Victoria suffered a grim 24 hours with 25 new deaths confirmed on Monday, 17 August, the deadliest day since the pandemic. The previous worst day for deaths was 21 last Wednesday.
The 25 Victorians who died in the last 24 hours are a man in his 60s, four females and three males in their 70s, six females and four males in their 80s, four females and three males in their 90s. Most of the fatalities – 22 of the 25 – are linked to aged care outbreaks. Since the start of the pandemic, the cumulative total number of deaths in aged care in the state is 216 people.
There are currently 657 Victorians battling with COVID-19 in hospital – 44 of those are receiving intensive care and 32 of those 44 are on a ventilator. Experts warn that deaths will continue to rise despite new cases declining as stage-four lockdown restrictions yield results in Melbourne.
Today’s fatalities take the state’s death toll to 334, whereas the national figure is at 421 – the first time the number has risen to over 400.
Despite the increased death toll, stage-four restrictions have yielded results and new positive cases were at 282.
A new outbreak was noted at Hambleton House, an Albert Park special accommodation facility with residents moved to hospitals. The facility had security staff stationed outside amid concerns that residents were walking nearby streets without face masks.
Victoria’s Health Minister Jenny Mikakos had said that residents would be in hospitals by the end of the day.
An inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program resumed today with Professor Lindsay Grayson, an infectious disease expert, and Professor Benjamin Howden from the Doherty Centre being among the first to give evidence. The inquiry will look at how Victoria’s hotel quarantine program affected the second coronavirus wave in Victoria.
Monday also marked the highest 24-hour worldwide spike since the pandemic began with 294,000 people testing positive to COVID-19 in the world.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the virus has been detected in 188 countries with half the cases from three (United States, Brazil and India). The coronavirus pandemic is the most severe global health emergency the organisation has ever seen, and there might never be a vaccine or “silver bullet” to defeat the virus, Mr Ghebreyesus said.
There have been almost 21.5 million cases confirmed around the world.