Coronavirus in Victoria: 65 new cases as Shepparton outbreak continues to grow

The figure includes 16 cases known yesterday but only included in the Sunday tally, all in Shepparton and detected through rapid testing after the city's first positive case was reported on Friday.

The Shepparton cluster, which prompted Premier Daniel Andrews to introduce regional Victoria's strictest lockdown to date, has now grown to at least 21 cases, most of them children.

More infections are expecting in coming days, with the cluster centred on three large families with children at three local schools.One of the Shepparton cases recently travelled to Bendigo and Mr Andrews says there's "every reason to believe that this is further into regional Victoria".

The news comes less than 24 hours after police arrested more than 200 anti-lockdown protesters and issued hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fines just hours after regional Victoria joined metropolitan areas in a statewide lockdown.

The new lockdown won't lift until 11.59pm on September 2 under the best case scenario.

A 4000-strong crowd of mostly unmasked protesters let off flares, yelled slogans and blasted music as they moved through Melbourne's CBD on Saturday afternoon.

Police police arrested 218 people and issued 236 fines, each worth $5452, for health order breaches.

Six police officers were hospitalised and three people remain in custody for allegedly assaulting police.

Officers used pepper spray on multiple people and in a statement said they were left with "no choice but to use all tactics available to them".

The premier told Victorians he had no choice but to impose some of the harshest restrictions the state has seen to ward off a crisis on the scale NSW is facing.

Access to childcare centres has been shut down for all but vulnerable children and the children of authorised workers.

Authorised workers will need to obtain permits to go to their jobs from 11.59pm on Monday and there will be more workforce limits and mandatory testing for high-risk industries in Melbourne, such as abattoirs, meat processing centres, and supermarket distribution centres.

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Masks are now being recommended for primary school students when they are indoors, to address a significant over-representation of young children among the state's active COVID cases.

Mr Andrews also said he wanted students aged 12 and over to have had at least one dose of vaccine by the end of the school year because of fears of what could happen if such a large, unprotected group began moving around the state and country over the Christmas holidays.

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