Victoria’s latest chief health officer started work as Covid XEC surged: Here’s what we know about him
Victoria has a new chief health officer — the government’s third in just the last few years, after ‘Dan’s man’ Brett Sutton quit in mid-2023. The former WA and NT CHO has a background in the health impacts of climate change and Covid responses.
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Victoria has a new chief health officer — the government’s third in just the last few years.
Dr Tarun Weeramanthri, a former Western Australia and Northern Territory chief health officer, quietly replaced Dr Clare Looker in the key role on January 2 this year.
Dr Looker — who replaced high profile Victorian CHO Brett Sutton in July 2023 after his shock resignation — stood down in December last year.
Professor Sutton and Dr Looker oversaw the state’s management of the Covid pandemic, including vaccinations, restrictions and mask mandates.
Dr Looker served as Prof Sutton’s deputy during the peak of the pandemic, under former Premier Dan Andrews, before filling his shoes in the chief role.
According to the Victorian Department of Heath website, Dr Weeramanthri will act as the state’s CHO until April 30, 2025, while it undertakes recruitment for a person to fill the position in a permanent capacity.
Dr Weeramanthri is an adjunct professor in the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia and a recent president of the Public Health Association of Australia. He is a trained specialist in internal medicine and public health and has a PhD in social medicine.
Dr Weeramanthri was the chief health officer in Western Australia from 2008 to 2018, and previously in the Northern Territory from 2004 to 2007.
In June 2022, Dr Weeramanthri was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to public health administration.
The Victorian government website spruiks that he has been engaged in addressing the health impacts of climate change and assisting in the Covid response of multiple Australian jurisdictions, and nationally.
His appointment to the Victorian CHO position comes as the highly-transmissible Covid XEC strain surges across the state.
However, the JN. 1 subvariant remains the dominant Covid strain circulating in Victoria.
More than 120 Victorians a day were hospitalised with Covid in the week ending January 21, health department figures released on January 24 reveal.
The week before, 184 people a day were hospitalised.
In the first week of January, when Dr Weeramanthri started in his role, an average of 191 Victorians were hospitalised.
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