COVID-positive woman dies at Northern aged care facility; hospitalisations continue to increase

The woman in her 90s is the 34th COVID death in Tasmania since the start of the pandemic and the 21st since borders reopened in December.

There are 22 people in hospital specifically for COVID as reported on Sunday morning, up from 16 the day prior, and a total of 42 people in Tasmanian hospitals with COVID.

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Hospitalisations due to COVID have been steady for the past week, hovering around the 18 mark.

New case numbers have dropped significantly however, down from 1803 on Saturday to 1414 on Sunday. Numbers peaked this week at 2437 on Tuesday.

There are 12,296 active cases in Tasmania, also continuing a steady decline over the course of the week.

Premier Jeremy Rockliff said Tasmanians should continue to get vaccinated if they were not yet fully vaccinated, including a second booster available for people aged 65 and over, aged care and disability facility residents, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders aged 50 and over, and the severely immunocompromised.

"Those eligible can also get their flu shot at the same time, so I strongly recommend booking in for both doses with your GP or pharmacy at the earliest opportunity," he said.

The rate of COVID cases per 1000 people continued to increase in the state's North and South in late March and early April, but appeared to plateau in the North-West.

Public Health's latest COVID surveillance report covering March 26 to April 2 showed the rate at 28 per 1000 in the South, 26 in the North and 21 in the North-West.

This reflected comments from director of Public Health, Dr Mark Veitch, who said the highly transmissible Omicron variant was first noted in the North-West before spreading to the North and South.

The Furneaux Island councils of King Island and Flinders had the highest case rates during the week, but the rate was dropping across the North and North-West.

Council areas which saw a drop in the case rate were Burnie, Central Highlands, Circular Head, Devonport, Dorset, Meander Valley, Northern Midlands and Waratah-Wynyard, along with Tasman in the south-east.

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Very high case numbers - classified as above 28 per 1000 - were recorded in the Furneaux Islands and Launceston, along with the West Coast, Brighton, Clarence, Sorell and Derwent Valley.

Brighton has seen the highest rate since borders reopened.

For age groups, the greatest increase in late March and early April was seen in those aged 12 to 19, with teenagers surpassing young children as having the highest rate of cases.

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The report also included vaccination status of those with severe outcomes.

Six of the 18 deaths - or 33 per cent - were among fully unvaccinated people, despite them making up less than 1 per cent of the adult population.

The unvaccinated were also 32 per cent of intensive care admissions and 25 per cent of hospitalisations due to COVID.

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