A top public health official says omicron cases will keep rising in the NSW Hunter after hospital admissions surpassed the peak of the delta outbreak on Wednesday.
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Two female residents of the BaptistCare Warabrook Centre nursing home died over the Christmas weekend, the first deaths in the Hunter since the omicron outbreak started three weeks ago.
BaptistCare said on Wednesday that 35 staff and residents of the aged care centre had tested positive in the past two weeks.
Hunter New England Health reported 775 new cases, a sharp rise since a lull in testing over Christmas.
Public health controller Dr David Durrheim
"What we still don't fully understand is the severity of the omicron variant.
"We've got a growing evidence base from the UK and South Africa ... that omicron causes less severe end-spectrum disease, however, the exact proportion is not yet clear.
"What we're seeing locally is primarily younger people were affected ... so it's still a bit too early to see what the severity impact will be in older people who get the omicron variant.
"Clearly, the more cases you get, the more severe, end-of-the-spectrum you get as well.
"Unless it's very, very mild, we should expect a large number of cases, including hospitalisations as well.
"The more severe illness normally follows in weeks two and three of the infection, and almost exclusively the first week of cases in Hunter New England were all young people, so there still are questions about what the scale of that severity will be in the older age group, and particularly unvaccinated people.
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BaptistCare said in a statement on Wednesday that it was advised on December 15 that several staff members at its Warabrook Centre might have come into contact with a person who had tested positive for COVID-19.
"A testing regime was implemented by health authorities and since this time 20 staff and 15 residents have tested positive," BaptistCare said.
Two women, one aged in her 70s and another in her 90s, died at the centre over the Christmas period.
The woman in her 90s had received three vaccination doses and the younger woman was double-vaccinated.
BaptistCare said the woman in her 90s had underlying health conditions and the woman in her 70s was "on an end-of-life pathway".
The Hunter New England Health district reported 775 new cases in the 24 hours to 8pm Tuesday, up from 409 the previous day.
Thirty-one people were in hospital with the virus as of 8pm on Tuesday, while three were in intensive care.
There are 7743 active cases in the region.
Lake Macquarie remains the local government area with the highest number of cases (187), but Newcastle has made ground on it, recording 185.
There were 122 new cases in Maitland, 55 in Cessnock, 52 in Port Stephens, 47 in Tamworth, 31 in Singleton, 26 in MidCoast, 14 in Narrabri and 12 in Moree Plains.
A handful of other local government areas in the region recorded single-digit numbers of new cases.
It came on a day when NSW recorded more than 11,000 new cases, in a large jump from the previous 24-hour period.
