Almost all 12,500 hospital beds in NSW could be full during Omicron peak in worst-case scenario

Modelling predicts 6,000 people could be hospitalised with Covid in the second half of January

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Almost all of the 12,500 beds across public and private hospitals in New South Wales will be occupied - by both Covid cases and regular patients - when pressure from the state's Omicron outbreak peaks in late January, if worst-case scenario modelling is realised.

On Friday, after NSW's chief health officer, Kerry Chant, acknowledged that the 38,625 new cases recorded were an underestimate" of the actual total, health authorities released fresh hospitalisation modelling, alongside the announcement of a pause on elective surgeries and new restrictions to slow the speed of Omicron.