Victoria has recorded 22 fresh coronavirus cases with the lion's share linked to an outbreak at a meat processing facility.
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The state's chief health officer told Victorians the facility posed no risk to them, and Cedar Meats says the meat is safe to eat.
There have been 34 cases linked to the outbreak, including 19 of the 22 new COVID-19 cases recorded in Victoria on Monday.
Chief Health Officer Professor Brett Sutton said the facility began moving towards a shut down when the outbreak was identified and is now closed.
"It's not a risk to the general community and it's not going to get out of control," he told reporters on Monday.
The factory could not close immediately because of animal welfare issues, he said.
The bulk of workers who tested positive over the weekend were asymptomatic and were in quarantine before receiving the result.
General Manager Tony Kairouz said the company found out a staff member had COVID-19, after being admitted to Sunshine Hospital for an unrelated matter on April 27.
Two days later, the company found out that four staff who worked in one area of the plant had the virus.
All 350 onsite staff were tested for COVID-19 by May 1.
"For the past few days our focus has been 100 per cent inward - on closing down the processing side of our business, taking care of staff and animal welfare," Mr Kairouz said in a statement on Monday.
The company had not tried to hide the outbreak, he added.
He told Melbourne radio 3AW earlier in the day that all the meat processed was in line with Australian food safety standards.
The health department is working with the company, which has agreed to close its facility for 14 days and undergo a deep clean.
Meanwhile, two other fresh cases in Victoria on Monday were returned travellers while one other case was under investigation.
A testing blitz aimed at conducting 100,000 tests in Victoria within two weeks has reached its halfway mark, with 55,000 people tested so far, including 13,000 on Sunday alone.
That is the most tests on a single day in any part of the country in this pandemic, Premier Daniel Andrews said.
Victoria's state of emergency is set to expire on May 11, and the government has said it will not consider relaxing social distancing restrictions before then.
On Sunday the government confirmed a teacher at Meadow Glen primary school in Epping had coronavirus and the school would be shut from Monday to Wednesday.
Australian Associated Press
