New South Wales Sets Record For Deaths From COVID-19

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JAKARTA - The most populous Australian state, New South Wales, on Saturday set a record for deaths from COVID-19 amid the spread of the Omicron variant of the virus.

New South Wales reports 16 deaths from the coronavirus.

The state, whose capital is Sydney and which has a third of Australia's 25 million people, also reported 30,062 new COVID-19 infections, which is almost a record high.

Victoria, the second largest state and this month will host the Australian Open tennis tournament, reported 44,155 new cases of COVID and four deaths.

While most of the other six states and territories have yet to report daily figures, the figures are still below the national record of 166,025 set on Saturday.

Australia is about to cross the one million infection mark on Sunday, the Australian Broadcasting Corp reported.

The surge caused many people to rush to government-funded COVID-19 test clinics.

Seeing this development, the authorities changed their approach by asking the public not to overwhelm the clinic but instead to conduct a rapid antigen test at home themselves.

If the test results show positive for COVID-19, they are asked to report the results to their respective doctors, who will submit the report to the data bank.

Australia plans to start Monday vaccinating children aged 5-11 years. The government says it has enough supplies to ensure all children can be vaccinated.

Australia's vaccination rate is currently high, with more than 90 per cent of the population aged 16 being fully vaccinated.