Influenza is at a high level of activity. COVID-19 and RSV are at moderate levels of activity.
COVID-19 activity continued to decline this week and is now at moderate levels. Influenza activity has declined, though remains at a high level. Test positivity for influenza, which is a key indicator of activity, has decreased to 17.5%. Considering all RSV indicators, activity is at a moderate level. Pertussis and pneumonia in school age children is showing some indication of decline following the NSW school holiday break.
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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