Premier Daniel Andrews has warned Victorian residents that with so little flu infections this winter, if they have even mild flu-like symptoms there’s “every chance” they have coronavirus.
The Premier revealed 282 new cases and 25 fatalities in the 24 hours to this morning – with 22 deaths linked to aged care facilities.
Of the new deaths recorded, he said they included one male in his 60s, four females and three males in their 70s, six females and four males in their 80s, and four females and 3 males in their 90s.
The state currently has 657 people in hospital with coronavirus, with 44 of those in intensive care and 32 on a ventilator.
“There are 3,626 cases with an unknown source, an increase of 148 since yesterday’s report,” Mr Andrews said.
The state now has 1,064 health care workers marked as active cases of COVID-19.
He did, however, claim some “good news” regarding the state’s figures.
“I am pleased to be able to say that regional case numbers are coming down.”
Regional Victoria currently has 436 active cases in areas covered by Stage 3 restrictions.
“Some are still being investigated, to see where that person was or was normally expected to be found.”
“I urge all regional Victorians, please come forward and get tested.”
“Given we have so little flu in Victoria today, because of physical distancing and all the other measures we’ve taken, if you’ve got symptoms even very mild symptoms, there’s every chance that you’ve got [COVID-19].
“So, as soon as you develop symptoms, no matter how mild, if you can come forward and get tested, wait at home until you get your results.”
Meanwhile, NSW has recorded seven new cases since yesterday – one from an overseas arrival and six are local transmissions.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian also urged those with even mild symptoms to get tested immediately.
“While the cases numbers have pleasingly been declining, my anxiety remains the same if not slightly higher because every week we’ve had an accumulation of unsourced cases,” the Premier said.
“Health is working 24/7 to find the links between the cases that don’t have a known sources and existing clusters, but in the meantime it means potentially the virus is continuing to spread in part parts of south western and western Sydney and that is our big concern.”
“Because if you look back to Melbourne – Melbourne didn’t get worse because of the number of cases.
“They had undetected community transmission that then unknowingly got to a stage where it did form a number of different clusters and we certainly don’t want that to happen in NSW”.
