Victoria has recorded 8521 new cases and 13 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.
There are now 553 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 82 in intensive care and 23 on ventilators.
Victoria’s pre-Omicron peak for Covid hospitalisations was 851 in October when the state was battling a surge in Delta infections.
More than 93 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated and the state has 53,617 active cases.
A total of 22,197 PCR tests were taken on Wednesday and 14,650 vaccines were administered at state hubs.
Victoria has made a huge change to its vaccine mandates policy, with the state revealing on Thursday it would extend a deadline.
In the chief healxjmtzywth officer’s daily update the government announced the third dose booster deadline would be extended by four weeks for workers in key sectors, including healthcare, aged care, disability, emergency services, corrections and quarantine accommodation and food distribution centres.
The original deadline was February 12 and workers in those sectors must provide evidence of their third dose by March 12, otherwise they can’t work.
The update did not explain why the change was made.
