New South Wales has recorded another 18,278 COVID-19 cases and two deaths as the state's outbreak continues to surge.
Sunday's case numbers are slightly lower than Saturday's 22,577.
The state recorded two deaths from the virus, while 1,066 people are hospitalised, up from 901 on Saturday. There are 83 in intensive care.
At the peak of the Delta outbreak, on 21 September, there were 1,266 people hospitalised with infections, and 244 in intensive care.
Testing numbers to 8pm on the first day of 2022 were down to 90,019, a drop from 119,278 on New Year's Eve.
The high case numbers come as Premier Dominic Perrottet continues to focus on hospitalisation and intensive care numbers rather than the daily case total.
Despite comprising about six per cent of the population, unvaccinated people make up the majority of those in intensive care, Health Minister Brad Hazzard says.
To ensure hospital systems can cope, , NSW Health announced on Friday night.
Victoria posts 7,172 cases, extreme heat closes testing sites
The first day of 2022 hasn't been kind to 7,172 Victorians, the state's latest residents to contract COVID-19.
A further three virus-related deaths have also been recorded for 1 January.
However the number of Victorian coronavirus patients in hospital care remains relatively stable at 472, up 19 on Saturday's figure and 48 beyond the seven-day average.
Of them, 52 are classified as active ICU cases and 22 are in need of ventilation.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton's daily update said on Sunday community sampling had revealed 76 per cent of all samples collected over the Christmas period were the Omicron variant. Further testing to confirm this is being undertaken over the next week.
In total, Victoria is managing 31,461 active COVID-19 cases.
Health authorities says virus testers managed to process 48,252 results in the 24 hours to Saturday evening.
The state is 93 per cent fully vaccinated for everyone aged 12 and over.
Some 7,442 infections were reported on Saturday, another pandemic record. There were 51 actively infectious patients in intensive care and 21 ventilated.
Extreme heat caused the closure of eight of the state's testing sites on Saturday.
Queensland records 3,587 new cases
Queensland has added 3,587 infections to its COVID-19 caseload as a new indoor mask mandate comes into effect across the state.
Some 16,688 Queenslanders now have the virus. However, hospital numbers remain low with 112 patients in care, five of them in ICUs and none requiring ventilation.
Health authorities say testers processed almost 34,000 results in the 24 hours to 7pm on Saturday.
Queensland is 86.60 per cent fully vaccinated for everyone 16 and over.
Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says despite a jump of more than 1,300 cases in a day, he's not surprised. In part, the increase is related to a change in reporting protocols which saw case figures taken from a 12-hour window on Friday.
"This number is probably a bit smaller than we had expected," he said in Brisbane on Sunday of the latest figures.
"It probably (also) relates to testing over the holiday period and so it will not be a surprise at all that in the next couple of days we see a significant increase in cases as more samples are tested and more people come forward."
Dr Gerrard said what experts were now seeing with the virus was that it was "a vastly different disease" to that which was spreading in the community last year and prior to vaccination.
"With a degree of contagiousness of this virus, we are going to be seeing very large numbers of cases, even though the severity is clearly going to be less," he said.
"We are going to see very large numbers of cases and a small proportion of a very large number (who fall ill) is still a large number."
Masks were declared compulsory in "virtually all indoor spaces" in Queensland from 1am on Sunday.
Previously masks were only required indoors at supermarkets, shops, on public transport and ride share as well as airports and planes, cinemas and theatres in Queensland.
They now need to be worn at workplaces unless unsafe to do so, pubs, clubs and cafes unless when seated, indoor stadiums and sport arenas, libraries, hair dressers and nail salons, and medical centre waiting areas.
People queue for a COVID-19 PCR test in Boondall, Brisbane, Monday, 27 December, 2021. Source: AAP
Queenslanders were also urged to return to work-from-home arrangements where possible.
SA hospitalisations 'very much within capacity'
South Australia, meanwhile, recorded 2,298 COVID-19 cases on New Years Day from 21,140 tests.
The newest caseload is up from 2,108, while hospitalisations have also risen by 11.
There are currently 82 people in hospital, Premier Steven Marshall said on Sunday, a number which he said was “still very much within our current capacity”.
Seven people are in ICU.
"We see a lot of admissions but also a lot of people are leaving hospital on a daily basis after their conditions have stabilised," Mr Marshall told reporters on Sunday.
Mr Marshall is urging South Australians to book in for booster vaccines as soon as they can.
He also revealed an outbreak in Port Augusta, north of Adelaide, announced on Saturday was “not quite as severe as we thought”.
There are three people in the local area and Aboriginal community who have tested positive, Mr Marshall said, but 32 to 35 close contacts of the initial positive case have so far returned negative rapid antigen tests.
“It looks like we dodged a bullet with a vulnerable community,” he said.
But there are now 60 COVID-positive patients within the state’s prison system.
“The majority of those are within the Adelaide Women’s Prison as well as other locations in Adelaide [and] we now have one positive case among a worker at the Port Augusta Prison,” Mr Marshall said.
ACT cases crack 500 for first time
The ACT has recorded 506 new COVID-19 cases, marking the first time the Territory has surpassed 500 cases in a day.
There are nine people in hospital, including one in intensive care, according to figures released on Sunday.
One person is on ventilation.
There are now more than 1,800 active cases in the ACT and the total number from the current outbreak sits at 4,795.
Tasmania records 404 new cases
Tasmania has recorded 404 fresh COVID-19 infections while the number of people in hospital with the virus has grown to three.
The state's health department confirmed the new cases on Sunday morning, as active infections across the state rose to 1,219 cases.
The figures represented a slight decrease on Saturday's daily case tally, when 428 were recorded.
Sixty cases are being managed at community case management facilities and 316 are being managed at home.
None of the three cases in hospital are in ICU.
On Saturday Premier Peter Gutwein said, with a highly vaccinated population, Tasmania would not be heading into lockdown or closing its borders.
But he did advise caution to travellers, reminding Tasmanians and visitors if they contracted the virus or became a close contact while away, they would have to isolate at their own cost.
NT records 95 cases, WA one
The Northern Territory reported 95 virus cases on Sunday, 35 more than its previous record on Friday.
Of the new cases, 14 have been confirmed as cases of community transmission. The majority of the new caseload has come from the Greater Darwin area.
Ten were recorded in Nhulunbuy in eastern Arnhem Land, two were detected in Alice Springs, and three have been found in Jabiru in the Kakadu National Park.
One case has been found in Katherine.
Western Australia, meanwhile, has reported a single new case - a vaccinated security guard at a Perth quarantine hotel.
He's now in hotel quarantine and genomic sequencing has begun to determine which variant he has.
Authorities say he is not linked to the state’s backpacker cluster, and it's not yet clear if he was infectious in the community.
With Evan Young.
