Victoria will not be released from lockdown on Thursday as planned, with the state recording almost 100 new cases today.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said too many cases remain a mystery and many were out in the community while infectious.
"It's not going to be possible for us to be able to open up our Victorian community in just a couple of days time," he said.
"We still have too many cases that were in the community for too long for us to be able to open up."
More details on opening up are expected to be revealed in the coming week. He said there may be scope to ease restrictions in regional Victoria before Melbourne.
Victoria has recorded 92 locally acquired COVID-19 cases, including more than 30 not yet linked to existing outbreaks.
Across the border, NSW has recorded 1218 new cases of COVID-19.
The premier acknowledged lockdown is "bloody tough for everyone" but with the Delta variant of the coronavirus, it's "barely a fair fight.
"We will not vaccinate people faster than Delta will infect them".
The 92 cases uncovered on Saturday came from more than 50,000 tests and take the number of active Victorian cases to 778.
Yesterday there were 31,436 vaccines administered.
New data today shows Warrnambool has the most fully vaccinated residents of Victoria's regional cities, with 43.7 per cent of the population inoculated against COVID-19.
Behind is Geelong (41.4 per cent), Bendigo (40.7 per cent) and Horsham (40.7 per cent.)
RELATED:
One case was uncovered in Victoria's hotel quarantine system.
There are 44 Victorians in hospital, 13 of which are in intensive care and nine on a ventilator. Of the 44 in hospital in Victoria only one has had one dose of the vaccine.
Of today's cases, 63 of the 92 cases are "clearly linked".
- Nine - Shepparton
- 12 - Broadmeadows
- 12 - Newport
- Nine household contacts of school outbreaks
- Four -Altona North Woolworths
- One -a Melbourne apartment complex
- One - Port Melbourne
- 15 - linked to other recent cases
- 29 are being investigated
The "vast majority" of infections are among young people, with 300 infections under the age of 20 and 171 under the age of 10.
COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar implored young people to step up and get tested if they have symptoms and get vaccinated against COVID-19.
"I appeal to young people; this virus is very active in young people in that age group, particularly in authorised workers, so please be mindful of any symptoms you may have," he said.
It comes as a new COVID-19 cluster crops up in the Port Melbourne area, with at least four cases tracked down to date.
Exposure sites for the "concerning" cluster include a Fisherman's Bend supermarket, car wash and auto warehouse.
Authorities warned of growing case numbers in Melbourne's northern and western suburbs, but said there was also evidence of undetected cases in bayside areas in the southeast.
Meanwhile, an outbreak in Shepparton in the Goulburn Valley region on Saturday grew to at least 85 COVID-19 cases, with nine more recorded on Sunday.
The outbreak has also spread to Echuca, after an aged care worker at the Wharparilla Lodge was infected by her partner.
Most of the 88 residents at the home have had both doses of the COVID-19 jab, while about 40 staff have been furloughed.
A third of Australian adults are now fully vaccinated for COVID-19, with children next on the list.
Vaccine bookings for those aged 12 to 15 to open from September 13.
More vaccine supply will arrive in Victoria from September onwards.
"If we let this thing run we will just have thousands and thousands of people - no family would be left untouched, we would finish up with thousands of people in hospital.
"That's just not fair on nurses, and it's not fair on those in the community who've got pre-existing health conditions and indeed, healthy people, because this will infect people of all ages, of all backgrounds.
"Whether we like it or not, we are all in this together. We all need to look out for each other and make good decisions based on the best health advice."
Almost one thousand more coronavirus vaccination doses went into south-west Victorian arms this week as more people became eligible for the jab.
In the past seven days to Wednesday at Warrnambool's vaccination hub there were 3298 vaccines administered - 1711 AstraZeneca and 1587 Pfizer.
It marks a jump of almost 30 per cent on the week before when 2537 vaccines were administered - 1417 AstraZeneca and 1120 Pfizer.
Those figures don't include vaccines at GPs across the region.
South-west residents reported heavy delays this week after the Pfizer vaccine opened to over 16s, with some travelling from as far as Portland and Horsham to secure an appointment.
Scores more were able to break through the congested system.
South West Healthcare chief executive Craig Fraser admitted appointments were being snapped up "within 10 minutes" and encouraged the community to keep trying the vaccine website to book.
"We understand there's huge, huge demand on those appointments but hopefully we can get more vaccines and meet that demand as we go forward," he said.
"Please don't give up, stick at it, and we will keep trying to meet the need.
"It's pretty clear we don't have the supply to meet the demand, which is a good thing, it means people want to be vaccinated."
We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we aim to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.