Premier Daniel Andrews announces regional testing push after 'worrying' rise in cases

Premier Daniel Andrews said three more testing sites would be opened up in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo after 'significant' growth in the regional cities.

"Significant growth in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo are of concern and we are closely monitoring them to have fastest and most localised response," he said.

"It is very important that we keep case numbers low."

There have been 278 new cases of coronavirus confirmed in the past 24 hours.

There are 492 active cases in regional Victoria, compared to 7155 in metropolitan Melbourne.

"If you have even the mildest symptoms we ask you to come forward and get tested, you will make a really powerful contribution," Mr Andrews said.

"In fact anyone across regional Victoria, if you have even the mildest symptoms please get tested.

"We need to be confident we are finding as much of the virus as we can."

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Acting Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng said he felt the regional cases were under control.

"There are 176 cases in Geelong, a lot of those are attributed to outbreaks which are coming under controls, there's certainly some outbreaks and cases we don't know where they are coming from," he said.

"In Ballarat there's a smaller number, 23 cases over the last two weeks, and the sense is it's starting to come under control but again we encourage anyone in the community to get tested.

"In Bendigo there are 51 cases and a high proportion can be attributed to known outbreaks, we think it will come under control soon and play out a bit like Colac.

"Though we can't make assumptions about what will happen."

Sadly, a further eight Victorians have lost their lives to the virus: one woman in her 50s, two men in their 70s, two men and two women in their 80s and one man in his 90s.

Four of those deaths are linked to aged care outbreaks, taking the total death toll to 275.

On Wednesday, Horsham marked two weeks without a new COVID-19 case, however four active cases remain.

Meanwhile, DHHS figures showed one person in Ararat has now recovered. There are no longer any active COVID-19 cases in Ararat.

There were no changes in the rest of the region.

There are two active cases in West Wimmera.

One active case remains in the Northern Grampians.

No active cases have been reported in the Hindmarsh or Yarriambiack shires.

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