A teenager is among the seven COVID-19 related deaths announced in Victoria on Saturday as cases continue to surge in the Australian state.
The 15-year-old girl was the youngest person to die from COVID-19 during Victoria's current outbreak.
COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar wouldn't comment on the death and the circumstances surrounding it but did say she had many underlying conditions and contracted the virus.
"A 15-year-old has very sadly passed away, we believe with a number of conditions, but she was COVID positive," Weimar said on Saturday.
"It is a very sad and tragic case, we won't be making any more comments on her, but we will send our best wishes to her family and the family of all those who have lost their lives with COVID, particularly in the last 24 hours."
The other deaths included two men in their 80s, a woman in her 70s, two women in their 60s and a man in his 50s.
Victoria announced 1993 new community cases on Saturday and has seen a "notable increase" in hospitalisation over the past two weeks, officials said.
There are currently 798 people in hospital, with 163 people in intensive care, and 160 of those are on a ventilator.
Of those people in hospital on Friday, 89 percent were not fully vaccinated and of those in intensive care, 96 percent were not double jabbed.
"That is a significant jump in the last 24 hours, and we think it really reflects the increase in cases we have seen in the last 10 days, 14 days or so," Weimar said.
The new cases announced on Saturday take the total number of active cases in Victoria's current outbreak to 21,647.
