Twelve Illawarra residents have died in the past three weeks and dozens of people in the region are being admitted to hospital each week, as COVID-19 continues to put a strain on the health system.
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According to the latest NSW Respiratory Surveillance Report, the rate of people diagnosed with COVID-19 has decreased or remained stable in most places across the state, except in Far West NSW.
The seven-day state average of hospital and ICU admissions decreased to 87 daily hospital admissions and eight daily ICU admissions.
In the Illawarra Shoalhaven health district, there were 25 hospital admissions and four people admitted to the ICU in the week ending May 7.
In the same week, there were 102 COVID-19 deaths reported across the state, with five in people aged under 65 years. Three COVID-19 deaths occurred in the Illawarra, with 3882 people testing positive to the virus in that time.
In the latest three weeks, NSW Health has provided a breakdown of deaths and hospitalisations for each region, with the reports showing that a total of 12 people have died in the Illawarra in that time.
Labor's health spokesman Ryan Park said he remained "very concerned" about the virus as winter approaches - and said vaccination rates, especially for young children, remained worrying.
He said the government needed to ramp up the awareness and information campaign to encourage more people to get their boosters.
"What living with COVID looks like is making sure we go and get vaccinated, and making sure our children go and get vaccinated," he said.
"Around only 50 per cent of children [aged 5-11] had that initial dose - so my message to parents is please make sure, over the next few weeks in the lead up to winter, that you go and get your children vaccinated."
"The floods and bad weather haven't washed COVID away. We are going into what could be a very difficult flu season, and health experts are very worried about the pressure it could have on hospitals."
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