Canberra records 30 new Covid cases on Tuesday in lockdown

Another 30 cases have been reported with the source of five of those cases under investigation. There are 167 active cases in the ACT.

There are now four people in hospital with COVID-19, including a women in her 40s, who is not vaccinated, in intensive care.

Thirteen cases were in quarantine for their entire infectious period. Eleven cases were infectious in the community and the status of six cases are under investigation.

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ACT chief health officer Kerryn Coleman said the large number of cases reflected close and household contacts of positive cases acquiring the virus.

Of the 25 linked cases, 21 are household contacts and the remaining four are linked to existing clusters.

Dr Coleman said the people in the community while infectious was not a reflection of people doing the wrong thing.

She said it was concerning but was due to the highly infectious Delta strain, which could be passed up to 48 hours before symptoms appeared.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr says it's too early to speculate on where we will be in a week's time. He says the biggest issue is people being infectious in the community.

"The reason we are in lockdown is to reduce the transmission potential."

Canberra's lockdown is in place until September 2 at the moment.

A University of Canberra Hospital team member who works in a support service capacity has tested positive for COVID-19.

The staff members worked in the food services area while infectious on August 20, 21 and 22.

Canberra Health Services interim chief executive Dave Peffer said 15 contacts of that person were in quarantine and the risk of transmission to patients and clinical staff was deemed very low.

The staff member was wearing a surgical mask and goggles.

There remains about 700 health staff in quarantine and 500 people with a nursing background have responded to a call out to aid the COVID-19 effort.

Mr Barr said the detailed guidelines for COVID-19 business hardship schemes are now online.

The government is also reestablishing some of the commercial and residential tenancy protections which were implemented in last year's lockdown.

The Bright Bees early learning centre in Nicholls has been identified as a transmission site with three cases linked to it.

Mr Barr said it was a record day for COVID-19 case numbers in the ACT.

"We're going to have days like this where that household initial infection will spread to other members of the household," he said.

More than 5600 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours.

"This is good news," Mr Barr said.

He said testing sites at Kambah and Brindabella Business Park would reopen tomorrow, after they were closed due to wet weather.

The list of exposure sites has continued to grow overnight with the addition of a Girl Guides meeting and a construction site among new close contact locations.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting for the construction industry to return as the ACT nears two weeks of lockdown.

ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has flagged he will announce any changes to public health measures for a range industries by Thursday.

More to come.

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