Victoria and New South Wales record 22,986 COVID-19 cases and 14 deaths

Both states recorded seven deaths each in the last 24-hour reporting period.

Victoria has recorded 11,083 new cases, while there are 428 people in hospital with the virus.

This includes 35 people in ICU and five people on ventilators.

New South Wales recorded 11,903 positive tests.

There are 1645 people are in hospital, with 68 people being treated in ICU.

NSW Health confirmed the BA.4 infection in a traveller who returned from South Africa yesterday, as the state flagged 13,771 new COVID-19 cases and a further 19 deaths.

The World Health Organisation first flagged the new strain, and another, BA.5 in mid-April, warning they contain mutations that may help them evade the immune system in people already vaccinated.

James Wood, a mathematician at UNSW’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine, said it’s likely thousands of Australians have been already been reinfected with the virus after multiple strains emerged.