Victoria records 1466 new Covid-19 cases, invests $2.5m to recruit 1000 overseas health workers
The Victorian government has made a desperate move to boost its hospital workforce before an expected surge in Covid-19 cases.
Covid-facing hospital staff and paramedics will get an allowance of up to $60 per shift as part of a $255m package to help Victoria’s health system cope with an expected surge in cases.
The Victorian government has announced it is splashing hundreds of millions of dollar to help boost the state’s public health capacity for increased Covid infections once the state opens up.
The Andrews government will also spend $2.5m in a desperate bid to lure more healthcare workers to the state to help fight the Covid pandemic.
Health Minister Martin Foley announced the multimillion-dollar investment as the state recorded an additional 1466 new locally acquired Covid-19 cases and eight more deaths on Tuesday.
Mr Foley said the package would help recruit up to 1000 healthcare workers living overseas to help ease the pressure on Victoria’s hospital staff dealing with Covid.
“This group will largely be made up of returning Australians who have wanted to come back to our healthcare workforce,” he said.
Nurses, doctors, midwives and a range of allied health professionals will be recruited under the plan.
“To be eligible for this program, healthcare workers need to have an existing employment contract with a Victorian healthcare service and have the active professional registration in place and to be ready to travel,” Mr Foley said.
Mr Foley said the funding would support the healthcare system cope with the expected surge in Covid cases once the state opens up after lockdown.
“The new hospital surge support allowance will be paid to patient-facing healthcare workers providing direct care in both our public hospital services and Ambulance Victoria over the next four months,” he said.
“Starting this week, the allowance will help ensure that these highly skilled staff in our public hospitals respond to the critical care that we know they will deliver but making sure that staff in our emergency departments are at least supported and recognised by this unprecedented investment.”
Workers will be eligible for a tiered allowance up to $60 per shift that continues through until February 10 next year.
South African doctors Marcelle and Charlotte Jagga are already based at the Northern Hospital in Epping, which has been at the forefront of the state’s latest outbreak.
The specialists from Cape Town told reporters they felt they could offer the experience of a health system that had also experienced high numbers.
“We can offer a lot of experience and are also to learn from you guys,” Ms Jagga said.
“I think Australia is very lucky in the fact that they have had a buffer and time to see what’s going on with the rest of the world and to learn from experiences and to see what mistakes were made and how to improve from it.”
The new deaths announced on Tuesday takes the number of lives lost during Victoria’s outbreak to 101 and the toll of the pandemic in Victoria to 921.
The deaths included a man in his 90s from Hume, two men in their 80s from Moonee Valley and Monash, a woman in her 70s from Maribyrnong, a woman in her 80s from Whittlesea, a woman in her 70s and a woman in her 50s, both from Moreland, and a man in his 40s from Bayside.
At least 675 positive Covid patients are in hospital in Victoria, with 144 of those in intensive care, including 100 cases on a ventilator.
As Melburnians and parts of regional Victoria remain in lockdown for at least another week, people in Sydney are enjoying their second day of freedom after the state reached 70 per cent fully vaccinated.
NSW recorded 360 new cases on Tuesday, a quarter of those announced in Victoria, as case figures continue to fall as vaccination rates increase.
In some positive news for Victorians despite the high case numbers, the daily figure has fallen for the third consecutive day since peaking on Saturday at 1951.
Covid data analyst website Covidbase AU said Victoria’s seven-day cases average had dropped for the first time since the beginning of August and was sitting at 1690.
They said the Reff number – how many cases on average a single person will infect – was also trending down at 1.18, its lowest point since August 28.
Casey, in Melbourne’s southeast, has emerged as the new leading hotspot for Covid-19 spread in Victoria with the highest number of infections on Monday.
The City of Casey recorded more new cases than any other council areas on Monday, surpassing Hume as the most virus-riddled region.
Health department deputy secretary Naomi Bromley said Casey recorded 174 new infections, ahead of Hume with 169.
The neighbouring southeast area of Greater Dandenong came in fourth with 109 new cases.
“Pleasingly, we are seeing a stabilisation in Hume,” Ms Bromley said.
“In previous weeks, we have seen Hume record up to 300 cases a day. I think the dramatic increase in vaccination rates in the area has gone a long way to helping us bend the curve of infection in this area and Hume is now up around 85 per cent (first dose).”
Health authorities are also concerned the virus could be spreading “undiscovered” through some regional Victorian areas, with “repeated unexpected” Covid sewage detections in several towns.
The department said viral fragments had been detected in sewage in Wonthaggi, Portland, Cobram, Swan Hill, Ballarat, Apollo Bay and Aireys Inlet – an area spanning almost 500km.
Lockdown is set to end in Victoria around October 26 when 70 per cent of Victorians aged 16 and older are fully vaccinated.
As of Monday, at least 86 per cent of Victorians aged 16 and over had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 59.3 per cent were fully vaccinated.
Premier Daniel Andrews has committed to ending the lockdown as planned when the state reaches 70 per cent fully vaccinated.
There are 19,627 active coronavirus cases in Victoria
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