Australia's New South Wales has recorded another significant spike in COVID-19 cases, recording 6288 new infections in the past 24 hours.
Neighbouring Victoria also recorded another increase of 2108 cases and six deaths.
New South Wales' health department, NSW Health, said on Saturday that 388 people are currently in hospital with COVID-19 - 52 of whom are in intensive care.
In Victoria, there are currently 15,471 active cases of the virus across the state.
Australia reintroduced COVID-19 curbs such as mandated mask-wearing indoors, capacity limits and QR code check-ins to cover most of the population earlier this week as daily infections reached record levels, fuelled by the highly infectious Omicron variant.
The measures, imposed on 17 million people two days before Christmas, marked a reversal of the country's plans for a permanent reopening after nearly two years of stop-start lockdowns, as the new variant rages through communities in spite of double-vaccination rates of more than 90 percent.
The explosion of infections has created a risk of healthcare workers being furloughed by contracting the virus, authorities said.
Reuters / Newshub
