New modelling by the federal government suggests daily hospitalizations will surge in the coming weeks, driven by extremely high levels of transmission of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Though the rate of people who are hospitalized with Omicron is lower compared to the Delta variant, the forecast shows new daily hospital admissions will far exceed previous historical peaks due to the sheer number of cases.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam released the new modelling today, which suggests the current wave of COVID-19 driven by the Omicron variant will peak this month at between 170,000 and 300,000 actual daily cases.

Current national case counts show about 37,500 new cases are reported daily, but those are far underestimated because many parts of the country no longer provide laboratory tests for the majority of the population.

About 28 per cent of lab tests that are performed are coming back positive, meaning more than on in four tests show positive results for the virus.

Tam says that the high positivity rate shows that COVID-19 is widespread and that case counts vastly underestimate the true burden of infection in the broader population.