There are now 465 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 66 in intensive care and 18 on ventilators.More than 93 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated and the state has 53,707 active cases.A total of 2058 PCR tests were taken on Wednesday and 10,221 vaccines were administered at state hubs. Victoria is considering winding back the use of QR codes after the state heavily minimised its contact tracing system late last year. Premier Daniel Andrews announced the potential shift on Sunday, saying the codes’ function was “under very active review” after the state reached its peak of the Omicron wave.He said there was room to make adjustments in many of the state’s rules but said “we can further streamline those”.“It’s been tough, really challenging,” Mr Andrews said.“QR coding is not being used for the purpose of contact tracing, because there is no contact tracing.“What it’s used for at the moment is to validate if a person has a green tick.”Mr Andrews said the same system was being used in NSW but reiterated he would make announcements about Covid-related rules on a later date.Victoria heavily relied on QR codes to help contact trace and curb spread between the second wave and the state reached mass vaccination levels. However, when cases exploded over summer due to Omicron’s arrival, positive cases were generally left to do the own contact tracing. Victoria’s code brown restrictions will be wound back from Monday after being activated in January due to high numbers of hospitalisations during the Omicron wave.The code has allowed hospitals to postpone staff members’ leave and redeploy workers to areas of urgent need in order to streamline emergency management systems. From Monday, private hospitals in Melbourne will be able to perform up to half of elective surgery in the city and up to 75 per cent in regional areas.
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