Coronavirus numbers: Hospitalisations surge as health chief warns deaths are expected

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has surged as the state recorded the most positive tests in a day since March 31.

Another 77 people across the state have returned positive COVID-19 tests in the past 24 hours.

Twenty people are in hospital with coronavirus, five more than yesterday.

Worryingly, the number of people in intensive care has doubled from two to four.

Announcing today’s figures, Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton issued a fresh warning.

“When you’ve got 70 odd cases every day there is absolutely an expectation that some of those people will die,” he said.

The new cases bring the number of active cases across the state to 415, an increase of 45 since yesterday.

Of today’s cases, 13 were linked to existing outbreaks, 3 were detected via routine testing and the cause of 27 cases remains under investigation.

None of today’s cases are returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

Five cases have been revised out of the Victorian tally, bringing the case total to 2303 cases.

Press PLAY below for today’s press conference and Neil Mitchell’s analysis of today’s figures.

POSITIVE TESTS IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS:
June 18 – 18
June 19 – 13 (revised down to 12 with one case reclassified)
June 20 – 25
June 21 – 19 
June 22 – 16 (revised down to 11 with five cases reclassifised)
June 23 –  17
June 24 – 20
June 25 – 33
June 26 – 30
June 27 – 41 (revised down to 40 with one case reclassified)
June 28 – 49 (revised down to 41 with eight cases reclassified)
June 29 – 75 (revised down to 71 with four cases reclassified)
June 30 – 64 (revised down to 60 with four cases reclassified)
TODAY – 77 (revised down to 72 with five cases reclassified)

Coronavirus numbers: Hospitalisations surge as health chief warns deaths are expected

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