The number of COVID-19 cases in the Illawarra has risen much faster than the state average this week, with NSW Health warning that the current wave has not yet peaked.
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According to the NSW Respiratory Surveillance Report, cases in the Illawarra Shoalhaven have been rising steadily for weeks, and jumped by nearly 40 per cent to 2502 in the seven day period ending December 3.
This is a much higher percentage jump than the statewide weekly increase of 9.1 per cent.
Additionally, a graph included with the report shows the Illawarra Shoalhaven has the highest seven-day rolling average rate of COVID-19 notifications per 100,000 population, compared to other metropolitan local health districts.
There are also rising levels of COVID gene concentration found in Wollongong's sewage surveillance where other regions' concentration has dropped, and we appear to have a higher rate of PCR tests than other health districts.
Local hospitalisations have also been going up, with 63 people admitted in the weekly period, up from 47 the previous week.
There were two deaths in the region, and three people in the ICU.
Across the state, NSW Health has warned high levels of community transmission are continuing and says there were increases in ICU admissions, the number of people notified with COVID-19 and the proportion of PCR tests that are positive in the past week.
There were 37,088 people diagnosed with COVID-19, an increase of 9.1% since the previous week, NSW Health said, as well as 35 deaths reported in the state.
The report also notes that case numbers are unlikely to represent the true level of COVID-19 in the community, after mandatory reporting of positive rapid antigen tests was scrapped by the government on October 14.
"PCR testing rates have almost halved from what they were at the beginning of the Omicron BA.4/5 wave in JuneAugust 2022," the report says.
"The changes in COVID-19 testing and reporting means that notification numbers no longer reflect the level of community transmission in the same way as during the BA.4/5 wave."