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Australia could register its 10 millionth case of COVID-19 by the end of August.

The nation is also closing in on 13,000 deaths from coronavirus since the pandemic began in early 2020.

As of Tuesday, the total number of cases racked up since early 2020 is 9.82 million, including 19,646 recorded in the previous 24 hours with data still to come for the Northern Territory.

The national death toll stands at 12,959, including 73 fatalities announced so far on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Australian Medical Association says the decision to set up a Moderna mRNA vaccination production factory in Melbourne will be an asset in years ahead.

The factory will be based at Melbourne's Monash University under a 10-year deal inked by the Victorian and federal governments.

Up to 100 million mRNA vaccine doses will be produced annually under the manufacturing partnership signed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews on Monday.

Moderna will also set up its headquarters and a regional research centre in Victoria.

The factory will be the only Moderna facility of its kind in the southern hemisphere and the first to be based at a university.

AMA president Steve Robson said Australians may have noticed shortages of critical medications and health supplies recently, due to global supply chain issues.

"The AMA is very interested in improving sovereign capacity to manufacture so many surgical supplies and medications and things right here," Professor Robson said.

"We could be a hub for the Pacific, so the idea that we're manufacturing vaccines here is fantastic and we hope it expands to lots of other critical medical things for Australians' health."

LATEST 24-HOUR COVID-19 DATA:

Victoria: 4858 cases, 20 deaths, 535 in hospital with 18 in ICU

NSW: 7145 cases, 24 deaths, 2141 in hospital with 60 in ICU

Queensland: 3232 cases, 17 deaths, 487 in hospital with 23 in ICU

ACT: 412 cases, four deaths, 138 in hospital with two in ICU

Tasmania: 518 cases, two deaths, 61 in hospital with four in ICU

WA: 2145 cases, one death, 294 in hospital with 11 in ICU

SA: 1336 cases, five deaths, 286 in hospital with 13 in ICU.

© AAP 2022

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says China should not use foot and mouth disease as an excuse to stop importing Australian beef.

Australia is free of the contagious animal virus, but remains on high alert given outbreaks in Indonesia and its spread into Bali, a popular tourist destination for Australians.

"We're acting on the foot and mouth disease, we've acted very strongly," Mr Albanese told ABC radio on Tuesday.

"There's no indication that it (biosecurity) has not been successful here in Australia."

The prime minister's assurance follows a Chinese media outlet reporting that Beijing had banned Australian beef imports over foot and mouth fears. Other publishers branded the report as incorrect.

A representative of Australia's agriculture minister Murray Watt played down the report in comments provided to AAP.

"We are aware of rumours," the representative said in a statement.

"The Australian embassy in Beijing has been in contact with China Customs and no formal notification has been issued."

The statement said government officials are receiving reports that consignments are clearing as normal.

Cattle Council of Australia chief executive John McGoverne said it was also business as usual for the country's beef producers.

"There has been no notification of change in the trading arrangements between China and Australia for beef and beef products," Mr McGoverne said.

Mr Albanese again called on China to remove trade sanctions against a range of Australian products.

"There is no justification for any of the economic sanctions that have been put in," he said.

"They are contrary to both the spirit and the detail that are there in the trade agreements that we have with China, and the sanctions should be withdrawn."

Mr Albanese did not directly address whether Australia should brace for further Chinese sanctions or tariffs following Canberra's support for Taiwan and freedom of navigation exercises in the Taiwan Strait as tensions escalate.

"We should have good relations and co-operate with China wherever we can," he said.

"But we will stand up for Australian interests where we must."

© AAP 2022

Scott Morrison has broken his silence on why he was sworn in to a number of ministries, saying it was a decision taken as precaution during the middle of the pandemic.

The former prime minister has defended keeping the multiple portfolios secret, saying they were a safeguard and that he would have made them public had he needed to use the powers involved.

"Sometimes we forget what was happening two years ago and the situation we were dealing with; it was an unconventional time and an unprecedented time," he told Sydney radio station 2GB on Tuesday.

"Boris Johnson almost died one night. We had ministers go down with COVID."

The ex-Liberal leader's comments came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed that between March 2020 and May 2021, Mr Morrison was appointed to five additional portfolios.

They included health, finance, home affairs, treasury and industry.

"This is a sad indictment of not just Mr Morrison but all those cabinet colleagues of his, who sat back and allowed this to happen," he said.

"It's undermined our democracy. It's an attack on the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy as we know it.

"And not just Mr Morrison but others who were involved in this need to be held to account."

Mr Albanese said he had asked for advice from the solicitor-general on the impacts of Mr Morrison's actions.

"We know that there is a legal matter in the issue of resources," he said.

"I am seeking further advice as to the use of these extraordinary powers by Scott Morrison and other examples of it."

Mr Morrison called the actions "a two key approach".

"We had to take some extraordinary measures to put safeguards in place," he said.

"Fortunately, none of these in the case of the finance and health portfolio were ever required to be used.

"The powers in those portfolios, they weren't overseen by cabinet. The minister ... in both cases had powers that few, if any, ministers in our federation's history had."

Mr Morrison said he didn't recollect other ministries he took on outside health, finance and resources, but documents reveal he also took on aspects of the social services portfolio.

"No, not to my knowledge no," Mr Morrison said when asked directly if he was sworn in as social services minister.

Mr Morrison clarified his position minutes later, saying: "I don't recall that but I mean, as I said, there was some administrative issues done. I don't dispute that."

An administrative arrangements order for the social services portfolio was signed by Mr Morrison and Governor-General David Hurley on June 28, 2021, on top of him being privately sworn in to other ministries.

Mr Morrison said all actions were taken to ensure the "buck stopped with the prime minister" as he had no legal powers to directly order a minister to take a certain decision.

"If I wished to be the decision maker, then I had to take the steps that I took," he said of a call to overrule resources minister Keith Pitt on a controversial NSW gas project, PEP-11.

"People know where the buck stops and the buck stops with the prime minister. I sought to be the decision maker on that issue because of its importance."

Mr Morrison says his failure to inform then finance minister Mathias Cormann he had been sworn into his portfolio was a regrettable oversight, thinking the information had been passed on through offices.

Mr Pitt says he was unaware Mr Morrison had joint oversight of his portfolio but stands by the decisions he made.

A spokesperson for Governor-General David Hurley says he followed processes consistent with the constitution when he appointed Mr Morrison to the additional portfolios.

"It is not uncommon for ministers to be appointed to administer departments other than their portfolio responsibility," the spokesperson said in a statement.

Such appointments do not require a swearing-in ceremony but rather the governor-general signs an administrative instrument on the advice of the prime minister.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said he didn't know Mr Morrison had sworn himself into the cabinet positions.

© AAP 2022