitted to NSW hospitals

There are now 53 people requiring intensive care as they battle the virus in hospital.

NSW records 199 new COVID-19 cases overnight

NSW has recorded another 199 cases of coronavirus as the total number of cases in the outbreak stretches towards 4000.

Of the new cases confirmed on Tuesday, 82 were in the community for part or all of their infectious period.

See the latest NSW COVID update in the video above

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The total number of cases in the outbreak is now 3832.

There are currently 250 COVID cases being treated in hospital, with 53 people in intensive care.

Twenty of those in ICU require ventilation.

Of those in ICU, five are aged in their 20s, six are in their 30s, three are in their 40s, 18 are in their 50s, 11 are in their 60s and 10 are in their 70s.

“What’s a key piece of information is that of the 53 people in ICU, 43 people are not vaccinated,” Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant said.

“So my big call-out is to get vaccinated across all of the age groups.

“Again, one dose of either vaccine is very effective at reducing hospitalisation. Two doses are best.”

Numbers in focus

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the end of lockdown will depend on where case numbers and vaccinations rates are by August 29.

“It’s a combination of the two,” she said on Tuesday.

“That number of 50 infectious in the community - the closer that is to zero, the greater the freedom we’ll have, but the further away from zero it is, the less freedom we’ll have and that stands to reason.

“We need everybody to work hard to get the case numbers down and also to get our vaccination rates as high as possible.”

Berejiklian said the government vaccination target for the end of August stands at six million jabs.

She added incentives have not been ruled out.

Gladys Berejiklian said vaccination rates need to increase. Credit: AAP

“We are very keen to explore what opportunities we can provide,” Berejiklian said.

“In particular we know that people value their freedom, their desire to go back to work, their desire to engage in community life and those are the type of incentives that we’ll be looking at over the next little while to provide our citizens with the opportunities to know that if they’re vaccinated and their loved ones are vaccinated, there will be opportunities for greater freedom moving forward.”