Australia's Victoria sees 5th day with fewer than 300 new cases

Australia's coronavirus hot spot state of Victoria on Thursday reported its fifth consecutive day with fewer than 300 new coronavirus infections.

Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews said 240 new cases and 13 deaths in the latest 24-hour period were reported, an increase in new cases on the results of recent days.

Andrews told reporters in Melbourne the state's numbers are "more than stabilising. "

"They're in fact coming down. Total numbers across regional Victoria are coming down. That shouldn't lead to any sense of complacency. That's exactly what we want, that they were always low, we want to keep them there and drive them down even further," Andrews said.

Victoria state Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said the daily new COVID-19 tally would have to be substantially lower before authorities would consider easing the Melbourne lockdown.

Cheng said he was encouraged that the daily counts were trending down in the longer term.

Victoria reported 222 new cases on Tuesday, the lowest daily tally since 217 were recorded on July 18.

The state recorded 216 new COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths on Wednesday, which was the lowest count since 177 cases were recorded on July 13.

The city of Melbourne has been under Australia's toughest ever pandemic lockdown restrictions for two weeks.