1245 new Covid cases in Victoria as NSW smashes record again

Victoria’s Covid infections have risen, while NSW once again smashed the national record after announcing more than 3000 new infections.

The Covid testing site in Bourke St was only open for a short period of time before hitting full capacity. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

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Victoria has recorded 1245 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, while six more Victorians died in the past 24 hours.

There are 392 people in Victorian hospital with the virus, 73 in intensive care and 43 on a ventilator.

No new confirmed cases of the Omicron variant have been identified in Victoria.

Thirteen of those new confirmed infections were identified in Victoria on Monday. Of the 37 Omicron cases, 23 people acquired their infection overseas and 14 contracted it in Australia.

Meanwhile, NSW has once again broken its national record for daily Covid cases, reporting 3057 new cases and two new deaths on Tuesday.

Deputy chief medical officer Sonya Bennett said there was still a lot of uncertainty around the severity of the variant but it had become clear it was highly transmissible, with a doubling time of around two days.

“And if we see high numbers, that sheer number of cases is a cause for concern,” Dr Bennett said.

But Victoria’s acting premier James Merlino said the critical issue was hospitalisations and ICU beds, not case numbers.

“That’s the critical thing that we look at every single day but obviously we’ve got a new variant and it is likely to become the dominant variant across the globe,” Mr Merlino said.

“We’re seeing a big increase in NSW so it’s something that we are learning more about every day in terms of its impact and the effectiveness of vaccines.”

Wait times at some of the state’s busiest Covid testing hubs continued to balloon after a bumper day of testing on Monday.

After queues for the walk-in testing site on Bourke St in Melbourne’s CBD stretched for blocks on Monday, health authorities were forced to shut the facility on Tuesday despite scores of people waiting in line to be tested by 8.30am.