Australia has suffered its deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic on Friday with nearly 100 deaths, but several large states said they expect hospital admissions to fall amid hopes that the latest wave of infections would begin to subside.

A total of 98 deaths were registered in Australia by late afternoon, exceeding the previous pandemic high of 87 two days ago. Just over 40,000 new infections were reported, the lowest daily tally in nearly a month, according to Reuters.

That takes the 25 million population country's total Covid-19 deaths to 3,500 since the pandemic began, far lower than numbers seen in many comparable countries.