Victoria has recorded 9785 new cases and 20 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours.
There are now 575 infected people in Victorian hospitals, with 72 in intensive care and 30 on ventilators.
Victoria’s pre-Omicron peak for Covid hospitalisations was 851 in October when the state was battling a surge in Delta infections.
In contrast, there are 2068 people in NSW who are in hospital with Covid.
More than 93 per cent of eligible Victorians are fully vaccinated and the state has 58,449 active cases.
A total of 19,404 PCR tests were taken on Wednesday and 15,870 vaccines were administered at state hubs.
Victoria’s school students and teachers have been told to brace for a “rocky” few weeks with Covid statistics revealing a sharp rise in infections.
The state’s education Minister James Merlino conceded schools were bracing for a spike in cases, revealing numbers had risen in the first week of Term 1.
On Friday 964 students and 150 teachers tested positive, while over the weekend a further 607 students reported infections.
Mr Merlino said around 0.6 per cent of the school population was testing positive, and expected cases to grow in the next few weeks.
“We knew that the first few weeks of school would be a bit bumpy, we knew we’d get some positive cases, but it’s better to support those many hundreds of students and teachers than have one million students at home remote learning,” he said.
“We’re delivering 14 million rapid antigen tests to make sure we get to cases early because that will drive down numbers overall.”
