The state recorded 4594 cases on Wednesday, up from 3686 infections on Tuesday, and two deaths, with the number of people in hospital with the virus slightly decreasing to 161.

There are more than 27,000 active cases across the state and 236 deaths since South Australia opened its borders on November 23 last year.

Wednesday’s case number was the third-highest since the pandemic began, only behind the 4685 recorded on January 19 and 5679 on January 14.

COVID-19’s impact on the state’s schools is also becoming starker, with the 740 teachers and school service officers currently absent due to COVID-19 reasons – up from 697 yesterday.

The state’s student absentee rate due to COVID-19 has also grown from 3.1 per cent to 3.4.

South Australia’s COVID-19 cases are expected to peak at around 8000 cases a day next month with adult ward occupancy reaching more than 200 beds, according to State Government-commissioned modelling from the University of Adelaide.

Chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier said health authorities were not worried about the number of cases but rather the impact it would have on the functioning of the healthcare system.

“What we are concerned about is our hospitalisations and for a long time over the pandemic things in hospitals have needed to change,” she told ABC Radio this morning.

“We really want to make sure that we can manage our health system optimally so that everything we normally do in health can continue.

“It’s acceptable for a period of time if we’ve got a big wave and we need to do things at the point of a surge, but we know that we’re going to get continuing waves of this.

“We need to have a system that’s robust so people can get that normal healthcare over a period of time.”

Spurrier also emphasised “the other states are experiencing a BA.2 surge as well” as case numbers soar across the country.

The newly-elected Malinauskas Government will scrutinise the state’s COVID-19 restrictions tomorrow.