Coronavirus update 22 January 2022

There are 1,029 COVID-19 cases in hospital in Victoria – with 83 active cases and 37 cleared cases in ICU, including 39 on a ventilator.

5,417,932 vaccine doses have been administered by Victoria’s state-commissioned services, with 27,051 administered yesterday at state-run centres. 5,273 of these doses were for children aged 5 to 11.

29.7 per cent of Victorians aged 18 and over have had three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. 93.3 per cent of Victorians aged 12 and over have had two doses.

Victoria was notified of 16,016 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday. This includes:

  • 7,584 who tested positive on a Rapid Antigen Test
  • 8,432 who returned a positive result on a PCR test.

Of those who reported a positive result on a Rapid Antigen Test yesterday:

  • About 62 per cent were from tests undertaken yesterday, 21 January.
  • About 19 per cent were from tests undertaken on 20 January.
  • The remainder of the tests were undertaken over the previous five days.

Sadly, the Department was notified yesterday of 20 deaths of people aged in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. This brings the total number of deaths in Victoria since the pandemic began to 1,791.

There are 217,505 active cases in Victoria.

39,179 PCR tests were processed yesterday. The total number of PCR tests performed in Victoria since the pandemic began is 18,655,536.­­

Updates

Third-dose vaccination blitz continues

All Victorians aged 18 and over who had their second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine three or more months ago are now due for their third dose.

As part of the four-day blitz, opening hours have been extended at major state-run vaccination hubs across Victoria, and walk-up capacity increased. Book online or check the wait times at your nearest state vaccination centre before you go.

Active cases in Victoria

In line with recent changes to isolation guidelines, all cases are automatically released from isolation seven days after they first test positive. However, if their symptoms of COVID-19 are still present at this time (such as a runny nose, sore throat, cough or fever), they should avoid social gatherings, sensitive settings and contact with vulnerable people until these have resolved.

As part of the transition to a permanent rapid antigen test reporting system, 26,000 historic rapid test cases were yesterday cleared from the number of active case numbers. Another 35,000 cases will be removed from the rapid test system over today and tomorrow.

Case totals will be progressively reconciled and historic cases removed over the next few days as more cases end their seven-day isolation period and other cases are entered into the system.

/Public Release. View in full here.