Victoria claims it has ICU capacity of 4000 beds, enough it says to meet tens of thousands of cases a week, as the state braces for a surge in demand for acute care and local infections continue to rise sharply.

The claim came as Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews committed to increasing the capacity of the state’s vaccine system by an extra 40,000 doses a week. This is on top of the current 226,315 doses the state system delivered last week.