COVID-19, influenza and RSV all remain at high levels of activity.
COVID-19 activity remains stable at high level. Influenza activity is at a high level and continues to increase, with the number of presentations to emergency departments increasing and the number of influenza notifications also increasing. Test positivity for influenza, which is a key indicator of activity, has increased to 18.9%. RSV activity, which is still high, is slowly declining. Pertussis and pneumonia continue to be unseasonably high in school aged children.
NSW Health continually reviews the methods used to monitor respiratory virus activity in New South Wales. This is due to changes in testing, notification patterns and levels of respiratory virus, including COVID-19, in the community. These changes affect the usefulness of notifications for monitoring virus activity and community transmission over time. The Public Health, Rapid, Emergency and Syndromic Surveillance (PHREDSS) data, COVID-19 sewage surveillance program, whole genome sequencing (WGS) data and sentinel laboratory respiratory virus test results are currently of most value for monitoring COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses of importance in the community. Registration of positive COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RAT) in NSW ceased on 30 September 2023 and notifications now only reflect cases referred by a doctor for PCR. NSW Health also monitors COVID-19 outbreaks in residential aged-care facilities that are published by the Australian Government and COVID-19 antiviral prescriptions dispensed in NSW.
The data source for this report updates as new information becomes available. Therefore, this report cannot be directly compared to previous versions of the NSW Respiratory Surveillance Report or to previous reporting periods. For additional information on the data sources and methods presented within this report please refer to COVID-19 surveillance report data sources and methodology.
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