Renju José and Byron Kaye

SYDNEY (Reuters), – Australia’s top two states reintroduced COVID-19 curbs as daily infection rates rose to their highest level amid an Omicron variant epidemic and a rush for already over-stretched testing facilities.

New South Wales is the home of a third Australia’s population. It has made it mandatory for people to use masks indoors.

Victoria, which is home to almost the same number of people, has also reinstated the mask mandate. This was due to the increased stress in the system.

Two days before Christmas, the changes are a setback in the country’s efforts to reopen after close to two years of temporary lockdowns.

The number of deaths and hospitalisations remained low. However, an explosion in the spread of infection had led to the possibility of health care workers being laid off if positive tests were performed, authorities stated.

More than 8200 cases were reported in the country, a significant increase from the 5,600 daily records set a day earlier. This is the highest number of new cases since the outbreak.

According to Dominic Perrottet, Premier of New South Wales, “Today’s changes were modest and cautious. We will continue through the holiday period until January 31.”

Perrottet had asked the state, up until Thursday, to keep the plan in place, which was agreed by federal and state leaders to eliminate restrictions once the vaccine rate exceeds a specific level.

Perrottet, who had refused to allow indoor mask-wearing to be reintroduced mandated by COVID-19, was adamant that it wasn’t necessary.

Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister has promised never to return lockdowns. He said Australia must take responsibility for its own health.

Perrottet made another shift in messaging Thursday and advised people not to go for COVID test if they received notification that they were potentially infected.

Perrottet stated that there are reports about long waits at testing centers. This is being blamed on travelers who travel interstate prior to Christmas. However, he said, “This is putting immense pressure on the system… we have to ensure those people needing to be tested are tested promptly”.

While most states require that travellers have negative results 72 hours prior to departure, Morrison urges them to reduce this requirement.

Despite an increase in patients, the number of people admitted to hospital is still much lower than it was during the Delta wave. Nearly 44,000 people are in active care, but only 800 were admitted.

The health department stated that only 37 are Omicron cases. The Omrican variant has only one death and one is currently in intensive care.

Australia is still far below many other countries despite the Omicron wave’s 273,000 infection and 2173 deaths.