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The fourth wave of COVID-19 appears to have passed its peak in New South Wales, the state's Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant has said.
The latest NSW Health COVID Surveillance Report, released today, suggests PCR positivity, hospital admissions and admissions from emergency departments are "stable or declining".
Though the results are "good news", Chant said there is still a high number of positive cases circulating in the community and people should remain vigilant ahead of the holiday period.
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"A number of indicators suggest we have reached the peak of the COVID-19 wave," Chant said.
"While this is good news, we are still seeing a high number of cases across the state and encourage you and the community at large to remain vigilant and take some simple steps to protect themselves or others.
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"I'd like to remind everyone about the importance of staying at home if you have cold or flu symptoms."
There were 39,761 people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the week ending December 10, which reflects an increase of 3.6 per cent since the previous week.
The news comes as estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show there were approximately 14.83 million excess deaths linked to COVID-19 across the world from 2020 to 2021.
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The paper, published in the journal Nature, revealed that coronavirus has been responsible for nearly three times the number of deaths reported over the same period.
Excess mortality accounts for both the total number of deaths directly attributed to the virus and the indirect impact, such as disruption of essential health services or travel impacts.
Source: 9News
