Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews announced 451 new COVID-19 cases on Friday morning and 11 deaths in the last 24 hours, including a woman in her 50s, two men in their 70s, six people in their 80s and two women in their 90s. Seven of the deaths were connected to aged care.
There are currently 607 Victorians in hospital battling with coronavirus, with 41 of them in intensive care.
Apart from the elderly, health workers are at risk with 1,527 confirmed cases and 911 active cases from 800 the day before.
All confirmed cases are being doorknocked, and in a positive turn there were 1,000 people home from the 1,150 people doorknocked (the biggest single-day effort). The 150 people who did not answer their doors have been referred to Victoria Police, who are making inquiries.
“You can no longer leave your home to exercise if you are meant to be self-isolating,” Mr Andrews said.
“I can confirm that the joint ADF-Department of Health teams have conducted more than 5,000 home visits since 22 July, when the program began.”
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the number of healthcare workers affected is very big.
“I’m not aware of any individual or any worker who has got the virus more than once,” he said, pointing to this as a rare phenomenon.
“That especially applies in aged care. In our hospital system, nurses are more represented in these healthcare workers numbers than doctors. The number of doctors is much less.”