The state of emergency has been extended in Victoria which has recorded 16 more deaths from coronavirus and 279 new cases in the past 24 hours.
More than 300 people have died in Victoria from Covid-19 where a strict lockdown has now been extended. Photo: AFP
There were 303 new cases and four deaths recorded yesterday.
There are now 16,764 confirmed coronavirus cases and 309 deaths in Victoria from Covid-19.
The latest deaths were one woman and two men aged in their 70s, two women and four men in their 80s and four women and three men in their 90s.
Premier Daniel Andrews said 11 of the 16 deaths were linked to aged care.
At present, 662 Victorians are in hospital with 40 people receiving intensive care - 29 of those are on a ventilator.
There are 7671 active cases in the state and just over 2000 of them are in aged care facilities.
The source of infection is unknown for 185 cases that are under investigation.
Andrews said the state of emergency has been extended until Sunday, September 13.
Police in Melbourne patrol the CBD. Photo: AFP
He said it was too early to tell when restrictions would be eased.
"What I would say is if you do a trend over the last seven to 10 days, then we have gone from around that period of maybe just a little bit earlier, 700 cases or more, we are now not in that territory, that is what the data says to us.
"There is on my part at least, a cautious optimism and a sense of real hope that this strategy is working and that we are seeing numbers fall now."
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Meanwhile, residents have been moved from two Melbourne care facilities after separate coronavirus outbreaks.
Seven residents at the Doutta Galla aged care centre in Yarraville, in Melbourne's west, have died since an outbreak began there 16 days ago.
Doutta Galla chief executive officer Vanda Laconese said 17 patients who had tested negative to coronavirus were moved to hospital early last week to protect them.
She said 23 residents who had tested positive were being treated at the centre, while another five were moved to hospital for further treatment.
Laconese said a number of staff members had tested positive and were quarantining at home.
Victoria's Minister for Mental Health, Martin Foley, said more than 17 residents at a mental health accommodation facility in Melbourne's inner south were being moved due to a Covid-19 outbreak.
He said he was treating the infections at Hambleton House in Albert Park as his "first priority", with police, paramedics and other health officers onsite to help with the relocation.
New South Wales has recorded one death - a man in his 80s - and five new cases in the last 24 hours. The number of new cases is the lowest in a month.
- ABC