Victoria COVID-19 infections hit 44,155 overnight

Victoria has recorded 44,155 new COVID-19 infections today and four deaths.

There are 752 people with the virus hospitalised, with 104 in ICU and 23 on a ventilator.

State COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said of today’s figures, an estimated 9000 are from rapid tests registered online.

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https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1479936767268515841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

The numbers follow yesterday’s case record of 51,356, which was spurred in part due to rapid antigen tests being included in the daily numbers for the first time.

Yesterday’s numbers included a backlog of RAT results from the previous week.

Despite the higher numbers in recent days, Health Minister Greg Hunt said it is “very heartening that there are only 76 patients on ventilation for COVID-19 across the country”.

Mr Hunt said 141,000 boosters were administered yesterday, forming part of 164,000 vaccine doses given out in total and this was Australia’s “highest Saturday since October”.

“At a national level, we have surpassed 94.7 per cent first doses. We are within sight of 95 per cent which has always been seen as the full vaccination level, but we want to keep pushing. Our over 50 population are almost 99 per cent, and we have passed the 92 per cent figure for second doses,” he said.

Mr Hunt also said around 1.25 million vaccines were delivered last week, and thanked the “incredible work by our GPs, our pharmacists, and the state clinics are no coming back online… as well as our Indigenous medical clinics”.

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The numbers follow yesterday’s case record of 51,356, which was spurred in part due to rapid antigen tests being included in the daily numbers for the first time.

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Speaking yesterday, Health Minister Martin Foley said the reporting of RATs was exactly what the state government wanted to see.

“This is in many respects exactly what we wanted to happen, and we thank all those people for reporting their COVID-19 status to us,” Mr Foley said.

“It’s given us a realistic picture of transmission in the community. We knew there were undiagnosed cases out there.

“Having this realistic figure allows us to put more people in contact with the support they need.”

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