Victoria records more COVID-19 in the first three days of 2022 than whole of 2020

In the first three days of 2022 Victoria has seen 23,000 new cases - more cases than all of 2020.

One in five cases tested in Victoria is coming back positive, marking a ten-fold increase in the space of a few weeks.

The "rapidly growing curve" of COVID-19 infections is concerning, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said on Monday.

"Vaccination is the best protection against the Omicron variant to keep yourself safe, to keep your family safe, to keep you active in the community, and to do your bit to keep Victoria open."

Third dose COVID-19 vaccinations can be booked by people who had their second dose four months ago from tomorrow.

As of January 4, Victorians who had their second dose of COVID-19 vaccine September or more ago can get their booster dose at state run vaccination clinics.

It implements the decision from national cabinet before Christmas to bring forward the third dose interval from five months to four months.

Parents and guardians for childen five to 11 can book through the state online system as of 8am tomorrow ahead of the pediatric vaccination rollout from January 10.

As of Monday, 10.9 per cent of Victorians 12 and above have now had a third dose and 93 per cent of Victorians had their second dose.

There are 491 Victorians currently in hospital infected with COVID-19 and the state sadly saw three COVID-19 related deaths overnight.

There are now 38,118 active cases of COVID-19 in the community, with a further 8577 people diagnosed yesterday.

"That booster dose that is so critical to give us options for responding to Omicron and whatever else this global pandemic throws at us," Minister Foley said.

General practices and pharmacies continue to do the majority of vaccinations for both third dose boosters and for children.

Vaccinations at state-run clinics will be scaled up to get up to 300,000 Victorians vaccinated every week.

The how fast Omicron is moving across the Eastern Seaboard and how rapidly we all need to move and adapt our behaviours to meet this oncoming challenge, COVID-19 Testing Commander Jeroen Weimar said.

"This wave is now certainly right upon us," he said.

"We are seeing at this point, a lower rate of hospitalisation from Omicron cases but it's still very early days and we are seeing our hospitalisation numbers start to increase and we expect to see those numbers continue to increase quite rapidly in the days ahead.

"If we look at the experience in New South Wales who appear to be about a week or so ahead of us in this pandemic, they're now starting to report quite significant numbers.

"So it's really important that we all adapt our behaviours and we all take the actions now to minimise the impact all of us and our families.

"The most important thing we can do is get a booster dose."

Over the Christmas period almost one million tests have been processed.

"I'd like to thank our pathology labs for the huge efforts a human superhuman efforts undertaken over the last couple of weeks to stay on top of this growing number of cases," Mr Weimar said.

Changes to procedures in testing labs will lead to longer delays due to the increasing number of positive cases.

"Because of the very high rate of positivity every single test is now processed individually through all of our labs," Mr Weimar said.

"That means that it takes us longer to process individual test results, that means that we're starting to see longer turnaround times on all of our testing results."

Around one third of test results are returned in one day.

"I ask everybody who is waiting for a test result please be patient and bear with us, and bear with our lab staff as they work feverishly through all those test results.

"I would only ask people who are currently symptomatic, or people who have already returned a Rapid Antigen Test to come forward for a PCR test."

If you receive a positive PCR result, you must isolate for seven days and the people you live with must isolate for seven days.

If you've had a positive rapid antigen test result you are to isolate until you can get a positive PCR result.

If symptomatic, you are to isolate until you can get a rapid antigen test result or a PCR result.

"With such a high number of cases now in our community we have to assume if we're if we're symptomatic, that we've probably contracted COVID," Mr Weimar said.

There are currently 1700 healthcare workers who are impacted by being close, social or workplace contacts of somebody who has got COVID.

There are 34 million rapid antigen tests arriving in Victoria in the coming days to be delivered for free by the state government in settings to be announced soon.

As of Friday, the overwhelming majority of people in intensive care were unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

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