By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Active Covid-19 cases have stabilised in the South East despite Victoria reporting a record 317 new cases on 16 July.
However, Casey’s spike in new cases continued – with six recorded in the past 24 hours. Active cases in the council area rose by just one to a total of 35.
Greater Dandenong and Cardinia both dropped by one active case to 10 each.
As active cases rose to 2128 across Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews said it was too early to announce a further stage of restrictions.
He noted the reintroduced stay-at-home lockdown was just seven days old – which is just over the average Covid incubation period.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the situation was not “out of control”. Restrictions were hoped to drive down new cases later this week.
However he conceded that Victoria’s new cases may not have yet peaked. Aged-care homes were the greatest vulnerability.
“There’s no guarantees,” he said.
“It’s up to all of us to turn this number around.”
Among the active cases are 150 health-care workers, most of whom were reportedly infected in the community, rather than at work.
Hospital patient numbers are 109, including 29 in intensive care.
In the past 24 hours, two men in their eighties with the illness died in hospital, taking the state’s death toll to 29.
The notion that “29 deaths and we can lift all restrictions and let it run” was “absurd”, Professor Sutton said.
Without controls, deaths would mount “exponentially” to up to 1000 a day – as in Brazil and parts of Europe, he said.
Health Minister Jenny Mikakos said there was sufficient beds for intensive-care patients, including a “surge capacity”. There were also ample supplies of PPE.
In hospitals, there were 1200 ventilators available – with further waiting in warehousing and more on-order.
Since April, more than 600 extra intensive care beds and more than 300 critical care beds had been created, Ms Mikakos said.
In March, the State Government announced 140 hospital beds would open at Casey Hospital’s fast-tracked 128-bed inpatient tower – to ensure the hospital had extra “surge capacity” for coronavirus’s peak.
This included a new 12-bed ICU in the tower as part of a $1.9 billion State Government package to prepare the hospital system for Covid-19.
