Paramedics urge vaccination before its ‘too late’

The startling admission came on Friday, when Victoria recorded more than 1000 Covid cases in a day. This number jumped again on Saturday to a new high of 1,488.

Reports have emerged that due to the number spike off the back of AFL Grand Final parties and other mass gatherings last week the daily case numbers will not start to plateau for another month.

A paramedic called into ABC Melbourne to explain how dire the situation was for front line workers.

“When they (patients) get in the back of the ambulance they’re asking me to vaccinate them. They’re saying ‘I’ll take the vaccine’ and I said I don’t know if you have Covid you need to be tested but I cannot give you the vaccine,” she said.

“(They say) ‘I was going to get it, I was going to get it’ and I said it is too late, you have to wait.”

She added that herself and her colleagues were ‘exhausted’ from constantly putting on protective equipment when a patient shows Covid like symptoms.

At a press conference on Sunday, ICU Nurse Unit manager at Royal Melbourne Hospital, Michelle Spence, said more and more young people were ending up on ventilators despite having no underlying health conditions and being perfectly “fit”.

“The only thing I can tell you is that he wasn’t vaccinated,” she told reporters. “He could’ve got the vaccine.”

It comes as Premier Daniel Andrews announced mandatory vaccinations for thousands of workers.

From October 15, all workers on the Authorised Worker list will be required to have their first dose of a Covid vaccine in order to continue working on site. They will need to be fully vaccinated by November 26.

This rule applies to both Melbourne and regional Victorians.

“They are not about stopping people going to work. They are about making sure we can open up. They are about making sure people can go to work, that they can be safe, and that we can defend and deliver our road map for opening. That is what the national plan is all about,” he said.