Victorian data taken from Victorian COVID-19 Surveillance Report 31 May.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has decreased this week. The 7-day average is 319, compared to 347 last week.
The latest quantitative wastewater measures indicate there are increasing SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in Victorian wastewater in regional catchments.
Increasing levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater suggest increasing prevalence of COVID-19 infections in the community.
Deaths in the most recent 28-day period (17 Apr 2024 - 14 May 2024) have increased compared to the prior 28-day period
(20 Mar 2024 - 16 Apr 2024), with a current 28-day total of 76. Increases and decreases in the reporting of deaths attributable to COVID-19 tend to lag waves of infections and hospitalisations by several weeks.
Following rapid growth in early December, JN.1 (including sublineages) remains the dominant variant in Victorian wastewater samples at approximately 66% in the most recent samples (excluding KP.3).
As of 3 May 2024, four JN.1 sublineages were declared Variants Under Monitoring by the WHO, including KP.3 which has been increasing in Victorian wastewater at approximately 30% in the most recent samples. KP.3 is the fastest growing variant globally, making up 20% of sequenced samples globally in the week to 28 April.