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Man dies from coronavirus as Victoria confirms record number of daily cases

Victoria has recorded its highest ever coronavirus daily total as the surge in cases in the Melbourne region continues.

A further 127 cases were announced on Monday by Premier Daniel Andrews, while he confirmed the state’s 21st death from the virus.

The deceased is a male in his 90s, Mr Andrews said.

The state’s previous highest daily total was on March 28, with 111 cases. More than 24,000 people were tested on Sunday.

Mr Andrews called the latest increase “concerning”.

“This could not be more serious. I'm not telling people what to do, I'm asking work with me and my team and we will get this back under control and we will be able to resume our easing, our opening up,” he said.

Daniel Andrews addresses the media on Monday. Source: ABC
Daniel Andrews addresses the media on Monday. Source: ABC

Thirty-four of the new Victorian cases are linked to confirmed and contained outbreaks, 40 were discovered through routine testing and 53 cases are being investigated.

There were 108 cases announced on Saturday and 74 on Sunday.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise in Victoria, the state’s border with NSW will close from Tuesday night, Mr Andrews confirmed.

“It is one of those things that I think will help us in broader terms contain the spread of the virus,” he said, while apologising for the inconvenience it will cause to some Victorians.

“This is the right approach to take at this time given the still unacceptably high numbers of cases.”

He said the decision was a joint one made my himself, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

There will be some exemptions to the border closure, with people allowed to apply for a permit to cross the border.

There were a further 16 cases confirmed inside the nine public housing towers which were placed into a hard lockdown on Saturday. There are 53 detected in the towers overall.

Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the surge in cases aren’t exclusively occurring in the 36 suburbs which have been placed into lockdown for four weeks.

“They're very much in that north-west corridor but there is a significant number that are in the adjacent postcodes. So it's not just in those restricted postcodes,” he said.

“There's significant spillover and to use the bushfire analogy - there are literally spot fires adjacent to those restricted postcodes.”

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