About 7,000 PCR tests taken in Victoria have not been processed by pathologists due to delays, as authorities scramble to improve testing:
Victoria's COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar says the state is now aiming to turn around PCR tests within 48 hours.Thousands of Victorians who queued to take PCR tests over Christmas and the New Year will not receive their results because the samples are too old to be processed, as authorities scramble to improve virus figure accuracy.
He said the health department agreed with the decision and apologised to those affected, who would have been awaiting their test results in isolation and had been notified by text. "It is all part of that significant challenge we had over the Christmas and New Year's period, with the 300,000 or so traveller tests we had to process and all the other challenges over that period."COVID-19 hospitalisations jump across Australia as NSW marks deadliest day of pandemic
The state is now managing 146,863 active cases, with 752 patients in hospital, 108 more than the previous day, 104 in ICU and 23 on ventilators.