Australia has reported its highest COVID-19 daily death toll in recent months as the country continues to battle against the wave of Omicron sub-variant infections in winter.
There were 157 new COVID-19 deaths reported across Australia on Friday, including 107 in Victoria and 22 in New South Wales.
The spike takes Australia's total COVID-19 death toll to over 11,600, of which almost 10,000 have occurred in 2022.
Figures published by the Guardian Australia on Friday revealed Australia has one of the highest coronavirus death rates among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations.
The seven-day average of deaths per million residents was 2.77 in the week to Wednesday, trailing only New Zealand and Norway.
Australia on Friday reported more than 40,000 new COVID-19 cases.
According to Department of Health data, there were 5,245 cases being treated in hospitals on Thursday.
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