Further 59 deaths reported, 81 new cases in Victoria

This figure includes 50 people in aged care who passed away from July to August.

Additional deaths - outside the 24 hour period - have been continually added to the tally throughout the week, after the federal government requested data held by the aged care sector and the DHHS be reconciled.

The sharp increased takes the state's total death toll to 660.

There were also 83 new case reported in the past 24 hours.

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Friday's new infections are lower than those from Thursday, when 113 were recorded.

This week's daily increases have been as low as 71.

Greater Bendigo has noted five new cases in the seven days to Thursday.

There have been three new cases since Tuesday alone.

However, the total number of actively infected people has stayed the same or decreased over the past week.

That suggests that either people are recovering or health authorities are reclassifying cases.

Greater Bendigo has not seen the kinds of daily increases associated with the height of the second wave in August when infections sometimes jumped by more than 10 a day.

A new active case was confirmed in Horsham yesterday, after a Melbourne resident visited the region. You can read more about that here.

The new case was not reflected in local figures released by the state governments.

Data released by the DHHS on Thursday afternoon showed there were only two active cases in the Horsham Rural City Council government area.

It also showed there had been 12 total cases - including recovered - in the municipality. This figure has not changed since August 20.

There are still no active cases in any other shire in the Wimmera and surrounds.

Health authorities yesterday noted that the state's daily infection rates were trending downwards and the government still planned to release a reopening roadmap this Sunday.

Few concrete details about that plan have been made public and premier Daniel Andrews yesterday said a document with key dates leaked to Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper was out of date.

He and fellow state leaders are meeting with prime minister Scott Morrison today to talk out pandemic plans, especially those relating to border closures, agriculture and the upcoming bushfire season.

Victorian health authorities expect to release a further breakdown of today's new cases later today.