The Australian state of Victoria will pause non-urgent surgeries as it scrambles to deal with rising demands on its health service amid a growing outbreak of the CCP virus. Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed that public hospitals from Oct. 14 will only perform Category 1 surgeries (must be treated within 30 days) or 2A surgeries (90 days). “Other categories of clinical care will be rescheduled on a case-by-case basis, depending on particular circumstances in particular locations,” Foley told reporters on Oct. 12. “As COVID cases increase, we foreshadowed that we will be shifting capacity from the state sector to the private sector, and with that, we will be progressively seeking to switch off elements of non-urgent care,” he added. “This is an unfortunate, but necessary, measure to take account of the increased demand … and we can’t rule out further changes.” So far, 675 patients with COVID-19 are in hospital, …