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Hospitals in Victoria will no longer be operating under a Code Brown alert from this coming Monday, 14 February, with the state government confident the COVID situation is coming under control - easing pressure on the system.
At a press conference today, Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley announced the state was in a position to lift the Code Brown alert safely, meaning more elective surgeries will be able to go ahead.
“While we’re still going to be very, very busy, we are in a position to safely lift the code brown alert,” Foley said.
“It also allows us to continue down the path of the careful, steady relaxation of the deferral of elective surgery.”
As such, private sector areas will be allowed to return to 50 per cent of all elective surgery arrangements, while regional healthcare providers can return to 70 per cent of elective surgeries.
“It will be extended to multi-day locations and facilities, therefore allowing more complex and serious operations to be brought in,” Foley said.
“We will continue to monitor the arrangements in place in close consultation with private operators.”
Victoria today recorded 13 deaths and 8,521 new cases of COVID-19. There are 553 people with the virus in the state’s hospital system, of which 82 are in intensive care.
Updated at 1.22pm AEDT on 11 February 2022.
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