IMAGE: The number of active COVID-19 cases in Victoria is expected to be much higher than the reported figures.(ABC News: Peter Drought)
Source: ABCnews
Victoria’s COVID-19 hospitalisations have risen to 1,229, up from 1,114 reported on Sunday, and the state has recorded a further six deaths.
Of the patients in hospital, there are 129 in intensive care, 38 of whom are receiving ventilation.
There are now at least 245,040 active cases in the state.
It comes as the Victorian government begins distributing rapid antigen tests (RATs) to workers in health, aged care and other vulnerable settings.
Yesterday, a major delivery of 3 million rapid antigen tests (RATs) arrived from a bulk order of 44 million.
More tests are expected in the coming month, with some to be delivered to multicultural and multi-faith community organisations.
The Australian Education Union has warned that better testing and better ventilation needs to be put in place to ensure classrooms are safe, as Victorian students prepare to return to school at the end of the month.
Some states have decided to delay the start of the school year amid rising Omicron infections, but Education Minister James Merlino said Victoria planned to start on schedule.
Jeff Gray from the Education Union said he hoped new measures were put in place before the beginning of the school term.
“We we want our staff to be confident that they’re going into a safe and healthy workplace, and that as much as possible, what could be reasonably done is being done before school starts again,” Mr Gray said.
The state has officially recorded 22,429 new COVID-19 infections. The true number of new cases in the community could be much higher as a result of immense pressure on overwhelmed testing networks.
The new cases were reported from 12,059 PCR results and 10,370 at-home rapid antigen tests.
About 24 per cent of Victorian adults have received three doses of a vaccine so far.
