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Hospital admissions rise as NSW records another 20,000 Covid cases

NSW has recorded more than 20,000 cases of Covid-19 with the rate of hospital admissions continuing to rise.

NSW Health said on Monday morning, 20,794 new cases of coronavirus were recorded in the 24 hours to 8pm on Sunday.

Testing numbers have dropped from their peak with 96,765 tests carried out the in the past 24 hours.

A further four Covid deaths were reported for the state.

Long lines of cars are seen at the COVID-19 testing clinic at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.
People queue for testing at a clinic in Bondi Beach. Source: Getty Images

As of Monday, 1,204 people are now in hospital with Covid-19 and 95 of them require treatment in the intensive care unit. That's an increase from 1,066 people in hospital and 83 people in the ICU, which were the reported figures on Sunday.

While testing delays have plagued pathology clinics and muddied the data, the positivity rate among those receiving PCR tests sits at around 20 per cent.

It means about one in five people are testing positive for coronavirus in NSW when presenting for a test.

On Sunday, NSW recorded more than 18,000 cases of coronavirus with 90,019 tests conducted.

PM urges restraint in calling an ambulance

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has urged people not to focus on case numbers and not to unnecessarily burden the healthcare system if you test positive.

"It's important that with the rising case numbers, we see that the severeness of this illness is already being shown to be around 75 per cent less than what we saw with Delta," Mr Morrison told the Seven Network on Monday.

"Rising case numbers is part of the Omicron period, it's part of the new phase of the pandemic we're in."

The PM echoed calls by NSW premier Dominic Perrottet for those infected to only call triple 0 if their symptoms are very severe.

"People only need to be calling that number if you're having a medical emergency," he said.

In Victoria, 8,577 new cases of coronavirus were recorded on Monday with a further three deaths. More than 44,000 tests were conducted.

with AAP

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