COVID in WA: Hospitalisations jump back up to nudge record levels, four more deaths recorded

There’s been another uptick in daily COVID case numbers in WA, with hospitalisations rising again to nudge record levels and four more deaths recorded.

WA health reported 4409 new cases on Tuesday, up from 3856 the day prior.

There were 457 cases in hospital as of 6pm on Monday, up by 25 and just shy of the record 459 cases last week.

Of those, 17 are in intensive care, down from the all-time peak of 24, which has been hit twice in recent days.

The four deaths - a woman in her 90s, a man in his 80s, a woman in her 70s and a man in his 50s - date back to Tuesday last week.

There are currently 31,321 active cases in WA.

More than one million cases have been recorded in the State in total since the pandemic began, with the national tally at more than nine million.

Australia’s hospitalisation rates keep climbing to fresh records, eclipsing 5570, according to the COVIDLive website.

National Cabinet last week agreed to “strongly encourage” Australians to wear masks in crowded indoor public settings but no mandate has been recommended.

However, Australian Nursing Federation secretary Mark Olson has called for mandatory mask wearing indoors amid fears the rising level of daily COVID cases will delay elective surgeries by at least four years in some cases.

“We are not talking about having masks on forever, just the next couple of months when we expect the combination of the flu, of winter and the next wave of COVID until that passes in September or October,” he said.