 The new record of daily COVID-19 infections in Australia was set on Thursday as the state of New South Wales reported 681 new cases. The state's premier Gladys Berejean-Clean said one man in his 80s died. This brings a number of lives lost in connection to the virus in the state to 117 since the beginning of the pandemic, with 57 new locally transmitted cases in Victoria and 16 in the Australian capital territory home to the capital Canberra. There were at least 754 local infections nationwide reported on Thursday. A number that eclipsed the number set during last year's second wave, Victoria's premier Daniel Andrews said while the 57 cases in the state were more than double those recorded a day earlier, 44 of those had been in isolation.