MELBOURNE, Australia — Australia on Monday recorded its deadliest day of the pandemic Monday, although the number of new infections in the country's virus epicenter fell to a near two-month low.

Victoria’s health department reported 41 deaths from COVID-19 and 73 new infections in the latest 24-hour period. While the deaths were a state and national high, the tally of new infections was Victoria’s lowest since 67 new cases were recorded on June 30 in the early weeks of the second wave of the pandemic, which has primarily been concentrated in the state capital, Melbourne.

The easing number of COVID-19 cases comes as the state capital Melbourne begins its fourth week of a six-week lockdown that sees residents confined to their homes, a nightly curfew imposed and large parts of the state economy ordered to close.

The total lockdown is set to end on Sept. 13, and with cases falling, state Premier Daniel Andrews said his government will on Sunday detail how restrictions will be slowly eased.

"I want to make sure we have a Christmas Day as close to possible as normal," Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

"If we (remove restrictions) too quick, if we do this chasing something that might be popular for a few weeks, if we forget it's a pandemic and think it's a popularity contest, then Christmas won’t look normal at all."

Victoria has recorded more than 19,000 infections with the coronavirus, almost 80 percent of Australia’s more than 25,000 cases, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. The state also accounts for the vast majority of Australia’s more than 650 deaths.