Victoria recorded a rise to 1419 cases and ten deaths on Thursday as updated pandemic figures showed 288 infected Victorians in hospital, with 41 in intensive care and 20 on a ventilator.Case numbers had been hovering around the 1000 mark for the past few days.Health Minister Martin Foley said while the new variant had not yet been found in the state, he flagged there was a high possibility it was already here.“We wouldn’t be surprised, given the arrangements that we’ve seen in New South Wales and around the globe, that it might well be ticking along out there at the moment, but there’s been no cases reported so far,” Mr Foley said.More than 91 per cent of eligible Victorians are now fully vaccinated, with scientists investigating whether current vaccines will offer enough immunity for the new strain.Australia remains on high alert after seven confirmed cases of the Omicron variant, including six infections in NSW and one in the Northern Territory, have so far been confirmed in the country.The latest case, a man in his 40s, arrived in Sydney on November 25 after recently spending time in South Africa.The man is believed to have spent six days in the community in western Sydney before testing positive to Covid yesterday.Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Premier Daniel Andrews said he believed a third dose of the vaccine would be critical in fighting new variants. He said despite the rise in new cases, there were less hospital admissions.“We’re still doing that work to firm up our view that whilst this is much more transmissible, it’s much more infectious, it moves more quickly, it is presenting relatively mildly,” Mr Andrews said.“Given the speed at which it moves, it may well replace the Delta variant, and if it does produce more mild disease, then that’s not a bad thing.“We just have to have all of that confirmed.”
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