This week, 9684 people in South Australia tested positive for the virus, 684 more than last week, but the number of infectious people in hospital dropped from 140 to 128.

PCR testing increased by just over five per cent over the past week, with 4799 of the 26,496 tests returning positive results, on top of 4885 positive rapid antigen tests.

Latest genome sampling results show the majority – 61 per cent – of samples analysed were BA.5 and related variants.

BA.2 and related variants accounted for 32 per cent of analysed samples, followed by BA.4 with 1.5 per cent of samples.

SA Health this afternoon reported 12 more COVID-19 deaths from people aged from their 30s to 90s, including two deaths in people aged under 70 years.

There are eight COVID-positive people in intensive care.

Chief public health officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said last week that the curve from the latest COVID wave was flattening quickly.

She said the state was “getting towards the peak”.

“Until we actually see the case numbers come down, I can’t tell you and officially say that we’re at the peak, but we’re certainly at that top and at that plateau, which is obviously good news,” she said.

Some 37,796 people in New South Wales were diagnosed with the virus this week, 6000 more than last week, while Victoria’s weekly total of almost 27,000 was 5000 up on last week.

– with AAP