Victoria has recorded the deaths of a further 41 Covid-19 patients.
An ambulance is cleaned at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Melbourne. Photo: AFP
It is the biggest daily increase since 59 deaths were reported on 4 September 2020.
The daily death tolls include a number of recent deaths reported to health authorities and do not indicate that all the deaths occurred on the previous day.
The number of people in hospital with the virus has fallen to 687, down from 707 on Friday.
Of those patients, 80 are in intensive care units and 31 are on ventilators.
The state recorded another 7810 new Covid-19 infections.
That figure is comprised of 5099 rapid antigen test results and 2711 positive PCR tests.
It is the lowest figure since 7172 cases were reported on 2 January, when the testing system was under immense strain.
It brings the number of active cases across the state to 63,409, down from 65,968 a day earlier.
About 43 percent of the adult population has received at least three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
And about 48 percent of Victorians aged between five and 11 have now had at least one vaccine dose, after the rollout for that age group began on 10 January.
Nearly 3000 students test positive in first week of term
More than 2900 students and more than 400 teachers tested positive to Covid-19 in Victorian schools' first week of term.
Many of those infections were detected through the "strong recommendation" that teachers and students use a rapid test twice-weekly in mainstream schools and every day in specialist education settings.
"With more than 1.1 million Victorians in schools every day, these cases are an extremely low proportion of the overall case tally," a Department of Education spokesperson said.
No schools have been closed, despite the infection spike, with contact tracing aimed at keeping classrooms open.
NSW records 18 Covid deaths, 152 people in ICU
NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet says the state is "travelling very well" after recording its lowest daily death toll in almost three weeks.
The state reported 18 Covid-19 deaths, down from 31 yesterday.
There are 2337 people with the virus in hospital, of which 152 are in ICU.
There were 8389 new cases in the reporting period, of which 5300 were from rapid antigen tests and 3089 were from PCR swabs.
"We are seeing some very pleasing and reassuring data coming through in relation to hosptalisations and ICU presentations," Perrottet said this morning.
More than 42 per cent of the population have had three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Despite the majority of deaths of the last week being among older people, only 18 per cent of those who died had had a booster shot and about one in five was unvaccinated.
NSW Health's Jeremy McAnulty said it was "really important" that people get the booster shot.
"We need to make sure those booster shots for all people 16 and over now are given on time because booster is really important for preventing the transmission and serious disease," he said.
McAnulty said that of the 18 deaths, 11 were men and seven were women.
Queensland records deadliest day of the pandemic with 21 deaths
Queensland's Chief Health Officer John Gerrard says the state has recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic, with 21 people dying of Covid-19 as 8508 new cases are confirmed in the latest reporting period.
The deaths ranged from people in their sixties to their nineties, seven of whom were in aged care facilities. Four were unvaccinated and only two had received a booster.
There are 790 people being treated for Covid-19 in hospital, 63 of whom are in private hospitals. There are 48 people in intensive care.
Gerrard said it was vitally important for aged care residents to get their third vaccine dose.
"It just stresses me greatly every day to be reporting on all the Queenslanders who are dying without having received the booster," he said.
"We know that the booster, that third dose of vaccine, is absolutely critical in protecting us, particularly older people, for severe disease, hospitalisation, intensive care, admission and death.
"We do know that 70 per cent of Queenslanders over the age of 70 have received the booster, it's only 30 per cent who have not, and yet [more than] 90 per cent of the people who have died in this reporting period were unboosted."
- ABC
