Health Minister Chris Picton told reporters a short time ago that updated COVID-19 modelling from the University of Adelaide shows the state is on track to hit the peak of the current Omicron wave “in the next week or so”.

He said the modelling predicted “in excess of 400 hospitalisations” within the next couple of weeks, including people who are admitted because of their COVID infection, as well as those who are in hospital for other conditions but who incidentally have the virus.

“That clearly points to the pressure on our health system, the pressure to make sure that we find available capacity in our health system for people who need admission for COVID,” he said.

South Australia today reported 4172 new COVID cases – up from 4053 yesterday – but the number of people with COVID in hospital dropped overnight to 282 from yesterday’s record of 306.

Three people died after testing positive for the virus – a man in his 70s, a woman in her 40s and a woman in her 80s.

The updated modelling was discussed at this morning’s Emergency Management Council meeting.

Picton said after reviewing the modelling, authorities decided to defer non-urgent overnight elective surgeries in metropolitan hospitals over the next four weeks.

He said SA Health estimated that it needed to find an additional 40 beds every day out of the elective surgery workload to make sure hospitals could cope once COVID hospitalisations peak over the next few weeks.

“This is going to be reviewed on a weekly basis,” he said.

“There’s not going to be any stopping of private elective surgery, not a stopping of same day elective surgery, not only stopping off paediatric elective surgery, not stopping country elective surgery, and we’re certainly not stopping urgent elective surgery.”

SA Health has established a surgeon taskforce to determine how elective surgeries could be better planned, with Picton urging health networks to “use as much of the private hospital capacity as possible to get the surgery done”.

“If we can have that surgery done in the private hospital system then that is certainly our aim because we know the impacts of having deferred surgery,” he said.

“Over the past few months, we have actually made great inroads in terms of reducing… the number of overdue elective surgery patients by 1100.

“We don’t want to have to be in a position where we go backwards but at the same time, we’re having to maintain that we care for these people who need urgent COVID admissions to our hospitals as well.”

SA Health has already opened an additional 28 beds in private hospitals for public medical patients.

Picton said the government would today meet with private hospitals to determine whether they could share any more beds with the public system.

He said the government was also working with the National Disability Insurance Agency to move NDIS patients out of hospitals and into appropriate accommodation.

Masks recommended in schools

Meanwhile, Picton said the Emergency Management Council decided to recommend the wearing of face masks inside classrooms once schools return for the start of Term 3 on Monday.

That is despite calls from the teachers’ union for mask-wearing to be mandated inside classrooms.

Picton said the Education Department and chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier would provide advice to parents encouraging them and their children to wear masks at schools.

“The advice we (the Emergency Management Council) had was to try to push and communicate and encourage people in terms of the use of masks in schools,” he said.

“That’s not going to be a mandated situation like we’ve had previously, but it will certainly be an encouragement of the benefits of wearing masks.

“This is the proportionate advice at this stage in the pandemic.”

Asked whether masks are recommended for both primary and secondary school students, Picton said: “The detail of the exact advice is being worked through by SA Health and Education”.

“I imagine that the age groups will be similar to the age groups which previously had mask requirements.”

Free RATs to be state-funded from August

Picton confirmed that from August 1, the state government would start funding a program that provides concession card-holders with 10 free rapid antigen tests (RATs) every three months.

The program is funded by the federal government until the end of this month, with state and territory leaders agreeing at Saturday’s national cabinet meeting to pick up the cost from August.

Picton said once the state government takes over, the free rapid antigen tests would be made available at over 50 collection sites.

He said the program would run until September 31.

“More details of that will be coming out in coming days of how people can register to get access to those rapid antigen tests,” he said.