SA Health reported a short time ago that it has been notified of 17 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in South Australia who have passed away between April 13 and July 27.

The deaths include one woman in her 20s, one woman in her 50s, one woman in her 60s, two women in their 70s, two women in their 90s, one man in his 40s, three men in their 60s, four men in their 70s, one man in his 80s and one man in 90s.

It brings the state’s COVID-19 death toll to 653.

Today’s 3957 cases are down from the 4197 cases reported on Wednesday.

Health Minister Chris Picton warned on Wednesday that there are likely thousands more COVID-19 cases in South Australia than are being reported daily, with strong wastewater testing results being picked up at the Bolivar treatment plant

There are currently 339 people with COVID-19 in hospital – down from 365 yesterday – with eight people in intensive care.

The number of people in hospital includes people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but are hospitalised for other reasons.

Of those in hospital, 202 have received three or more vaccine doses while 122 are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

The vaccination status of 15 others is unknown to SA Health.

The state’s winter wave of cases has been driven by the rise of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants. The latest genome sequencing from SA Health shows 68.1 per cent of samples are the BA.5 subvariant while 16.3 per cent are BA.4.

It comes as the South Australian nurses union raises concerns about their own health and safety amid increasing workloads from the latest wave of cases .

With more than 376,000 active infections across the country, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation (ANMF) has urged all people to get vaccinated, wear masks and take other measures to help reduce the strain on the hospital system.

“It is imperative we do all that we can to ensure that frontline healthcare workers are protected and supported as health services are placed under enormous strain by growing COVID cases coupled with the onset of the flu season and winter demand,” the ANMF’s SA branch CEO Elizabeth Dabars said.

“The kind of demand and pressure we are seeing at the moment has the very real potential to overwhelm capacity and delay care.”

Dabars said nurses and other healthcare workers were doing their best to hold health and aged care services together.

“But after two-and-a-half years with no respite, they are exhausted. They need the community’s support,” she said.

“Nurses, midwives and care workers, all frontline healthcare workers, are asking you to support them, so they can keep supporting you.”

Her comments came as Australia’s three most populous states reported 98 COVID-19 deaths and more than 35,000 fresh infections on Thursday as the latest Omicron variant wave continues.

More than 5350 patients are in hospital with the virus, almost 2300 of them in NSW.

Almost half of adult Australians are now estimated to have contracted the virus since the pandemic began, according to the latest study by Sydney’s Kirby Institute.

Their research shows 46.2 per cent of adults were estimated to have had the virus by early June, with more than a quarter of the population infected in the previous three-month period.

The prevalence is almost triple that reported in its previous serosurvey – an analysis of blood antibody tests – which estimated that by late February about 17 per cent of the population had been infected.

A 23-month-old toddler, who died in Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane on Sunday night, was among 83 fatalities announced across the country on Wednesday.

LATEST 24-HOUR COVID-19 DATA:

• SA: 3957 cases, 17 deaths, 339 in hospital with 11 in ICU
• NSW: 15,704 cases, 34 deaths, 2282 in hospital with 65 in ICU
• Victoria: 12,154 cases, 37 deaths, 852 in hospital with 33 in ICU
• Tasmania: 1175 cases, four deaths, 176 in hospital with four in ICU
• NT: 454 cases, no deaths, 61 in hospital with none in ICU
• Queensland: 7364 cases, 27 deaths, 955 in hospital with 32 in ICU
• WA: 4961 cases, five deaths, 418 in hospital with 16 in ICU.

-With AAP