Fears continue to grow that Victoria's coronavirus death toll will rise after positive cases have been identified in 45 separate aged care facilities across the state.
Marylouise McLaws, an adviser on coronavirus infection control to the World Health Organization (WHO), said the outbreaks would certainly lead to more deaths due to the nature of the facilities, which make it extremely difficult to isolate infected residents.
Of particular concern is St Basil's Home for the Aged in Fawkner in Melbourne's north, which on Wednesday recorded 69 cases, a day after 51 were identified the previous day.
A further 54 cases have also been linked to Estia Health in Ardeer, 37 to Glendale Aged Care in Werribee, and 30 to Arcare Aged Care in Craigieburn. All three are located within 35 kilometres of Melbourne's CBD.
During the daily press conference on Wednesday, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said there were 300 positive cases linked to aged care facilities. Of these cases, approximately 50 per cent were in staff.
"One of the largest proportions of deaths in America has been in aged care facilities. So, it's not unexpected, it's just disappointing that we're still in of the mindset that we can care for such a dangerous disease within a shared home setting," Dr McLaws said.
On Wednesday, the state's death toll grew to 44, after two men in their 90s connected to aged care facilities died from the virus overnight.
The previous day, three women - aged in their 80s, 90s and, one over 100 - died of COVID-19, including two with links to aged care.
St Basil's Home for the Aged in Fawkner. Source: Google Maps
The government announced additional measures to support aged care providers to stem the spread of coronavirus on Monday, including a $1,500 one-off payment for aged care workers who are required to self-isolate and limits on employees working in multiple facilities where possible.
Dr McLaws said the "varied" nature of the aged care industry meant it was very difficult to effectively isolate infected residents at the same level offered in hospitals.
Even dealing with an outbreak of one case was challenging, she said, because the facilities are "basically a home".
Because of this, she believes best practice should be to remove all positive coronavirus patients from aged care to hospital to give them, and the other residents, the best chance of survival.
"Even if they are not receiving medical intervention, such as ventilation, just oxygen and care from high-skilled nursing staff is what they need," she said.
But Mr Andrews would not commit to relocating all coronavirus patients from aged care, instead stating the decision to move people to hospital would be made on a case-to-case basis.
"For me to stand at the podium and say we will move everybody up not because of the medical opinion but because I think that is a good thing to do, that doesn't make any sense," he said.
"Moving frail aged people out of nursing homes is not a good thing to do unless you absolutely have too."
Victoria , the highest daily increase of any state so far recorded in Australia since the beginning of the pandemic.
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