The ACT's chance of coming out of lockdown next week appears increasingly unlikely

[Neferti]

The ACT's chance of coming out of lockdown next week appears increasingly unlikely as more than half of the territory's COVID-19 cases reported in the past week have spent time in the community while infectious.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he still hadn't given up hope of the territory reaching so-called COVID zero, but warned even when the lockdown did ease, Canberrans would be subject to strong public health measures in the months to come.

"I'm not going to give up on the suite of public health measures that bend the curve, but it's clear that we're not going to have double zero days tomorrow or the next day," he said.

"We're going to have to continue to vaccinate, we're going to have to continue our effective test trace isolate quarantine scheme."

It was revealed on Wednesday, the hospitalisation rate of Canberra's outbreak sits at 8 per cent but ACT deputy chief health officer Dr Vanessa Johnston said she was confident hospitals could handle the caseload.

There were 20 new cases of COVID-19 reported in the ACT in the 24 hours to 8pm on Tuesday.

Less than half the cases had a confirmed link on Wednesday morning, with the source of 11 cases under investigations.

There were seven cases infectious in the community, seven were in quarantine for their entire infectious period and the infectious status over six is under investigation.

Mr Barr has been adamant that the end of Canberra's lockdown would be contingent on a run of days where there had been no cases infectious in the community.

However, he stressed on Wednesday that any easing of restrictions would be gradual, as set out in the national plan.

The plan, based on modelling from the Doherty Institute outlines low, medium and high public health measures.

Mr Barr said the territory was currently subject to high public health measures and the next step was to transition to medium measures.

Examples of activities that could be allowed under medium public health measures include increased retail activity, seated dining for small groups at restaurants and cafes and five visitors to a household.

"We've been at the high end of the spectrum but we've had one easing, so we're still sitting at the high end of the spectrum, but not the highest," Mr Barr said.

"The next phase of our journey is to transition from high to medium."

Dr Johnston said the rolling five-day average of new cases was going down, but expressed concern about an upward trend of cases infectious in the community over the same period.

"We're not particularly happy with that, so that still remains a concern for us," she said.

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