COVID cases have risen from "low to moderate" within a week, dampening hopes of the first Christmas/New Year period in four years without a wave of the virus. Login or signup to continue reading University of Newcastle virologist Nathan Bartlett said there had been "a bit of an uptick of COVID in recent weeks". "That's probably due to people socialising more, end-of-year parties and lots more interaction," said Professor Bartlett of Hunter Medical Research Institute .
"We often see a bit of a rise in respiratory symptoms in late November, early December." COVID fragments in wastewater data at Burwood Beach in Newcastle had been rising for the past month, but fell slightly in NSW Health's latest weekly respiratory report. Nonetheless, the report said COVID "continued to gradually increase over the last few weeks", with activity rising from "low to moderate".
A new COVID vaccine is now available at Hunter pharmacists that offer the jabs. Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approved the Pfizer booster, which targets the JN.1 sub-variant of Omicron.
Chelsea Felkai, of Whitebridge Pharmacy, said there were plenty of the vaccines in stock. "It's pretty widely available," Ms Felkai said. In documents submitted to the TGA, Pfizer stated that the new vaccine's safety and effectiveness was "inferred from data" from the initial vaccine's clinical trials.
"The duration of protection afforded by the vaccine is unknown as it is still being determined by ongoing clinical tria.
