There are now 998 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 119 in intensive care and 47 on ventilators.Victoria’s pre-Omicron peak for Covid hospitalisations was 851 in October when the state was battling a surge in Delta infections.However, the figure is dwarfed by the 2816 people in NSW who are in hospital with Covid.More than 93 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated and the state has a mammoth 186,073 active cases.A total of 4488 PCR tests were taken on Sunday and 22,940 vaccines were administered at state hubs.It comes as Victorians waiting for elective surgeries will need to hold on longer, despite calls from surgeons to get them back into the operating theatre.Following public pleas from surgeons to repeal the “blanket ban” on elective surgeries, calling it a “blunt tool” that was leaving people in long-term pain, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there was more to consider than the request of a few.“As soon as we can come out from the Code Brown (emergency declaration), as soon as we feel that it is safe and that we have significant capacity to resume services, that is exactly what we will do,” Mr Andrews said on Sunday.“With the greatest respect to the surgical community, they do one part of the work, they have got to be supported by teams of people.“It is very rare that there would be a surgeon providing care to a patient. Even a day procedure, there are other members of the team and those other members are very high need at the moment. “We are employing all sorts of people in different ways. But we have significant pressure in the system.”Mr Andrews’ comments come after Australian Orthopaedic Association Victorian branch chairman Adrian Trivett lashed the elective surgery ban. “There’s no doubt there’s capacity in the system to continue with some surgeries that are absolutely not life-threatening, but they’re causing disability and pain and they’re not being attended to,” Dr Trivett said.In a similar vein, gynaecologist Simon Gordon said his endometriosis patients were suffering in “chronic and severe pain” while he sat at home.“I’m at home mowing my lawns and turning the coffee machine on. Patients come to me and I say, ‘look, I’m not allowed to operate’,” Dr Gordon said.“Everyone is in the same boat and none of us are doing anything particularly useful … We’re sitting around doing very little when we could be operating.”Mr Andrews said there was “significant pressure” in the hospital system that required prioritisation.“We want the sickest patients getting treated quickest, and that is exactly what the settings are all about,” Mr Andrews said.“They are under constant review, and if we all go out and get our third dose, if we get our kids vaccinated, if we isolate when we are required to, we will have those services resume as fast as we possibly can.”
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