Australia’s second-most populous State, Victoria, reported its deadliest day of the COVID-19 outbreak on Sunday, with 17 people dying.
Victoria, at the centre of a second wave of infections in Australia, reported 394 cases of the virus in the past 24 hours, compared with a daily average of 400-500 over the past week. The new deaths bring the State’s total to 210.
The southeastern State, with infections concentrated in Melbourne, accounts for a lion’s share of the national tally of more than 21,000 cases and 295 deaths.
The State has imposed a night curfew, tightened restrictions on people’s daily movements and ordered large parts of the economy to close.
