He announced there were 317 new positive cases in the past 24 hours.

There were also two further deaths taking the state's total to 29. Both were men in their 80s.

In a media conference this morning, Premier Andrews announced that 28 of those new cases were linked to known outbreaks and 289 were under investigation.

It takes Victoria to 4750 cases in total with 2128 currently active.

There are now 109 people are in hospitals across Victoria, with 29 in intensive care.

There were more than 28,000 tests undertaken in that time.

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Premier Andrews encouraged people to get tested "even those with the mildest symptoms."

"You can't contain this if you don't know where it is," he said.

Community transmission remains at worrying levels. The past fortnight has seen the steepest and fastest rise in the number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic measures first came into place.

Today's total surpasses a spike on Friday last week when there were 288 new positive cases confirmed.

The breakdown by local government area will be sent out later today.

Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton said he hoped the numbers would begin to fall as Stage 3 lockdown measures took effect.

Ballarat has remained free of positive COVID cases since mid-May while other regional cities have all seen new cases emerge over the past few days.

However, earlier this week it emerged that two people had tested positive at the Ballarat Lucas testing centre - although both cases had registered addresses in Golden Plains.

The neighbouring municipality had three registered active cases as of Wednesday July 15.

There are active cases in Geelong and Bendigo, while a new case has also cropped up in Warrnambool.

"Everyone would prefer this to be a very different set of circumstances but it's not an ordinary winter," Mr Andrews warned.

"This is not an ordinary week. If we pretend it is, if we pretend it is over because we want it to be over, all we'll be doing is spreading the virus, seeing more people in hospital and sadly more people will pass away as a result of this virus.

"More time is needed for the numbers to stabilise and drop, given the fresh stay- at-home orders for metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire are just a week old".

The state government has also paused all category three elective surgeries - including hip and knee operations - at Melbourne health services to make sure extra beds are available for the virus surge.

Meanwhile, about 140 police officers are quarantining after coming into contact with people infected with coronavirus.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Shane Patton confirmed those officers and 30 protective service officers are off the beat due to the state's latest outbreak."It's a concern for us, there's no doubt about that," he told 3AW radio on Thursday.

People will also be expected to wear masks in the state's courts, where disposable masks will be available at entrances before security checks.

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