SYDNEY, (Reuters) – Australia’s worst day in the pandemic was Tuesday. A fast-moving Omicron epidemic continued to drive up hospitalisations to new records, despite daily infection levels decreasing slightly.

Australia currently faces its worst COVID-19 pandemic. It is being fueled by Omicron, a variant of coronavirus. More people are now in intensive and hospital care than ever before during the pandemic.

Official data revealed that 74 deaths had been reported between New South Wales and Victoria in the morning. This is more than the 57 recorded last Thursday.

New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet declared that “Today is a very hard day for our state”. He was speaking during a briefing to media as Perrottet spoke about the 36 state deaths, which amounts to a new epidemic high.

Perrottet who is a consistent advocate for high vaccine levels has said hospitals will be able to cope with increasing admissions. He stated that “despite their challenges, they’re not exclusive to the rest of world.”

Victoria, amid rising hospitalisations declared a “code Brown” in hospitals on Tuesday. This was normally reserved for longer-term emergency situations and gives hospitals the ability to cancel non urgent health services as well as cancel employees’ leave.

According to authorities, unvaccinated young people make up a significant portion of hospital admissions in the country.

Despite the states’ efforts to keep their businesses open and avoid locking down, Australian consumers are still skeptical. A ANZ survey released Tuesday found that this was because of Omicron surge, which triggered self-imposed lockdowns. This has slowed spending.

According to Omicron, Omicron also lowered Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s approval ratings according to a nationally watched poll that was conducted Tuesday. This puts opposition Labor in a lead position several months before a federal election.

New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland reported just 67,000 more infections than the national average of 150,000 on Thursday. Others states will report their findings later.

Australia has recorded 1.6million infections since the pandemic started. Around 1.3million of these were reported in the past week. Total deaths stood at 2,757.