Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier told reporters yesterday afternoon that updated modelling by the University of Adelaide showed the current COVID wave would be “well on the way down” ahead of the festive season.

She said compared to previous COVID waves, this current surge would result in fewer infections and less hospitalisations, with only about 1000 daily cases predicted at the peak next week.

“We probably are about a week … or so away from the peak of the wave and if you follow that down you can see that prior to the wonderful day of Christmas and the festival season, we’re well on the way down on the other side of that curve,” she said.

“We’re expecting much lower numbers of (hospital) admissions compared to all of the other three waves in our state.

“That’s very good news, of course, for our health staff.”

Spurrier said the current wave would be less severe than the COVID surge in winter because more people are now vaccinated against the virus.

She said some people – including those who are aged over 70 or immunocompromised – are also now able to access oral antiviral medication.

SA Health’s latest weekly COVID-19 update, released on Friday, showed there had been 6867 new reported infections – an 80 per cent jump from the 3797 new cases recorded the week prior.

There were 2333 more reported active infections in the state, with 83 people with COVID-19 in hospital, including seven in intensive care and two on a ventilator.

Latest genome sequence testing found 74.5 per cent of samples analysed were BA.5. There has also been a spike in new variants including B.Q.1 and XBB.

Spurrier said despite the spike in cases, it was not necessary to reintroduce restrictions.

She did, however, advise people to wear masks while inside crowded public places and on public transport.

SA Health has also advised residential aged care facilities to increase mask-wearing rules for visitors and staff.

“This is only for a couple of weeks, just as we get over that curve and start coming down the other side,” Spurrier said.

“I was thinking about the sorts of things that might be happening over the next couple of weeks and one of these is Black Friday, of course, next week, when … I’m sure Rundle Mall is hoping that it will be full of people looking for those Christmas gifts as well as taking advantage of the sales.

“That would be a time, for example, where I’d be saying to people to have your mask in your pocket and put that on when you’re in a crowded place because the last thing you want to do is to get sick and perhaps pass that on to people in your family.”

Health Minister Chris Picton said he expected the state’s hospital system would cope with the expected peak of 300 COVID admissions from next week.

He said the government was working to increase beds and staff in hospitals to ensure the system could handle “continual waves” of COVID.

“We know that this is something that we’re going to face in the long term and we can’t have a situation where we’re going back to 2020-type restrictions,” he said.

“This is something that we’ll have to continually make sure that our hospital system is robust.”

Meanwhile, the state government is still considering how it will conduct a formal review of its response to the pandemic.

Picton said Premier Peter Malinauskas, SA Health and SA Police had discussed how the review should take place, but nothing had been formalised.

He said it was still unclear whether the review would be undertaken within government or by an external reviewer.

“I think all parties to COVID-19 management will need to reflect upon how this has gone over the past few years and how we can best make sure we’re prepared for the future,” he said.