Australia news live: NSW records 22,577 new Covid cases and four deaths as Victoria reports 7,442 cases and nine deaths | Australia news

NSW Health has republished its daily Covid figures, amending the post to four deaths instead of five as earlier reported.

A brief intermission from Covid gloom: this is the best news I’ve seen all year.

(Yes, I know he technically tweeted this last year, but allow me this skerrick of joy, will you?)

Here’s Prof Adrian Esterman, an epidemiologist and biostatistician at the University of SA, with some analysis on the NSW and Victorian Covid figures. Worth noting that the Reff – the effective reproduction number – has risen in both states.

There are a few searches currently underway for people feared drowned in South Australia and NSW.

Per AAP, SA emergency services are searching for a teenage girl who fell off a houseboat into the Murray River south of Swan Reach on New Year’s Eve. Alarm was raised at 9.15pm after she did not resurface after her fall.

A search is also under way for two men who went missing after taking a hired pedal boat at about 2am out on Lake Bonney in SA’s Riverland region.

SA Police said the empty boat was found together with an Esky believed to belong to the men. A search of the lake and foreshore was undertaken by police and SES through the night.

In NSW, emergency service crews including police divers have resumed a search for a missing teen feared drowned in the Shoalhaven River. AAP reports:

Two teenage boys went swimming in the river near Burrier on New Year’s Eve at 6:30pm, but one boy found himself in difficulty, police said.

The boys, aged 15 and 16, tried to get back to shore but the 15-year-old disappeared under the water.

Locals began searching before emergency services arrived with boats and a Toll rescue helicopter.

Police divers were on scene from 10:50pm until 1:30am and resumed on Saturday morning.

Unfortunately, the test positivity rate keeps rising. From today’s figures, almost one in five tests in NSW are coming back positive.

The figure in Victoria is 11.81%.

NSW has recorded new 22,577 cases and five deaths in the last 24 hours. There are now 901 people in hospital in the state, and 79 in ICU.

Happy new year! It’s Donna Lu here, bringing you the first news blog of the year. Hope you are feeling bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning, or enjoying the celebrations elsewhere in the world.

Police said they were “generally pleased” with revellers’ behaviour on New Year’s Eve. NSW Police arrested 128 people state-wide, including 10 in Sydney’s CBD, while 45 move-on directions were issued. Assistant commissioner Peter Thurtell thanked “members of the community who made their plans Covid-safe and celebrated the beginning of 2022 responsibly, in what we hope is a better year for everyone.”

New year, same pandemic, unfortunately: New South Wales hospitals are resorting to flying nurses in from overseas, with staff being begged to take extra shifts. The state recorded 21,151 new Covid cases and six deaths yesterday, with a leaked memo from major hospital warned it “can’t seem to keep up with the exposures and positive staff”.

Within a fortnight or so, Australia has gone from having one of the lowest rates of new Covid cases in the world to being in the top 20 of countries with a population over 500,000. If NSW were a country, it would be sitting in the top 10. It is important, however, to note that countries with better testing systems are inherently likely to produce higher figures.

From today, interstate travellers to Queensland will now be allowed to return a negative rapid antigen test instead of a PCR test before travel. Queensland recorded 3,118 new cases yesterday, with criticisms the new requirements are “pointless” in states with large outbreaks.

Speaking of testing, Victorian and NSW governments are scrambling to organise the distribution of rapid antigen tests to vulnerable people amid a national shortage.