CANBERRA, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- South Australians have been warned to prepare for COVID-19 infections to peak in late January.

Steven Marshall, the Premier of South Australia (SA), on Friday released modelling from Adelaide University that found the state's daily coronavirus case tally would peak at 6,000 to 10,000 between Jan. 15 and 25.

"This translates to about 370 cases in (hospital) beds and 50 in intensive care at that peak," he told reporters.

SA on Friday reported a pandemic record of 5,679 new coronavirus cases.

Nationally Australia reported more than 100,000 new locally-acquired infections for the second straight day and 56 deaths - 29 in New South Wales (NSW), 18 in Victoria, six in SA and three in Queensland.

Department of Health data published on Thursday night revealed there were about 734,000 active cases in Australia, 4,197 of which were being treated in hospital, including 306 in intensive care units.

Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt on Friday announced that Australia on Thursday set a new record for booster vaccines administered for the third consecutive day.

"A record 254,515 boosters were administered yesterday. Over 4.6 million Australians have had a booster. Now up to 50.7 percent of those eligible," he wrote on social media.

Marshall also on Friday announced SA's plan to return to face-to-face learning at schools after the summer holidays.

From Feb. 2 the state's oldest secondary and youngest primary school students will return to classrooms.

All other age groups will begin online classes on the same date before returning to classrooms on Feb. 14. Enditem

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