Victorian outbreak grows to 600 active cases says Premier

Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said four of the 600 cases were acquired overseas.

It comes as the state recorded 80 new cases of COVID-19 of which only 39 were isolating while infectious.

Mr Andrews said some of today's positive cases 'waited a long time' before getting tested and were out in the community infecting their family and friends.

He said people must get tested as soon as they have symptoms else you will undoubtedly give it to people you love.

67 of the cases were linked to known clusters and 13 mystery cases are still under investigation.

More than 33,900 vaccines were administered and 56,200 tests received.

Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley yesterday could not out keeping the state's border with NSW closed even once national vaccination targets are reached.

READ MORE:

Mr Foley said the NSW outbreak was 'creeping ever closer to the Victorian border'.

"Given the deteriorating position in NSW I don't think I can rule out further measure being taken," he said of the border closure.

Victoria is recruiting 350 overseas doctors and nurses to ease pressure on a hospital system facing hundreds of workers being furloughed due to coronavirus exposure, including at Royal Melbourne Hospital and Goulburn Valley Health.

The Goulburn Valley is battling an outbreak centred in Shepparton, about 180km north of Melbourne, with 67 cases which are all linked.

Mr Andrews said a lot of industries in Shepparton had been impacted because there were 16,000 primary and secondary close contacts isolating.

He said senior officials and a substantial amount of public servants, mainly from regional areas, were in Shepparton coordinating emergency relief for the region.

Mr Andrews said they would be taking food to people's doorsteps and getting scripts filled.

"Everyone is working together, everyone is focused on getting people of Shepparton everything they need," he said.

Mr Andrews said more ADF personnel would be requested.

COVID Commander Jerone Weimar said the Shepparton outbreak has grown to 67 cases which are all linked.

He said 18 of Victoria's 80 new cases were linked to the Shepparton.

Mr Weimar said he expects to find more cases in coming days.

He said the Shepparton cluster was rapidly growing and none of the 18 new cases were fully in quarantine while infectious.

16,000 people had been tested in Shepparton.

Mr Weimar said apart form the case from Mansfield they have not found any cases outside Shepparton in regional Victoria.

Mr Weimar said of the 600 active cases in the state 240 are under the age of 20.

He said 36 people were in hospital, 11 in ICU and eight on ventilator.