ABC news Report: Victoria has recorded 847 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 and one further death, amid warnings hospitalisations will continue to rise.
A man in his 80s from the Hume council area is the 22nd death linked to the state’s current Delta outbreak.
The new infections were found from 57,342 test results processed on Friday.
It is the highest single-day tally of the outbreak to date, and is four times higher than the number of infections recorded at the start of the month.
Case numbers are projected to keep rising until a peak later in October, with admissions to hospital also expected to keep going up.
It brings the total number of active infections in the state to 7,611, the vast majority of those acquired in the community.
The outbreak is being driven by spread within and between households, many of them containing young essential workers across Melbourne’s north and west.
There are fears recent protests in the CBD could be superspreader events, especially after it was revealed a person was hospitalised with COVID-19 after attending Wednesday’s violence at the Shrine of Remembrance.
There are 321 people currently in hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 65 are in intensive care, including 45 on a ventilator.
That is more than double the number of people who were in hospital a fortnight ago.
“And this is why it is so critical for all of us to do everything we can to minimise household-to-household transmission and to minimise the community transmission we are continuing to see,” COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said.
Parts of the state remain in lockdown and a strict, daily 9:00pm–5:00am curfew is still in place in Melbourne, so it will come into effect midway through tonight’s AFL grand final.
“We are doing everything we can to create that capacity, and that means denying others the chance to get treatment and the option to get their own forms of treatment, so please minimise the transmission, that household contact.
“Do it for yourself and your family, those you love and for those who do not want to end up in hospital over the weeks ahead as we all do everything we can to get vaccinated and get to the finishing line.”
Report courtesy: abc.net.au
