5 February 2022
Victoria has recorded the deaths of a further 41 Covid-19 patients.
It is the biggest daily increase since 59 deaths were reported on 4 September 2020.
The daily death tolls include a number of recent deaths reported to health authorities and do not indicate that all the deaths occurred on the previous day.
The number of people in hospital with the virus has fallen to 687, down from 707 on Friday.
Of those patients, 80 are in intensive care units and 31 are on ventilators.
The state recorded another 7810 new Covid-19 infections.
That figure is comprised of 5099 rapid antigen test results and 2711 positive PCR tests.
It is the lowest figure since 7172 cases were reported on 2 January, when the testing system was under immense strain.
It brings the number of active cases across the state to 63,409, down from 65,968 a day earlier.
About 43 percent of the adult population has received at least three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
And about 48 percent of Victorians aged between five and 11 have now had at least one vaccine dose, after the rollout for that age group began on 10 January.
Nearly 3000 students test positive in first week of term
More than 2900 students and more than 400 teachers tested positive to Covid-19 in Victorian schools' first week of term.
Many of those infections were detected through the "strong recommendation" that teachers and students use a rapid test twice-weekly in mainstream schools and every day in specialist education settings.
"With more than 1.1 million Victorians in schools every day, these cases are an extremely low proportion of the overall case tally," a Department of Education spokesperson said.
No schools have been closed, despite the infection spike, with contact tracing aimed at keeping classrooms open.
NSW records 18 Covid deaths, 152 people in ICU
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says the state is "travelling very well" after recording its lowest daily death toll in almost three weeks.
The state reported 18 Covid-19 deaths, down from 31 yesterday.
There are 2337 people with the virus in hospital, of which 152 are in ICU.
There were 8389 new cases in the reporting period, of which 5300 were from rapid antigen tests and 3089 were from PCR swabs.
"We are seeing some very pleasing and reassuring data coming through in relation to hosptalisations and ICU presentations," Perrottet said this morning.
More than 42 per cent of the population have had three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Despite the majority of deaths of the last week being among older people, only 18 per cent of those who died had had a booster shot and about one in five was unvaccinated.
NSW Health's Jeremy McAnulty said it was "really important" that people get the booster shot.
"We need to make sure those booster shots for all people 16 and over now are given on time because booster is really important for preventing the transmission and serious disease," he said.
McAnulty said that of the 18 deaths, 11 were men and seven were women.
- ABC
Source and quoting Radio New Zealand.
Yours sincerely
Frank Short
