Victoria has reached another grim milestone, recording more than 4,000 COVID deaths since the pandemic began.
Victoria recorded 16 new deaths and 8,740 new cases of the virus on Tuesday
There are now 543 people in hospital with COVID-19, of whom 28 are in intensive care, and five are on a ventilator.
Over the course of the pandemic, more than 2 million Victorians have contracted and recovered from the virus.
The state only surpassed 3,000 COVID deaths two months ago, on May 6.
From June 24, Victoria relaxed some of its remaining COVID restrictions, meaning masks no longer have to be worn at airports and mandates for three vaccine doses no longer apply for jobs including teachers and meat and seafood processing workers.
Masks remain mandatory for people aged eight and above in some settings, including public transport and healthcare environments such as hospitals.
Wastewater testing continues to paint a picture of the situation in Victoria, with the latest data showing that Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5 are the dominant strains in major population centres such as Melbourne and Geelong.
At the beginning of May, those sub-variants were identified in less than 5 per cent of samples, but as of June 27 they were present in 43.5 per cent of the samples.
Premier Daniel Andrews announced Tuesday that the state's pandemic declaration would be extended by another three months.
The framework enables the government to implement COVID-19 related measures deemed necessary to protect public health.
The extension will last until October 12.
Victoria's Opposition Leader Mathew Guy criticised the move as unnecessary, and said it would lead to "a longer, slower road to recovery" from the effects of the pandemic.
In recent days, Queensland's Chief Health Officer, John Gerrard, said his counterparts across the country had been discussing a return to mask mandates in the face of rising infections.
Australia marked 10,000 COVID deaths over the weekend.
Clear public health messages could help prevent deaths, expert says
Deakin University epidemiology chair Catherine Bennett said deaths could still be prevented by focusing on improving vaccination rates and encouraging people to take precautions, such as wearing masks.
She said data showing unvaccinated, or only partially vaccinated, people were over-represented among those dying after contracting COVID was revealing.
"There are still people out there who are vulnerable and we need to understand what the barriers are for vaccination and help people understand what the risk really is," she said.
"We are seeing higher numbers of deaths reported now than we've seen since the big Delta wave, or going back to the second wave."
Professor Bennett said a concerted focus on understanding why some older people were still not fully vaccinated, and helping to allay fears and communicate risk, would be effective.
"The risk of the vaccine is low but the risk, particularly in older Australians, is really high," she said.
"And now you can't really shield from the virus."
She said having "really clear public health messaging" informing people of the high infection rates in the community might help shift attitudes.
Professor Bennett said the emergence and spread of sub-variants had led to sustained high infection rates across the country.
She said we "don't yet know what comes next".
"It just means we can't get to the point where you're out the other side of the wave and it's all good," she said.
"These sub-variants just keep deepening the wave.
"We've still got some work to do and winter's always the hardest time to manage these sorts of infections."
