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More than 9000 new COVID cases and 15 deaths have been recorded in WA following a steady increase over the past month as an Omicron soup of strains hit the state.
New cases have nearly doubled in just over a month and include 179 infected people in hospital, of which three are in the intensive care unit.
Some of the newly reported fatalities — which include people aged 76 to 100 years old — date back to early August but had only been reported to WA Health in the past week.
Of the cases reported in WA Health’s latest update, 5669 remain active — with the health service encouraging anyone experiencing symptoms to get tested and stay home.
COVID-19 cases are soaring across Australia as the nation grapples with another wave of the virus, prompting authorities to appeal for public help in stemming infections.
Chief Health Officer Dr Andy Robertson on Tuesday said he expected the new wave of COVID to peak in WA in early December — but has ruled out bringing back mask-wearing measures for now.
He urged West Australians to get their booster shots, saying vaccines remain the best defence against new variants — including the highly infectious XBB variant — which now accounts for nearly 10 per cent of all new cases in WA.
Dr Robertson said there was a cocktail of Omicron sub-variants in the State at the moment, estimating WA Health could likely produce a list of up to 50 circulating in the community.
WA PCR tests had increased in the past week lifting to 9586 from 7760 the previous reporting period.
Last week WA had recorded 8029 new cases, which was up from 6874 the week before.
According to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 80 per cent of Australia’s total Covid-19 deaths have occurred since Omicron took over as the dominant variant.
The report for the first half of 2022 says the rate of Covid-19-related deaths in which Covid-19 was reported as the cause of death had fallen to 72 per cent by August 2022 compared with 99 per cent in the first year of the pandemic.
The report says a higher proportion of Australian-born people are now dying of the virus in Australia than during the Delta wave in which Australians born overseas were dying at four times the rate of those born locally.