11.45am
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REGIONAL Victoria had 122 new COVID-19 cases and health workers are worried that about a quarter of them were found in the Mildura area.
Non-metropolitan areas accounted for eight per cent of the new cases, COVID response deputy secretary Naomi Bromley said.
She did not go into detail on any potential cases in central Victoria but mentioned the "concerning" 36 cases found in locked down Mildura.
"Yesterday there were 1600 tests done in Mildura over a two day period," she said.
"Eight per cent of the population has been tested which is a fantastic effort and our thanks to that local community and also the local providers there have been doing a huge amount of work to boost those testing rates."
Other regional areas with high new case numbers include Baw Baw with 18, Latrobe with 16 and Shepparton with 15.
Ms Bromley said 22 per cent of the newest cases statewide were in people over the age of 50 years and that health workers had noticed a slow increase in recent days.
"This is of course concerning because we know COVID and have a devastating impact on older Victorians," she said.
"This is demonstrated by the 58 per cent of yesterday's hospitalisations being over 50."
Ms Bromley said that the best way to protect against severe COVID-19 illness was to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
11.30am
VICTORIA has widened its Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to people over 60 years of age at its state-run clinics.
Health minister Martin Foley said the move came after the "extraordinary" uptake of vaccines by people aged 12 to 16 and new certainty about dose supplies.
"So essentially, now as we push towards 70 and 80% double dose and beyond, it's time to throw open the doors," he said.
The changes are now in effect.
The government is also launching a new public relations campaign across radio, print, online to capture the sentiment that "Victorians want to get back to the things that we love, the things that we aspire to again after 20 months of such hard work", Mr Foley said.
Earlier
VICTORIA recorded 1612 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
It marks the second consecutive day of decreasing numbers of new cases from the record high 1965 for a period covering last Friday.
That figure dropped to 1890 the following day.
Sadly, another eight deaths were recorded in the numbers revealed this morning.
A total of 19,012 people across the state currently have COVID-19.
About 34,279 vaccine doses were administered on Sunday along with over 73,138 tests.
On Sunday, Bendigo Health said it was treating two people for COVID-19.
One is in the respiratory ward and one in the Respiratory Emergency Department.
The health service were also monitoring a further nine patients at home through the Hospital in the Home program.
At the edge of central Victoria, Woodend Primary School was declared a tier one exposure site late on Sunday night.
A person with the virus attended on Tuesday between 8:45am - 4:00pm, and then again during the same times on Wednesday.
From this week, crowds will return to venues and events in three central Victorian municipalities in a double-vaccinated access trial.
The Greater Bendigo, Pyrenees, and Buloke shires are among six regional locations chosen for the trials which will allow more fully vaccinated people to safely attend venues and events.
Bendigo Art Gallery director Jessica Bridgfoot said the vaccine economy was a positive step forward.
She said the gallery would begin to rollout trial conditions from Tuesday, October 12.
Other news:
On Sunday, there were 126 new cases of coronavirus recorded in regional Victoria.
COVID-19 commander Jeroen Weimar said there has been a "significant continual growth" in case numbers across the regions.
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