Victoria records another three digit day and another COVID-19 death.

In the latest Melbourne COVID-19 update, Premier Daniel Andrews confirms 275 new cases as the State’s death toll rises to 39.

The new case load brings the active number of COVID-19 cases in Victoria to 2,913.

A woman in her 80s succumbed to the virus overnight, bringing the national death toll to 120.

Of the new 275 cases, only 28 are linked to known outbreaks. The rest are still being investigated.

Down from the peak

While still high, the new case-load is still comes as a relief after the State confirmed 428 cases just three days ago.

The count is also down from yesterday when 363 cases were recorded.

But Mr Andrews said it didn’t mean the worst was behind the State.

“We had a very big day Friday and we had a substantial drop-off, even though we had done more tests,” he said.

“This shows you that it is a wicked enemy, it is unable and until we bring some stability to this, we won’t be able to talk about a trend.”

There are currently 147 people in hospital, and 31 in intensive care.

But testing has ramped up considerably, with 26,588 tests conducted over the last 24 hours alone.

“That is a really powerful contribution that every single person who gets tested makes to us being able to track this virus, to have people isolate in their homes, to limit the spread, logic tells you that without that sort of data, without that evidence, it becomes very challenging to limit the spread of this virus, no matter what settings you have in place, no matter what rules you have in place,” Mr Andrews said.

Masks to be distributed

The ruling that masks will be mandatory in Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire comes into place on Wednesday night.

Today, Mr Andrews confirmed that masks would be distributed around public high schools.

He said the government had put in an order for 1.37M reusable masks, and the department of education were first in line to receive what they needed.

Mr Andrews urged against price gouging of masks as demand skyrocketed.

“I would encourage everybody to be fair and reasonable and I would encourage everybody to do the right thing and acknowledge that this is no time to be profiting from the pain of others,” he said.

Party poopers

Mr Andrews slammed reports 20 people had gathered in Melbourne last night for a party.

“This is no time for parties, this is very serious,” he said.

“There are many families across Melbourne that are planning funerals at the moment. Now is not the time to be having parties, breaking the rules and not only putting yourself at risk but potentially risking the health and wellbeing of others.”

Mr Andrews said more fatalities were expected.

“I can’t say that there won’t be further deaths,” he said.

Further Australia and Perth COVID-19 news coverage on SoPerth.com.au.

Feature image: (AAP Image/Daniel Pockett)