Victoria has announced when all elective surgeries will resume as the state records 8149 new cases and 18 Covid deaths.
There are now 397 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 68 in intensive care and 13 xjmtzywon ventilators.
However, the figure is dwarfed by the 1478 people in NSW who are in hospital with Covid.
More than 93 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated and the state has 49,936 active cases.
A total of 23,278 PCR tests were taken on Wednesday and 10,497 vaccines were administered at state hubs.
Elective surgery is set to resume across both public and private hospitals in Victorian by the end of the month.
Health Minister Martin Foley made the announcement on Wednesday morning, saying the new rules “balances the health system response and workforce pressures”.
Further changes to allow all surgery to resume from February 28 are being considered with a focus on treating Category 1 and 2 patients within clinically recommended times.
Each hospital will individually assess their own capacity based on staff availability and Covid demands, with 44 hospitals still operating as virus streaming hospitals.
Private hospitals will also be able to increase their elective surgery activity as long as they can continue to provide support for public hospitals to respond to Covid demands.
From Monday, February 21, private hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne can undertake up to 75 per cent of any elective surgery activity, increasing from 50 per cent.
In regional Victoria, the cap for private hospitals will increase from the current 75 per cent to up to 100 per cent on Monday, 21 February – while regional public hospitals continue to deliver any elective surgery based on their individual capacity.
The rolling seven-day average of Covid hospitalisations is 457 patients, decreasing from a peak of more than 1,200 patients in mid-January 2022.
The number of staff unavailable due to COVID-19 has dropped by around two-thirds, currently at around 1,400 people.
