Australia on Thursday recorded its highest daily one-day total of Covid-19 cases after Victoria - the second-most populous state - announced 723 new cases and 13 deaths overnight. Both figures are single-day records since the pandemic began.
10 of deaths are believed to be connected to aged care as the number of active cases associated with aged care exceed 900.
The new confirmed cases figure is almost 200 above the state's previous record of 532 on Monday.
At a press conference, Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews and the health minister Jenny Mikakos confirmed the figures earlier released to media as expected numbers.
The figure is expected to cause significant concerns in the nation as Victoria is nearly halfway through its six-week lockdown and the restrictions have yet to prove effective.
According to Andrews, wearing a mask when in public will also be mandatory in regional Victoria from Sunday.
NSW has recorded 18 new cases of coronavirus.
Queensland has reported 3 new cases on Thursday after a couple returned from Sydney and a man who returned from the US tested positive.
Australia has so far managed to avoid high COVID-19 mortality rates observed overseas, but the new wave of community transmission has caused a lockdown in Melbourne and regional Victoria, the only Australian state that has mandated the wearing of a face mask in public.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has urged people to wear face masks to reduce community transmission.
