When asked whether Victoria need to go even harder lockdown in the press conference on Monday, Scott Morrison said that "all of the options" to contain the virus were on the table.
"We are several weeks in, now to a six-week lockdown period in Victoria. The advice to me is it is premature at this point to be making those calls, but it's also important to keep all of the options on the table," he told reporters.
"We need to be patient. There has been significant community transmission in Victoria. That will take some time to get on top of and that is what the actions are directed to addressing right at this very moment."
Michael Kidd, the Australian Government Deputy Chief Medical Officer, said in an update on Monday afternoon that the number of new cases in the last 24 hours is 549, which is the single largest daily number of diagnoses of COVID-19 in the country.
As of Monday afternoon there had been 14,935 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Australia, according to him.
Victoria has confirmed 532 new cases of the virus, a new record-high daily increase for any state or territory, with another six deaths, taking the national death toll to 161.
"The tragedy of COVID-19 is that we know with the number of new infections that we have seen today, that there will be many further deaths in the days ahead," said Kidd.
Morrison said that the outbreak in Victorian aged care, which has grown to 683 active cases, was a reminder that community transmission threatened the elderly.
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