MELBOURNE: Australia has suffered its deadliest day from the coronavirus since the pandemic began, with authorities reporting ten fatalities Sunday and a rise in new infections despite an intensive lockdown effort. The country's Covid-19 death toll rose to 155 and the southeastern state of Victoria reported more than 450 new infections in the last 24 hours.

A clearly concerned Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said ten people aged between their 40s and 80s had died, of which seven deaths were linked to outbreaks in aged care facilities. It is the worst loss of life from the virus in Australia since the disease first emerged, according to a tally compiled by AFP.

Australia has dodged the worst ravages of the pandemic so far, logging just 14,000 cases in total - fewer than many harder-hit countries see in one day. But a second wave of infections is testing the nation's much-lauded response to the contagion.