Covid cases tipped to DOUBLE as new strain emerges: 'CONCERNING'

Covid cases in New South Wales could double within weeks with the emergence of a substrain of the Omicron variant.

Health Minister Brad Hazzard told a NSW Budget estimates hearing on Thursday that the Omicron variant — currently the dominant strain in NSW — will be overtaken by the BA.2 variant with case numbers tipped to double.

The prediction comes as Covid cases in NSW jump to 16,888 on Thursday, an increase of more than 3000 from the day before.

"Preliminary information indicates that ... in only another month to six weeks we could be looking at cases more than double than we are currently getting," Mr Hazzard said.

"It is concerning us greatly, that we are seeing an increase in daily cases."

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Mr Hazzard urged people to get their booster shots, with only 56.3 per cent of the eligible population having received three vaccines.

"While the community may have gone to sleep on the virus, the virus has not gone to sleep on the community," he said.

"The virus can still wreak havoc if we don't go out there and go and get our boosters fast."

The preliminary data was taken from a University of NSW study where the subvariant appears to be more transmissible.

"What we are seeing … is a trend to an increasing rise in the BA2 sublineage," Acting Chief Health Officer Marianne Gale said.

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"Experience has shown us overseas that BA2 can quite quickly overtake BA1 to become the dominant sublineage."

However, according to Ms Gale there's no evidence yet that it is more severe.

The Australian Department of Health confirmed “a very low number” of cases of the new subvariant in Australia in late January.

with AAP

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