Eight more COVID-19 deaths, new cases drop for third day in Victoria

COVID-19 will travel into the regions as the state opens up early next month, the state's chief health officer has warned.

On Tuesday Professor Brett Sutton urged regional Victorians who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccination to book in today, regardless of whether the region has had any coronavirus cases or not.

"It's really important that regional Victorians think about getting vaccinated," Professor Sutton said.

"There there are places in regional Victoria that have seen very few cases or for some no cases at all for several weeks or months but we are going to be moving about the state at the 80 per cent double dose mark, which will come in early November.

"So, regional Victorians, don't don't put off vaccination because you haven't seen COVID in your community.

"Please make sure you get that first dose because COVID will come as we open up."

There are now 1144 COVID-19 cases in regional Victoria.

Professor Sutton ruled out lifting restrictions further for regional LGAs that reach the 70 per cent double dose target ahead of the October roadmap deadline.

"The roadmap is statewide," he said. "It's really difficult to pick off individual local government areas... so we are looking to a statewide average."

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Update, 11.20am:

VICTORIA will hit its 60 per cent double dose target today, health minister Martin Foley has told reporters while revealing changes to help healthcare workers with the coming COVID-19 surge.

"We know that the next few months, as Victoria opens, are going to be incredibly challenging and difficult for our nurses, our midwives, our doctors, our paramedics, in fact all of our healthcare workforce," he said.

The government will spend $2.5 million to recruit up to 1000 healthcare workers living overseas to try to ease pressure on hospital staff.

"This group will largely be made up of returning Australians who have wanted to come back to our healthcare workforce," Mr Foley said.

The government will also spend $255 million to help frontline hospital workers deal with the surge.

"We will be establishing a new allowance to better support nurses, paramedics, doctors, and those hard-working people in those front facing hospital-based COVID facing environments that are really risky, but really important," Mr Foley said.

In good news for hospital staff preparing for the surge expected if lockdown restrictions ease at the end of October have seen a decrease in the number of new cases in recent days.

Numbers have steadily dropped to below 1500 after reaching a record 1965 cases last Friday.

There are 675 Victorians now in hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 144 are in intensive care units and 100 require a ventilator to breathe. Only seven per cent of those hospital patients were fully vaccinated.

Earlier today, premier Daniel Andrews said that the trend might be positive but warned against people letting their guards down.

"We can't get carried away to think that the danger that the cases present to our health system and to individuals and families is somehow over," he said.

Mr Andrews only briefly touched on COVID-19 as he answered media questions about the resignation of a cabinet minister following bombshell testimony on alleged branch stacking in Victoria.

Earlier

VICTORIA has recorded 1466 new coronavirus cases since Monday in a third straight day of declines.

New case numbers have been falling since the record 1965 tallied during Friday testing.

Despite that, there were eight deaths.

Monday also bought 68,509 test results to Victorians as well as 36,383 vaccinations being administered.

Victoria's active coronavirus case tally now sits at 19,627.

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