21 people succumb to COVID-19 in Aus, toll reaches 352

There were 662 Victorians in hospital with the virus, of which 43 were in intensive care and 25 on ventilators. Andrews also indicated that there was a "concerning increase" of COVID-19 cases in the regional cities of Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat.

Australia's death toll due to COVID-19 crossed 350 on Wednesday after it recorded its highest single day spike of 21 new fatalities, while the number of coronavirus cases jumped to 22,127 with 428 fresh infections detected in the country. All the new deaths were reported in Victoria. A total 410 new cases were recorded from the second most populous State and 18 new cases were reported from New South Wales on Tuesday.

Of the total 21 deaths, 16 have come from the Victoria's aged care homes, State Premier Daniel Andrews confirmed while giving out COVID-19 updates. Two women and one man in their 70s, six women and five men in their 80s, five men and one woman in their 90s, and one woman in her 100s are among the latest fatalities. A total of 267 Victorians have now succumbed to the novel coronavirus since the pandemic began.

An additional 53 "mystery cases", where the source of transmission could not be detected, were reported. Nearly 1,929 active cases are now linked to aged care outbreaks and the active cases for Victoria now stood at 7,877 cases. There were 662 Victorians in hospital with the virus, of which 43 were in intensive care and 25 on ventilators.

Andrews also indicated that there was a "concerning increase" of COVID-19 cases in the regional cities of Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat. "We have seen some increases of concern to us in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo. They are stable, they’re very low numbers, but coming off such a low base, any additional cases are of concern to us," Andrews said while urging Victorians to think twice about their need to travel.

"I made some comments yesterday about people really just stopping and thinking about whether travel to regional Victoria or travel from regional Victoria to Metropolitan Melbourne is absolutely necessary," he said. Currently, metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire are facing strict stage 4 restrictions while regional parts of Victoria have been put under stage 3 restrictions in an attempt to contain the spread of the virus which has taken lives of 352 Australians.

Andrews said the restrictions would be in place until next year if the Victorians did not ahere to them and case numbers did not decrease. "It won’t be a 6-week strategy, it will be much, much longer," he said adding, "We will be into 2021 with significant lockdown in place. That's not acceptable." The total number of infected cases in the country since the pandemic broke out stood at 22,127 including 12,387 recoveries and 8801 active cases.