A man has been charged after allegedly hitting a Melbourne COVID-19 testing site worker with a stolen car and fleeing.
The man aged in his 50s suffered non-life threatening injuries when he was struck by a white Holden station wagon while helping people queue at the Collingwood CoHealth testing site on Tuesday morning.
A nearby nurse provided first aid to the Tarneit man until an ambulance arrived.
A short time later, police found the station wagon and arrested the alleged driver in Carlton.
The 32-year-old, of no fixed address, was charged by police on Wednesday with theft of motor vehicle as well as a range of driving and drug-related offences.
He has been remanded to face court in mid-December.
CoHealth chief executive Nicole Bartholomeusz said the incident had sent "shockwaves" through the community and the clinic would be closed until Thursday.
The health department confirmed another COVID-19 testing site worker, in Pakenham, was subjected to "aggression" on Tuesday.
They were uninjured but the incident will be reported to police.
It comes as Victoria's premier thanked a nurse who died of COVID-19 for her years of service to the state.
Gillian "Jill" Dempsey died while in intensive care at Box Hill Hospital on Sunday afternoon, her employer Eastern Health has confirmed.
"Can I on behalf of all Victorians say how sorry we are to hear someone who committed their entire working life to caring for others has lost her life in the service of others," Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters at parliament.
"She was double-vaxxed, she was wearing PPE, she was doing all the right things, but she's contracted the virus and as we've said so many times this can be deadly."
Ms Dempsey began working for Angliss Hospital in 2007 and was a "beloved" night shift nurse, Eastern Health said.
She is survived by her husband Michael and their three children.
Ms Dempsey's union, the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, told the ABC she was the first hospital worker in the state to die from COVID-19.
The ANMF believes she contracted the virus while at work.
Victoria on Wednesday recorded 1179 new locally acquired COVID-19 infections and six deaths of people aged in their 60s, 70s and 80s.
Of the deaths linked to Victoria's current outbreak, 80 per cent were not fully vaccinated.
VICTORIA'S COVID-19 DAILY NUMBERS:
* Active cases: 11,959, up 542
* Hospital patients: 299, down six
* Seven-day hospitalisation average: 296, down two
* Actively infectious ICU patients: 43, up two
* Cleared ICU patients: 48, down five
* Patients on a ventilator: 18, down one
* Tests processed: 74,252
* Vaccine doses at state hubs: 4045
* 12 and over full vaccination rate: 91 per cent
* Toll across the pandemic: 1336.
