NSW smashes daily Covid record as cases soar above 1,000 again
NSW breaks second Covid record
Health Minister slams 'concerning misinformation'
Ambulances 'are not taxis'
NSW has broken another record with 1035 new cases of community-transmitted Covid-19.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard told reporters of the new cases on Saturday morning and announced a further two deaths.
The two deaths were a woman in her 70s at Nepean Hospital and a woman in her 80s at Westmead Hospital.
"I want to express my sympathies and the sympathies of the entire New South Wales Health system and our government to the families of those two ladies," he said.
"It's a terrible situation, and having any loved one pass away at any time is obviously challenging, but in this situation many of us are feeling it even more."
The health minister also announced that from 12.01am on Friday this coming week people are allowed to get married with up to five guests, "in addition to people "obviously necessary for the actual service".
Saturday's total is the highest in any Australian state throughout the pandemic. The record was previously 1029, which NSW reported on Thursday.
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NSW Health did not report linked and unlinked cases on Saturday – a change in the Covid updates confirmed by the department on Friday night.
NSW recorded 882 new cases of Covid-19 on Friday.
Health Minister slams 'concerning misinformation'
Mr Hazzard said he is concerned about "a lot of misinformation" being published on social media about vaccines.
“One of the big concerns is women who want to have a child, couples who want to have a child, the misinformation is certainly around deterring people from effectively having a child or a vaccination by suggesting that there is some negative aspects of being vaccinated in terms of your fertility,” Mr Hazzard said.
“I just want to confirm that the most senior health advisory service in Australia has confirmed absolutely, that there is no evidence whatsoever that a woman's fertility or a man's fertility would be in any way affected by having the vaccine."
The minister added "a strong point" made to him is that women who choose not to get vaccinated and fall ill with Covid might have difficulties having children.
"They may suffer from long Covid or from symptoms that would actually make it more difficult to be able to have children, and to have as many children as they would like," he said.
Mr Hazzard cautioned people not to believe everything they read on social media.
Ambulances 'are not taxis'
The health minister said a number of people are calling for ambulances when they do not necessarily need them.
"It's very frustrating at a time when we are getting obviously very substantial numbers of people who need New South Wales Health assistance, they need to come to hospital, that there are quite a number of people who are effectively using ambulances as taxis,” he said.
“Ambulances are not taxis. They are meant for emergencies. I think that we all need to understand that if you call an ambulance when you really don't need an ambulance, when it is not an emergency, someone else who may really need that ambulance could well suffer, could well die.”
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