Victorian authorities expect the number of health workers laid off due to illness and exhaustion to continue to rise in the coming months as a result of the spread of new Omicron subvariants to the community.
During a press conference this morning, Prime Minister Daniel Andrews said nearly 1,550 health workers and 150 ambulance paramedics were out of work earlier this week because they were sick, symptomatic or isolated from COVID-19.
Victorian Prime Minister Daniel Andrews. Credits: Joe Armao
He said that number was expected to remain stable or increase in the coming weeks as Omicron’s new sub-strains with a greater ability to evade vaccine immunity spread across the state.
Sub-strains BA.4 and BA.5 now account for about 40% of wastewater detections in the state and are expected to surpass BA.2 as the dominant strain of COVID-19 in Victoria.
The Victoria Department of Health predicts that the spread of subsoils will lead to an increase in cases, including reinfections, as well as hospital admissions and deaths.
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Andrews acknowledged that the state’s health care system was under “extreme stress,” but said the crisis that unfolded in Victorian hospitals was the result of pandemic pressures and staff exhaustion, not by lack government funding.
“No one wants a situation where there is extreme tension in our system, but this is where we stand. Political games and trying to arm it to gain a political advantage is no way forward,” he said. “It’s about politicians, me about patients and making sure we have enough resources.”
Andrews ‘comments come after a new study in the Medical Journal of Australia found that ambulance ramp times in Victoria were running out years before the pandemic, putting patients’ lives at risk.
Asked by reporters about the crisis, he said the state government had “reported the best ambulance response times” before the pandemic.
“We have repaired the damage that others have done and we will also repair the damage that this virus has done, not through politics, but through unity, respect and honesty,” Andrews said.