COVID by the numbers – 41 new Hawkesbury cases – 168 active – Windsor Leagues Club closed for 24hrs

Welcome to Wednesday and a big uptick in the number of COVID cases recorded across the Hawkesbury in the last 24 hours.

Windsor Leagues Club has closed for 24 hours from today after a person with COVID visited on Boxing Day – Sunday.

They say they have been working closely with NSW Health “who will be in contact with anyone who was signed into the venue at the time of exposure”, says the Club in a statement.

They will reopen tomorrow – Thursday – at 9.30am after a deep clean of the club.

Our numbers guru Kevin Pollard has trawled through today’s official numbers, and as always our thanks to him for his work and dedication here.

Today’s headlines:

* 41 new Hawkesbury COVID cases reported in the last 24 hours

* There are 168 active Hawkesbury COVID cases.

* Today, almost double yesterday’s reported NSW numbers at 11,201 (6062, 6324, 6394, 6288 cases on previous days) reported to 8pm, Tuesday, December 28 – and 409 are from Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, which includes the Hawkesbury.

* 7.10% of the 157,758 COVID tests carried out yesterday were positive (11,201).

* The positivity rate was 6.48% yesterday, 6.50% 5.84%, 4.21% the days before that.

* “The high positivity rate suggests that significant numbers of cases are not being detected in the community, rapid antigen tests are not included in NSW testing numbers and PCR testing queues are so long so the real number today is probably closer to 20,000 positive cases and between 7000 and 20,000 new cases each day over the last 8 days,” says Kevin.

* Dr Kerry Chant says today, “there’s probably many more infections in the community than the numbers reflect.”

Re: Rapid Antigen Tests in NSW: Premier Dominic Perrottet says NSW has ordered 20 million free tests for the public but they won’t be available until late January.

RATs are typically $30 for a pack of two but are hard to find and are only 80% accurate for 1 test, 90% effective after a second test two days later. Not everyone can afford the $30 for a two pack.

Australia has recorded another pandemic high 18,192 cases today. Only 20 days ago on December 9, Australia recorded 1651 new local cases.

New Hawkesbury COVID cases in last 24 hours and postcodes they are in:

* 23 in the 2756 postcode (Windsor, Sackville, Wilberforce, Bligh Park, Clarendon, Ebenezer, Mulgrave, Pitt Town, South Windsor, Freemans Reach, McGraths Hill, Upper Colo, Central Colo, Colo Heights, Lower Portland, Glossodia)

* 8 in the 2753 postcode ((Richmond, Richmond Lowlands, Londonderry, Grose Vale, Grose Wold, Bowen Mountain, Hobartville, Yarramundi, Agnes Banks)

* 8 in the 2754 postcode (North Richmond, Tennyson, The Slopes)

* 1 in the 2757 postcode (Kurmond)

* 1 in the 2775 postcode (Lower Macdonald, St Albans)

Total active COVID cases in the Hawkesbury as of 8pm December 28 – and postcodes they are in:

* 99 in the 2756 postcode (Windsor, Sackville, Wilberforce, etc) – was 79 yesterday

* 33 in the 2753 postcode (Richmond, Londonderry, Grose Vale, etc) – was 26 yesterday

* 18 in the 2754 postcode (North Richmond, Tennyson, The Slopes) – was 11 yesterday

* 15 in the 2758 postcode (Bilpin, East Kurrajong, Kurrajong, Kurrajong Heights, Kurrajong Hills, Mountain Lagoon, Wheeny Creek, Mount Tomah, Berambing, Blaxlands Ridge, Devils Wilderness) – was 17 yesterday

* 3 in the 2757 postcode (Kurmond) – was 3 yesterday

* 2 in the 2775 postcode (Lower Macdonald, St Albans) – was 1 yesterday

Hospitalisations:

* There were 3 COVID-related deaths in NSW today, none in the Hawkesbury.

* There are 625 people with COVID (was 557, 520, 458, 388 on previous days) in hospital, with 61 (60, 55, 52, 52 on previous days) in ICU – and 23 (19, 17, 15, 14 on previous days) of whom require ventilation.

* There were 166 people in hospital 15 days ago, 625 today.

* There were 21 people in ICU 16 days ago, 61 today.

* There were 7 people on ventilators 15 days ago, 23 today.

* 5 of those 61 in ICU have the Omicron variant, 56 have Delta.

* 36 of the 61 are unvaccinated including two children under 12 who aren’t eligible for the jab.

* 24 of the 61 in ICU are fully vaccinated.

* Sixteen children aged 17 and under have been admitted to hospital, 3 are in ICU, 1 is on a ventilator.

* The large majority of the 61 in ICU have underlying health issues.

Big thanks to Kevin Pollard for crunching the numbers.

Our source information – link to NSW Health figures:

https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/find-the-facts-about-covid-19

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