Canberra, Oct 14 (IANS): Australia has surpassed 900 coronavirus deaths about seven months after reporting its first death.

As of Wednesday afternoon there had been 904 deaths from Covid-19 in Australia, up from 899 on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

It comes after Australia confirmed its first death from the virus on March 1 and marks Australia's deadliest day since seven deaths were reported on September 29.

All five deaths were in Victoria, the hardest-hit state by the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, which now accounts for 90.2 per cent of the country's coronavirus deaths.

It has taken about a month for the death toll to increase from 800 to 900 compared to about eight days for it to grow from 700 to 800, reflecting the subsiding second wave of Covid-19 infections.

"Of the 904 deaths in Australia, 690 have been in either residential care or home care," Greg Hunt, the Minister for Health, said in a press conference in Canberra.

The total number of Covid-19 cases in Australia rose to 27,341 on Wednesday afternoon, and the number of new cases in last 24 hours is 25, according to the latest figures from Australian Government Department of Health.

Victoria confirmed seven new cases and New South Wales, Australia's most populous state, reported 14 cases, three of which were recently returned travellers in hotel quarantine.

It is the second consecutive day that New South Wales has recorded more new cases than Victoria.