Nineteen more Victorians have died of the coronavirus, while the state has confirmed another 331 infections on Tuesday morning.
The state Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the deaths, which bring Victoria’s toll from COVID-19 to 247 and Australia’s to 332.
Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to give a fuller update later on Tuesday.
Earlier, he was the first witness to appear at the parliamentary inquiry into Victoria’s response to the pandemic.
- See live footage of the inquiry here
State Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, chief health officer Brett Sutton and Department of Health and Human Services secretary Kym Peake were also to appear before the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee’s COVID-19 Inquiry on Tuesday.
“We have to acknowledge how rapidly this spreads. Our challenge is particularly when it gets into high-risk industries, new and different cohorts, and new and different communities different family structures,” Mr Andrews said in his opening address to the inquiry.
“Different backgrounds – sometimes, for instance, where language can be an issue. This is something that is a great challenge for communities and economies and health systems right across the world.”
Victoria’s daily virus tally and toll for Tuesday is almost identical to Monday’s, when 322 infections and 19 deaths were confirmed.
The fatalities on both days are a record, but the new infection numbers are well down from a peak of 725 last Wednesday.
Australia’s deputy chief medical officer, Michael Kidd, has warned coronavirus deaths will continue to rise even if Victorian infections stabilise further.
“We are seeing the first promising signs of a reduction in daily numbers of cases but it is too early to be certain,” he said.
Professor Kidd said it was heartening to see declining cases in Victoria in the past five days.
“While we still have hundreds of cases being reported each day, we will continue to have people admitted to hospital and people becoming gravely unwell,” he said.
“Sadly some of those people will die.”
Even if Victoria gets on top of infection rates, there could be more heartbreak for families.
“There is a seven to 10-day lag between the daily reports in numbers of cases and people dying,” Professor Kidd said.
“Some people are sadly dying very early in the course of COVID-19 but for many people, it is a week or more after they have been infected that we see people who are gravely unwell.”
Epidemiologists and infectious disease experts are also cautiously optimistic the falling numbers are an indicator that Stage 3 restrictions, and Melbourne’s more recent hard Stage 4 lockdown, are starting to have an effect.
Data scientist Dr Paul Vella earlier said it appeared the decline in growth started about the same time Melbourne had 10 postcodes locked down in early July.
“This tells me the decline is driven by the lockdown measures – and they are working,” he said.
-with AAP
The post Early stability in Victorian infections, but tragic COVID toll keeps climbing appeared first on The New Daily.
**Know benefits of facebook marketing --http://bit.ly/2RgChw3