Source: ABCnews
The number of patients with COVID-19 in Victorian hospitals has leapt to 631, as the state records 21,997 new cases and six further deaths.
The hospitalisations are the highest in the state since November 6, and include 51 patients in ICU, with 22 people on ventilators.
A further 49 patients whose infections are no longer active are still receiving care in ICU.
The rise in infections marks a new record for the state and was detected from 64,861 test results, taking the test positivity rate to 34 per cent.
But the true number of infections is much higher, as parts of the state’s swab collection network have shut for the week to process a backlog of samples.
There are now 61,120 active cases in Victoria and 737 people have died in the current outbreak.
As of today, the Victorian government has put a freeze on all but the most-urgent elective surgeries, as staff infections and rising cases overwhelm the healthcare system.
Urgent procedures and elective surgery scheduled for January 6 and 7 can still go ahead if it is not safe to postpone.
The reductions apply to public health services in Melbourne and Barwon Health, the Ballarat Health Services campus of Grampians Health, Bendigo Health, Goulburn Valley Health and Latrobe Regional Hospital, and private hospitals and day procedure centres in Melbourne and private hospitals in Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, the Latrobe Valley and Shepparton.
Health system strains as hundreds of workers test positive
Alfred Health’s chief executive Andrew Way said staff shortages due to coronavirus were so critical, he was considering asking staff to come back from holiday early.
“The startling thing over the last few days is the number of our own staff that have become COVID positive,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne.
“I have about 5 to 6 per cent of our 10,000 staff unavailable to work.”LIVE UPDATES: Read our blog for the latest news on the COVID-19 pandemic
Professor Way said an equal number of staff could not work due to being close contacts.
“It’s a real challenge to provide the most urgent care to the most people in need with smaller numbers of staff than we would normally have,” he said.
Professor Way urged the state government to spend more money on bolstering the health system to avoid freezing surgeries in the future.
“New variants will emerge and we don’t know what their impact will be, so we are going to have to have a much more agile response than we have had in the past,” he said.
“It may well be we need a much larger health system that has spare capacity in it to cope with the consequences of these sorts of outbreaks.”
