Victorian data taken from Victorian COVID-19 Surveillance Report 17 May.
Current trends indicate high levels of COVID-19 activity in Victoria.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 has increased this week. The 7-day average is 284, compared to 208 last week.
The latest quantitative wastewater measures indicate there are increasing SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in Victorian wastewater in metropolitan and 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 (03 Apr 2024 - 30 Apr 2024) have declined compared to the prior 28-day period (06 Mar 2024 - 02 Apr 2024), with a current 28-day total of 56.
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 remains the dominant variant in Victorian wastewater samples at approximately 97% in the most recent samples.
Sublineages of JN.1 including KP.3 have also been detected in Victorian wastewater in increasing abundance. KP.3 is the fastest growing JN.1 sublineage globally, making up about 25% of recent sequences.