There are 953 COVID-19 cases in hospital in Victoria – with 69 active cases in ICU and 42 cleared cases in ICU, and 29 people on a ventilator.
5,214,913 vaccine doses have been administered by Victoria’s state-commissioned services, with 24,832 administered yesterday at state-run centres.
94.6 per cent of Victorians aged 12 and over have now had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 93.1 per cent have had two doses. This excludes the most recent Commonwealth data.
19.9 per cent of Victorians aged 18 and over have had three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The number of third dose vaccinations administered in Victoria passed the one million mark yesterday. In total, 1,046,192 Victorians aged 18 years and over have now received their third dose.
Victoria was notified of 37,169 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday. This includes:
- 16,843 who tested positive on a Rapid Antigen Test and who reported the result to the Department
- 20,326 who returned a positive result on a PCR test
Of those who reported a positive result on a Rapid Antigen Test yesterday:
- Approximately 55 per cent were from tests undertaken yesterday, 12 January.
- Approximately 19 per cent were from tests undertaken 11 January.
- With the remainder from tests undertaken over the previous five days.
Sadly, the Department was notified yesterday of 25 deaths of people aged in their 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 100s. This brings the total number of deaths in Victoria since the pandemic began to 1,639. Of today’s 25 deaths, 18 are recorded as occurring in the last two days. Seven are historic cases that occurred in December. Deaths are reported to the Department by different sources including VICNISS, the Victorian Death Index, and Local Public Health Units.
There are 221,726 active cases in Victoria.
62,406 PCR tests were processed yesterday. The total number of PCR tests performed in Victoria since the pandemic began is 18,201,482.
Updates
New exemptions to isolation requirements for critical workers
From 11.59pm on Tuesday 18 January, a range of critical workers in emergency services, education, critical utilities, custodial facilities, transport and freight, will join workers in the food production sector as being eligible for exemption from quarantine as close contacts of people diagnosed with COVID-19.
This exemption is limited to leaving home to undertake work, and a range of conditions will be required to reduce the risk of being at work while infectious, including mandatory mask use and daily rapid antigen testing for five days.
