Health authorities hope it reflects a slowing of the surge in cases registered last week. It is down notably from Friday's total when Premier Andrews announced a record number of 428 new cases. It was the second consecutive daily record following Thursday's total of 317.

There was one further death on Monday taking the state's total to 39. The most recent death was a woman in her 80s.

There has now been over two weeks with more than 100 new cases every day.

In the daily media conference this morning, Premier Andrews announced that 28 of those new cases were linked to known outbreaks and 247 were under investigation.

It takes Victoria to 5,942 cases in total, with almost half of those currently being active.

There are now 147 people in hospitals across Victoria, with 31 in intensive care .

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Premier Andrews once again encouraged people to get tested - even if they have only mild symptoms.

The new statistics still indicate a concerning level of community transmission. The past fortnight has seen by far the steepest and fastest rise in the number of COVID-19 cases since the pandemic measures first came into place.

The chief health officer Brett Sutton said at the end of last week that he hoped for numbers to plateau shortly.

The breakdown of cases by local government area will be sent out later today. Currently the Ballarat municipality has eight active cases. At this point last week, none were registered.

Ballarat registered its first positive COVID case since mid-May on Thursday last week, and registered more cases on both following days - four on Friday and three on Saturday.

There is particular concern about the potential for spread in care homes, after it was revealed that both a staff member and a resident had been registered positive at the Bill Crawford Lodge in Dana Street.

While Monday's figure is lower than some previous figures, Mr Andrews said he was hesitant to say the second wave was flattening.

"We had a very big day Friday and we had a substantial drop-off, even though we had done more tests," he told reporters.

"It won't be until Wednesday that we get to the full two weeks of the stay at home orders across all of metro Melbourne, albeit some of those hot spot post codes in the north and the west, they have been under the stay at home rules for longer.

"We shouldn't interpret this data as if we're in week five of a six week lock down."

People aged 12 and up, living in metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire will have to wear masks or face coverings from Thursday.

The government announced on Monday students required to be in the classroom from this week would be among the first to receive free masks.

"We already have 1.2 million single use masks and we will be distributing those to all government schools in Melbourne metro and Mitchell shire over the coming couple of days and we will also be providing these single use masks for our Catholic and independent schools," Education Minister James Merlino told reporters.

An order of 1.37 million reusable fabric masks has been made and the Department of Education will be one of the first to receive a batch of them.

"We will have those by early next week and we will be distributing those out to government and non-government schools in Melbourne metro and Mitchell Shire," Mr Merlino said.

The fabric masks are being made by five Victorian companies - Noby Denim, StylePrint, NMBQ, The Ark and The Mask Project.

Most prep to year 10 students resumed remote and flexible learning on Monday.Senior secondary students, special needs and vulnerable students all resume in- class learning though and will be required to wear a mask if they are 12 or older.

The state government says it has issued up to 61,000 lap tops and devices for students who need them, as well as around 23,000 SIM cards and dongles to help in remote learning.

Stage 3 "Stay at Home" restrictions remain in force across metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire.

There are only four reasons for people to leave their homes: shopping for food and essential items; care and caregiving; daily exercise; and work and study.

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