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SYDNEY, June 17 (Xinhua) -- The Australian State of Victoria recorded its biggest daily increase of COVID-19 infections in over a month, with 21 new cases officially recorded on Wednesday.

Victoria Health Minister Jenny Mikakos told reporters that fifteen of those new cases were overseas travelers returning to Australia, all of whom were in mandatory hotel quarantine.

One of the remaining cases was detected at an aged care facility, sparking serious concerns for the welfare of the elderly residents. The 53-bed facility was placed into lockdown and residents were restricted to their rooms.

Of the other five cases, two of them with known infectious sources while the other three were still under contact tracing by local health authorities to identify the source.

Mikakos warned that Australia will see a further rise in case numbers as travelers continue to arrive from overseas, a large portion of which are from the Indian subcontinent, currently one of the hotspots in the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We will continue to see large numbers of returning travelers coming back to Australia, coming back to Melbourne," Mikakos told reporters.

"Countries like India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are experiencing exponential growth in confirmed cases at the moment, and obviously that's impacting on the increase on our numbers who are in hotel quarantine."

As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 1,762 cases of COVID-19 in total, with 70 of them still active.