Victoria has recorded its highest daily COVID-19 death toll since 2020, but health authorities remain hopeful the wave of Omicron infections has hit its highest point and pressure on hospital systems will soon ease.
There were 35 more deaths reported today, the biggest daily increase since 59 deaths were reported on September 4 in 2020, as the state weathered its second wave of infections.
The daily death tolls include a number of recent deaths reported to health authorities and do not indicate that all the deaths occurred on the previous day.
COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said the "sombre milestone" was something worth reflecting on.
"It highlights again the importance of all the work that we're doing as a community to minimise the amount of COVID transmission and of course to ensure that people are protected through the vaccination program," he said.
More than half of the deaths recorded in Victoria since the pandemic began have occurred in the state's more recent waves of Delta and Omicron variant infections.
Mr Weimar said while just 6 per cent of the population was completely unvaccinated, they made up one third of COVID-19 patients in intensive care.
"Fundamentally, the vaccine is the best way to avoid ending up in hospitalisation numbers and avoid ending up in intensive care," he said.
The number of people in hospital after contracting the illness sits at 1,089, up from 1,057 recorded on Tuesday.
Daily hospitalisations have hovered around 1,000 for the past six days.
But in that time, the seven-day average for hospitalisations has fallen from 1,146 last Friday to 1,068 today.
Of the people in hospital, 113 are in intensive care units and 40 are on ventilators.
COVID-positive disability workers approved to do shifts
Mr Weimar said authorities hoped the state had hit the "high point" of the Omicron wave, noting hospitalisations were still "fairly stable".
The state's healthcare system is in the midst of a Code Brown emergency, which allows hospitals to cancel leave for staff and adopt more flexible workflows to cater for a critical surge in patient admissions.
Mr Weimar confirmed that three disability support workers in western Victoria who were COVID-positive were recently given approval to provide care to residents of a private home, all of whom were also infected with the virus.
He said it was the only approval or exemption he was aware of which allowed healthcare or disability workers with active infections to work shifts.
He said the positive staff, who were asymptomatic, had longstanding relationships with the COVID-positive residents and had applied for an exemption so they could continue to provide care while infected.
He said a lot of time and thought went into the exemption, which was granted due to the "exceptional" circumstances.
"Given it was a private home with only COVID-positive people in it and everybody was aware of that setting, on that one occasion our Deputy Chief Health Officer made the decision to allow that arrangement, given the controls were in place," he said.
The Health and Community Services Union said it held "serious concerns" about the exemption, which highlighted systemic staffing issues.
The union said a survey of union members in the disability sector on the weekend found 90 per cent were currently short staffed.
The union's acting state secretary, Kate Marshall, said the union was "appalled" about a lack of consultation on a staffing strategy and urged the government to convene a round table meeting to discuss the "long-term issues" which had fuelled recent staffing shortages.
Cases trending downwards
There were 13,507 new infections officially reported, bringing the number of active cases to 139,562.
The tally was comprised of 6,533 PCR test results and 6,974 rapid antigen tests (RATs) registered with the state on Tuesday.
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.
Mr Weimar said the average waiting time at PCR testing sites across the state was now under 30 minutes and 90 per cent of test results were processed within 24 hours.
"So if you've had any concerns about coming forward to get tested, please come back into our testing system," he said.
About 34 per cent of Victorian adults have received at least three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr Weimar said there were still more than 2 million eligible Victorians who needed to get their booster dose.
"Please, do not delay any further, let's please make this a priority as we start to turn our minds towards going back to work and going back to school," he said.
Mr Weimar said the number of children aged five to 11 who had received their vaccine had continued to grow, but there were thousands of appointments still available.
About a week after tickets to Australian Open sessions were restricted to 50 per cent, Sports Minister Martin Pakula said the Chief Health Officer had agreed to increase capacity to 65 per cent for the remainder of the tournament.
