Melbourne emergency specialist Dr Sarah Whitelaw has warned that Victorian hospitals could run out of capacity within weeks if numbers of new coronavirus cases don’t fall. 

Dr Whitelaw, from Royal Melbourne Hospital, says doctors have seen a significant increase in COVID-19 cases during the past month, in a system now hit hard by staffing shortages. 

“So if the number of cases don’t go down and we are seeing … just what we’re seeing right now and we continue to move all of our aged care residents directly into the hospital system, within a couple of weeks we will run out of capacity in the Victorian hospital system,” Dr Whitelaw told ABC News’ 7.30 on Wednesday. 

“What has been really difficult is sometimes how very sick those patients get, very quickly.”