South Australia records 3493 new COVID-19 cases, announces testing change for close contacts

COVID-19 infections have increased again in South Australia, and the state has announced it will start using rapid tests for close contacts instead of PCRs in the next week.

There were 3493 new cases reported today, with 125 people who have contracted the virus being treated in hospital. The number of people in ICU (12) and on a ventilator (one) have remained steady.

SA Premier Steven Marshall said the hospitalisation numbers are "well within our capacity to deal with".

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He said that although cases and hospitalisation numbers have risen overnight, they're not advancing at the same rate as previously seen.

"No increase in ICU. No increase in the number of [people on] ventilators. A slight uptick in terms of hospitalisation and a slight uptick in terms of the number of new infections," he said.

"Yesterday, despite the fact that four of the private labs in South Australia closed we had an increase in daily testing up to 21,097.

"And we actually saw a reduction in our lab processing time by a couple of hours.

"That's despite the fact that some private labs had closed."

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More than 50 per cent of all COVID-19 ICU admissions in South Australia are unvaccinated, Mr Marshall said, while urging residents to seek vaccines where eligible.

"Vaccination is crucial, please go and get those jabs and those boosters," he said.

"This will be critical in making sure we save lives."

The Premier also announced the number of jabs recorded in the last day had quadrupled, with almost 20,000 administered yesterday.

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Within the next week, South Australia will move to implement rapid antigen tests as the preferred method of testing for close contacts to ease pressure on pathology labs.

"I can confirm that sometime within the next week, we're likely to move to RATs for close contacts," Mr Marshall said.

"So, at the moment, we've got plenty of PCR capacity… but we will evolve to RATs to preserve the PCR testing for those people that are symptomatic."