Private hospital beds added to virus fight

THE LATEST CORONAVIRUS SITUATION

NUMBERS

* 4359 Australians diagnosed with coronavirus (at 6am)

* 50 in intensive care, 20 of whom are on ventilators

* 19 dead (less than 1 per cent fatality rate)

* 230,000 tests done

* Daily rate of infection dropped from 25-30 per cent to nine per cent average over past three days

* 1 million telehealth consultations done

HOSPITALS

* New deal with private hospitals to effectively fold their capacity into the public system

* 34,000 more beds available, including a third of the nation's intensive care capacity

* 105,000 staff including 57,000 nurses

* Private hospitals could take on public services, set up flu clinics or testing services in day hospitals, exchange staff and equipment, or provide support for patients coming from aged care homes

* In exchange, the government will guarantee the viability of all 657 private hospitals, at a cost of an extra $1.3 billion

INTENSIVE CARE

* 2200 specialist ventilators now available

* Will shortly double to 4400 by repurposing other machines and adding private system capacity

* Local manufacturer ResMed making 500 specialist ICU ventilators and 5000 non-invasive ones by end of April

* Aiming to boost numbers to 7500 ICU beds with ventilators and associated staff

(Source: Health Minister media conference)