We’re taking an approach that’s based on public health advice. That’s what has got us to this point. That’s what we’ll continue to see, yes, more people in hospital, but less than otherwise would be the case.
It’s a very precious things, our health system, and we need to be careful to manage those additional patients. I’m not going to give to our nurses a fight they can’t win. It will be very tough for them in the weeks and months ahead.
We need to protect our ICU capacity, it’s not about beds and ventilators, we have enough of those. What we don’t have is a workforce that hasn’t got fatigue.
That isn’t bearing, you know, or having to deal with the cost of the last 20 months. It’s been a very different time. I’m not here to apologise for doing this cautiously and following the science. I’m here to encourage people to get vaccinated and I’m here to celebrate a really important milestone. We’ll pass 80% single dose.
That’s an amazing achievement and all Victorians who have been vaccinated or booked an appointment should be very proud of that. I will leave the comparisons with other states to others. We’ll get this done and we’ll get it done properly. I’m very positive and optimistic about the future because we can see past this now.