Coronavirus Victoria: 20% of COVID-19 infections will be hospitalised

Victorian health authorities expect hundreds of COVID-19 patients – up to 20 per cent – to be hospitalised, with 21 people currently on ventilators.

Hundreds of Victorian COVID-19 patients are expected to be hospitalised in the next fortnight, the state’s chief health officer says.

There were 270 new cases of the coronavirus announced on Tuesday, bringing the total number of active cases to 1803.

“That’s a really significant number of people with coronavirus and it does mean that in the next fortnight, we’re going to see a number of people who will require hospital,” Professor Brett Sutton said.

“There’s often 10 per cent to 20 per cent of all coronavirus infections who require hospitalisation, so that’s a couple of hundred individuals at least.

“They will require hospitalisation in the next couple of weeks.”

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Victoria's chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton said the state is in a new phase where a lot of current cases are deteriorating. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

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He said the number of people in hospital had increased by 13 in the past 24 hours to 85, and the number of people in intensive care units had increased by nine to 26.

Twenty-one of those patients are on ventilators.

“That’s a measure of the fact that we’re going into a phase where a lot of our current cases will be deteriorating,” Prof Sutton said.

He said some patients are “young people who are both hospitalised and in critical care”.

Meanwhile, there are currently around 80 cases of COVID-19 that have been diagnosed in Victorian aged care facilities including across residents and staff.

“Often a single staff member or a few staff members, but a few significant outbreaks with a number of residents who were notified and who were picked up through that very extensive testing that is done immediately once a staff or resident case has been notified to us,” Prof Sutton said.

At least 28 cases have been linked to the Menarock LIFE aged care facility in Essendon. Picture: David Crosling

“But it’s a challenging situation with aged care. Sometimes those residents are looked after in place if the isolation, single rooms, ensuite bathrooms are available and those residents can be managed onsite, that’s done.

“In other facilities, because there’s a shared bathroom, because there are difficulties in managing the movement of residents around the facility, they’ll be transferred (to acute care), as has been the case with Menarock aged care.”

He said in terms of current outbreaks, there are now 28 cases linked to Menarock LIFE Aged Care in Essendon and 13 linked to Estia Health in Ardeer.

In a statement yesterday, Menarock LIFE chief executive Kath Warren said they are working closely with state and federal health authorities to manage the outbreak.

It said 14 residents and 17 staff had tested positive, totalling 31 cases, while a further 21 residents had returned negative results. They have been retested and results are pending.

All of the COVID-19 positive residents have been transferred to hospital for ongoing clinical care, and updates are regularly being provided to residents and their family members, Ms Warren said.

NEW CREWS TO BE ROLLED OUT

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he had a “good, long communication” with Prime Minister Scott Morrison overnight about the “open arrangements” regarding the use of Australian Defence Force personnel.

He said “one of the most important agreements that we’ve struck” is for some Ambulance Victoria paramedic response crews to be a “shared crew”.

“So an ambo, and a member of ADF – that will be a general duties ADF person – who can support the inevitable number of paramedics who will finish up having to quarantine, having to isolate, having to be furloughed because of exposure or potential exposure,” Mr Andrews said.

“It’s also just a great way to best use the resource that we have, freeing up additional ambulance paramedics. That will be rolled out quite soon.

“That is separate to AV personnel who have come into our public health response.

“They’re separate things but the common denominator is Ambulance Victoria personnel and putting them to the best use possible.”

There have been 24 deaths in Victoria and 108 nationwide.