Up to 15,000 Australians are expected to die of COVID-19 this year, a figure that is “way too high” an infectious diseases expert has told a parliamentary inquiry.

Burnet Institute deputy director Professor Margaret Hellard warned the country was about to see 10,000 to 15,000 COVID-19 deaths this year but more could be done to curb infections. 

“This kind of notion going around … that there’s nothing that we’ve got to add or to offer and that really things can’t be done is actually incorrect,” Professor Hellard told a Victorian parliamentary inquiry into the state’s pandemic orders.

“The current level of vaccination is not high enough.”