Australia's "Covid Epicentre" Warns Of Hospitalisation Peak In October

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

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 as the nation struggles to contain the highly contagious Delta variant. 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 count to 1,003 in Australia, the last of the Group of 20 big economies to exceed that milestone. One of the four was the first known death of an Aboriginal person. The 50-year-old man, who was not vaccinated, lived in western NSW where vaccination rates are particularly low, raising fears there will be many more deaths there.