Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has given his strongest indication yet that to be considered fully vaccinated against COVID-19, people will be required to have had three doses.
About 35 per cent of Victorian adults have received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Speaking on Thursday ahead of a national cabinet meeting, Mr Andrews said the third dose remained a critically important step in the vaccination process, and would be crucial in protecting against "whatever variant is coming down the track".
"This is not a two-dose thing, of two doses and a bonus," Mr Andrews said.
Mr Andrews said he hoped confirmation that Australians would need three doses of a vaccine to be considered fully vaccinated would come from ATAGI and national cabinet on Thursday, and that proof of a third dose was likely to be woven into Victoria's vaccinated economy.
"I think it will very soon be three doses to get the green tick. Who knows what comes after that," he said.
However, following the National Cabinet, the Prime Minister's Office said it would not pre-empt ATAGI's advice and would wait for its recommendations.
More than 2.3 million Victorians are now eligible to receive their booster dose.
There are 219,000 vaccination bookings available in the next month for people aged over 12 through state sites for first, second and third doses.
Victoria on Friday recorded the deaths of 15 more COVID-19 patients.
The number of people in hospital after contracting the illness sits at 1,057, down from 1,089 recorded on Wednesday.
Of the people in hospital, 117 are in intensive care units and 40 are on ventilators.
There were 13,755 new infections officially reported, bringing the number of active cases to 119,153.
The tally was comprised of 6,130 PCR test results and 7,625 rapid antigen tests (RATs) registered with the state on Wednesday.
Turnaround times for tests have improved dramatically in recent days, following long delays at the start of the month.
Naomi Bromley from the Department of Health said 93 per cent of PCR tests were now being returned within one day.
Number of health workers furloughed due to COVID dropping
Mr Andrews had no further update for the resumption of elective surgery, and said it had been an incredibly difficult decision to cancel services.
It comes as figures released this week showed the number of Australians waiting more than a year for elective surgery had tripled.
Victoria put a freeze on elective surgeries on January 5 in response to growing hospital workloads.
Mr Andrews did not rule out the possibility of a "blitz" on elective surgery.
However he said while the numbers of healthcare staff furloughed was dropping, there was still not enough staff to resume elective surgeries.
"This is not about money. This is not about machines. It’s not about beds, it’s about people," he said.
Opposition leader Matthew Guy criticised the government for the prolonged freeze on elective surgery, saying it was a sign of a mismanaged health system.
"If the Premier says no government has built more hospitals than his, then why is elective surgery remaining closed in Victoria today?" Mr Guy said.
"Why is Victoria the only state in Australia to have shut elective surgery to the extent that we have?"
Mr Guy called for the resumption of elective surgery, and noted strong feedback from Victorian medical professionals who were calling to return to work.
"Doctors are calling for it to resume, those outside of the theatre-level health professionals are calling for it to resume," he said.
"The only people who won't let it resume is the government. It's insane and it's crazy, people are suffering, so get elective surgery back and do it straight away."
QR code check-ins to remain in use
Mr Andrews said QR codes and check-in protocols would continue to be used to police the vaccine mandate for the foreseeable future.
He noted that NSW this week extended their check-in settings for another month, and said the government would continue to adhere to medical advice from experts.
"These things are not going to be there forever, but they’re going to be there for as long as the experts tell us they serve a purpose," Mr Andrews said.
"It’s sad that we’ve got to have all these elaborate systems to keep out people who have made the wrong choice."
Mr Andrews said the high volume of positive COVID cases in Victoria meant that the state was "well beyond contact tracing" with check-in data.
Authorities believe Victoria's Omicron peak has likely passed
Both health authorities and medical experts have said this week it's likely the state has already reached its Omicron peak.
A stabilisation in case numbers and slight drop in hospitalisations has led both Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to speculate that the case peak of the outbreak has likely passed.
"Booster blitz going great guns. Peak in cases very likely behind us. ICU cases and deaths haven't peaked, but will hopefully stabilise soon," Professor Sutton said in a tweet.
James Trauer, who heads Monash University's epidemiological modelling unit, said he believed Victoria's outbreak was following the same downward trajectory South Africa and European countries had already experienced.
"We're following that pattern and it's all looking like we're on the downslope, now," Dr Trauer said.
While the actual number of cases in the community is likely higher than the official tally, the seven-day average for new infections has been falling steadily since hitting a high of around 40,000 on January 14.
