Non-Urgent Surgery To Resume As Hospital Admissions Decrease

NSW Health revealed the overall number of patients in hospital has decreased since last week, as the state reported 30 more COVID-19 deaths.

It comes as the state government announce the resumption of non-urgent elective surgery, which will be staggered over the coming weeks.

Mr Hazzard said the decision to resume surgeries is due to the amount of hospital admissions trending in the right direction.

"As Health Minster, I'm sorry some people have had to have their surgery delayed but it was in your interests, it was in the interests of the entire community that we made sure we had the space in our hospitals," Mr Hazzard said.

In a phased-approach, Hazzard stated that regional hospitals can resume elective surgeries on February 7. However, facilities in metro New South Wales may need more time to manage the case numbers each day.

By the numbers, there are 2,749 active patients in hospital. 183 of those are in ICU, whom 70 of require ventilation.

Almost 13,000 new cases of the virus were detected and reported by the state health department to begin the new month.

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