Victoria records its highest daily number of COVID-19 cases

ANOTHER 86 coronavirus cases have been recorded in regional Victoria.

There are 555 active cases in the regions, with new cases recorded in Greater Geelong, Shepparton, and the Mitchell Shire.

Greater Bendigo and other central Victorian shires were not mentioned in Tuesday's COVID-19 update.

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Premier Daniel Andrews said there were 517 Victorians in hospital with COVID-19, while 101 people were receiving intensive care and 66 people were on a ventilator.

Mr Andrews said of those in hospital, 66 per cent had not received a coronavirus vaccine.

Twenty-eight per cent of those people in hospital have received one dose, while six per cent were fully vaccinated.

Mr Andrews said 83.2 per cent of Victorians over the age of 16 have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. About 53 per cent of that age group were fully vaccinated.

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The premier encouraged people to book a vaccine after more than 96,000 people made a booking on Monday.

Mr Andrews said in state-run clinics this week, there were 2000 Pfizer appointments, 7000 AstraZeneca appointments, and 27,000 Moderna appointments available.

"Vaccination is how we will curtail the growth in these numbers," Mr Andrews said. "Vaccination is how we will open up and be free. Vaccination is how we will keep people safe.

"Please go and book an appointment. There are very few people in hospital very sick who have been double-dose vaccinated, and that is all the reason you need, I think, to go and play your part."

Earlier

THERE were 1,763 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Victoria yesterday, compared to 1377 cases the day before.

The new infections were found from 62,189 test results processed on Monday.

More news: New COVID-19 exposure sites listed in central Victoria

The surge in cases represents the highest daily number of cases ever recorded in the country.

There are now 14,368 active cases in Victoria.

Four more deaths were also recorded.

Yesterday, over 35,000 vaccine doses were administered by Victoria's state-commissioned services.

Of the 1377 cases reported on Monday, 72 were in regional Victoria, including two in Greater Bendigo, two in Campaspe, five in Macedon Ranges and two in both Mount Alexander and Gannawarra.

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As reported yesterday, Victorian health authorities look likely to end the listing of tier two exposure sites.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the idea was to concentrate resources on tier one sites.

He said authorities were still contacting every positive case and their household and close contacts were being quarantined appropriately.

"We have to focus our efforts where we will get most bang for buck, most efficiency of contact tracing," Professor Sutton told reporters in Melbourne at the daily press conference.

"We are doing well on those metrics, there are so many of them, whether or not we capture that information."

But he said the sheer volume of information available for tier two sites meant it was failing to get through to the public.

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"People can't go through 100 pages of tier two exposure sites, online, they simply won't," Professor Sutton said.

"It's not an effective use of all of that energy and human resource, that can be put into the best and most effective interventions, which relate to household transmission and transmission of those close contacts.

"You will see we will be publishing the highest risk tier sites as well as letting households know and businesses know, what they need to do, for those particular higher risk exposures."

He said tier two websites would likely drop off the Victorian government's website progressively over the coming days.

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The government is no longer aiming for zero cases but is prepared to lock down regional areas if it thinks outbreaks are getting out of hand.

They did exactly that last weekend after a spike of new cases in Shepparton.

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