Australia might need to reinstate routine PCR testing for COVID to ensure new concerning variants aren’t emerging, an expert recommends.

University of Sydney epidemiologist Professor Angela Webster said Australia needed to better understand the virus’ spread in China, where cases have spiked.

“When there’s a lot of uncontrolled infection and a lot of people getting sick at the same time, the sheer number of infections increases the likelihood of new variants emerging,” she told ABC TV on Friday.

While new variants occur regularly and Australia has a highly vaccinated population, Professor Webster said it was important to track what’s happening in China, with Beijing being less than forthcoming with data.

“There have been strong calls for China to be much more transparent about what’s going on,” she said.

“There could be new variants in China rapidly circulating, and therefore potentially spreading to the rest of the world, that we are unprepared for and we haven’t been able to learn much about before it happens.”

• No change to China travel rules – for now

She said PCR tests were used to sequence COVID strains as Australia monitors the number of severe infections and hospitalisations to assess the impact of the virus during the holidays.

“It may be we have to reinstate more routine testing here to ensure that any incoming variants aren’t completely different,” she said.

Professor Webster noted that case numbers and hospitalisations appeared to have stabilised, although staff at one Tasmanian hospital have been called back early from their Christmas holidays.

The Royal Hobart Hospital has had to reallocate staff, call on casual and part-timers and ask staff to work overtime to address the “significant” demand for services and COVID-related absences straining resources.

The hospital also reviewed annual leave and asked staff to come back to work to help keep critical services running as it operates at the highest level of its COVID-19 management plan.

Because of a major surge in demand for hospital and ambulance services in southern Tasmania, State Health Commander Kathrine Morgan-Wicks said the department would “reluctantly” have to keep recalling staff.

She asked people to be patient if there were longer wait times for non-urgent visits and encouraged the use of alternative health services if possible to reduce strain on busy emergency departments.

As cities and towns across Australia prepare to celebrate New Year’s Eve without COVID restrictions for the first time in two years, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged people to look after their health.

“I give people a reminder again … if you’re eligible for a booster please get it,” he told Nine’s Today Show on Thursday.

“It does help you to, one, avoid catching COVID but, secondly as well, if you do, it minimises the impact that it can have and that’s a very important message.

“Don’t relax. COVID is still around.”

Opposition immigration spokesman Dan Tehan said the government needed to follow the health advice on Chinese arrivals, with the chief medical officer not yet recommending extra measures for tourists.

“If that medical advice says we need to act, we need to be in a position to act and act quickly,” he told ABC radio.

He said there should be cause for concern about rising infections in China as Australia was a popular tourist destination.

“What we have to make sure is that we are being fully advised of all the risks,” he said.

Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said the government continued to monitor the situation and health advice.

“The health advice at the moment has said there shouldn’t be any changes,” she told Today on Friday.

In the lead-up to Christmas, national COVID-19 cases and death rates were declining.

There was a 4 per cent drop in infections in the week to the Friday before Christmas, with an average of 15,314 daily cases reported.

-AAP