Australian state warns COVID-19 hospitalisations to peak in October

Intensive care cases in Australia's New South Wales will hit a peak in October as COVID-19 infections accumulate, said the premier of the country's most populous state, which reported record daily new infections on Monday.

New South Wales, the epicentre of Australia's current outbreak, declared a record 1,290 new cases.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state was preparing for additional hospitalisations as infections pile up before increased vaccination coverage starts to ease the pressure.

"We anticipate that the worst month, the worst time for our intensive care unit will be in October," Berejiklian said in the state capital Sydney.

"We will need to manage things differently because we are in the middle of a pandemic, but we will cope."

There are 840 people in hospital for COVID-19 in New South Wales, with 137 in intensive care and 48 requiring ventilation.

The state reported four additional fatalities on Monday, taking the COVID-19 death toll to 1,003 in Australia, the last of the Group of 20 big economies to exceed that milestone.

"Aboriginal people were deemed to be vulnerable communities, vulnerable groups in the vaccine rollout. And clearly that has failed," Linda Burney, Labour's Shadow Minister for Indigenous Australians, told reporters.
Nationwide, a record 1,375 new COVID-19 cases were reported.

Australia's second-most populous state, Victoria, reported 73 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, a day after Premier Dan Andrews said he would extend lockdown measures as daily infections reached the highest in a year.