Today's COVID-19 case numbers around the country
COVID-19 cases continue rising across parts of the country, with Western Australia the latest to announce a spike in numbers.
WA Premier Mark McGowan has announced Western Australia has recorded just under 8000 new COVID-19 cases.
The state's new daily case numbers sit at 7998.
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There are 256 people with the virus in hospital and eight in ICU.
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the country, a total of 27 people have died with COVID-19 in NSW, Victoria and Queensland as the virus toll continues to climb.
New South Wales recorded 22,255 new COVID-19 cases, and 16 deaths.
There are 1437 people in hospital with the virus, including 48 in intensive care.
Latest NSW COVID-19 weekly data also shows that 139,483 people were diagnosed with the virus for the week ending April 2 , which is a drop of five per cent compared with the previous week.
But the reported virus case rate remains highest in people aged 10 to 19 years.
Victoria recorded 12,314 new cases and four deaths.
But hospitalisations saw a significant drop, from 331 to 283 today, and 12 in intensive care.
Even as the Omicron variant and its sub-variant BA.2 are spreading across the country, infectious disease expert Professor Sanjaya Senanayake said there were reasons to look forward positively.
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"I'm definitely feeling more optimistic as time goes by," he said.
"I guess what I don't want to see is a new completely different variant to come on to the scene and ruin everything."
But he said high vaccination rates were cause for hope.
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"I'm hopeful we'll start to head towards this becoming endemic and part of our lives rather than something new," he said.
In Queensland, 10,984 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded and seven virus related deaths.
There are 444 people with the virus in hospital and 17 in ICU.
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