Nurses continue to raise concerns about their own health and safety amid increasing workloads from the latest wave of COVID-19 cases.
With more than 376,000 active infections across the country, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has urged all people to get vaccinated, wear masks and take other measures to help reduce the strain on the hospital system.
Advertisement
In the Forbes Local Government area eight new cases were reported on Friday, July 29, according to covidlive.com.au.
With a seven-day daily average of 13 cases, 19 positive cases each were reported Wednesday and Thursday, and 16 on Tuesday this week.
There are currently 147 active COVID cases in the Forbes Shire, bringing its total to 2642.
"It is imperative we do all that we can to ensure that frontline healthcare workers are protected and supported as health services are placed under enormous strain by growing COVID cases, coupled with the onset of the flu season and winter demand," the ANMF's South Australian branch Chief Executive Elizabeth Dabars said.
"The kind of demand and pressure we are seeing at the moment has the very real potential to overwhelm capacity and delay care."
Ms Dabars said nurses and other healthcare workers were doing their best to hold health and aged care services together.
"But after two-and-a-half years with no respite, they are exhausted. They need the community's support," she said.
"Nurses, midwives and care workers, all frontline healthcare workers, are asking you to support them, so they can keep supporting you."
Her comments came as Australia's three most populous states reported 98 COVID-19 deaths and more than 35,000 fresh infections on Thursday as the latest Omicron variant wave continues.
More than 5350 patients are in hospital with the virus, almost 2300 of them in NSW.
In the central west and south west COVID cases were similar to those reported in Forbes.
Figures released on Friday showed 28 new cases in the Parkes Local Government area among a reported 303 active cases.
There were seven new cases in Cowra among 202 active cases and Weddin (Grenfell) had just two new cases among 37 active cases.
In the larger centres of Orange, Bathurst and Dubbo the figures were reflective of their higher populations with 128, 122 and 115 new cases respectively.
The centres had 1178, 1283 and 1472 active cases respectively.
In the Hilltops Local Government area (Young and Boorowa) 35 new cases were reported among the shire's 406 active cases and Cabonne (Canowindra) reported nine new cases among 154 active cases.
Almost half of adult Australians are now estimated to have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, according to the latest study by Sydney's Kirby Institute.
Advertisement
Their research shows 46.2 per cent of adults were estimated to have had the virus by early June, with more than a quarter of the population infected in the previous three-month period.
The prevalence is almost triple that reported in its previous serosurvey - an analysis of blood antibody tests - which estimated that by late February about 17 per cent of the population had been infected.
A 23-month-old toddler, who died in Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane on Sunday night, was among 83 fatalities announced across the country on Wednesday.
IN OTHER NEWS:
