Acting Premier Jacinta Allan on Tuesday noted there were several Covid protocols in place, like mask wearing indoors, but said officials were monitoring the situation closely.“Those measures and other very sensible commonsense measures that we’ve got in place will continue to play an important role,” she told reporters.“We’ll continue to look at if there are any other commonsense measures that can be taken.“That’s a matter for the Health Minister to consider.”Victoria reported 14,020 yesterday. Today that number rose to 17,636 Covid-19 cases and nearly a dozen deaths.Ms Allan said yesterday that officials were focused on a different figure.“Yesterday’s case numbers were high (but) those hospitalisation numbers are remaining stable and that’s a key metric that we’re keeping a very close eye on,” she said.“Modelling provided did show that it was about (now) during this January period that there was an expectation that there would be a higher number than we’ve experienced of Covid cases in our community. “That‘s exactly what we’re seeing happen here in Victoria.”Eleven deaths were reported in the state’s health department figures on Wednesday.There are 591 people in hospital with the virus, including 20 on ventilators.This is a spike of 15 per cent, up from 516 Covid patients in hospital from the previous 24 hours.There were just under 60,000 tests carried out in the past 24 hours, with the state’s active cases rising to 51,317.Fifty-four Covid testing sites across Victoria were set to shut to deal with a backlog of testing amid overwhelming demand.Private laboratories 4Cyte Pathology, ACL, Melbourne Pathology and Dorevitch Pathology will temporarily close testing centres.“I’m afraid that today four of our private sector laboratory partners have confirmed they closing, temporarily suspending a number of their testing centres,” Victorian Covid commander Jeroen Weimar told reporters on Tuesday.The surge in cases came after Health Minister Martin Foley took a swing at the federal government for the lack of rapid antigen tests.Mr Foley slammed Scott Morrison on Monday for shifting the burden to state leaders.“What we’re seeing consistently from the Prime Minister is his ability to transfer responsibility to the states, ”he said.“That’s just the way this Prime Minister operates.“The states clearly have a view that freely available rapid antigen testing, as part of an ongoing response to Omicron, forms part of what should be a national response.“In lieu of that national response, the states have to fill the void.”Mr Foley said he expected the first few hundred thousand rapid antigen tests, which are part of a 34 million order by the Andrews government, would start arriving this week.Mr Morrison had earlier confirmed he would not make rapid antigen tests free.The Prime Minister claimed Australia was now at a stage of the pandemic where not everything could be made free.“ We already make them free to everyone who is required to have one,” Mr Morrison told Sunrise on Monday.NSW recorded 35,054 new Covid-19 cases and eight deaths on Wednesday.Almost one in three people who were tested for Covid-19 in NSW returned positive results.
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