Victoria has recorded four new locally acquired coronavirus cases on the first day of its sixth lockdown, including a student at a specialist school and a cleaner at a hospital.
The health department confirmed the state recorded six cases in the 24 hours to Friday morning, two of which were already announced by authorities on Thursday.
All six cases are linked to previously reported infections of the Delta variant and have been in the community while infectious.
Health Minister Martin Foley said three of the cases are relatives of a Hobsons Bay couple aged in their 20s, one of whom works as a teacher at Al-Taqwa College in Truganina.
The other three cases are linked to a man in his 20s, who lives in the Maribyrnong council area and works at a warehouse in Derrimut.
They include the man's housemate, who works as a cleaner at the Epworth consulting suites in Richmond, adjacent to the private hospital.
The hospital said the cleaner works on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings between 6pm and 9pm, cleaning on level 6 and 8 of the medical centre and did not work in any patient area.
The other two cases are relatives of the Maribyrnong man, who live in Wyndham Vale.
One attends the Warringa Park specialist school in Hoppers Crossing, which Mr Foley described as a "particularly important school that looks after some of our most vulnerable kids".
'It's all our hands'
"Adding all of this together, Victoria is in a precarious position when it comes to where this particular series of outbreaks are at the moment," Mr Foley told reporters on Friday.
"It's in all of our hands to continue to work together to work with our public health teams, to get on top of and ahead of this particular outbreak."
He said authorities were working to establish how the Hobson Bay couple and the Maribyrnong area man contracted the virus.
There are more than 10,000 close contacts of positive cases self-isolating and across the state.
"We'll see exposure sites start to spread across wider parts of the city and potentially regional Victoria as our contact tracing interviews continue," COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said.
There are six people in hospital battling the virus, including two in intensive care on ventilators.
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The seven-day, statewide lockdown took effect at 8pm on Thursday, with the same rules that applied during last month's lockdown reimposed.
These rules include the five reasons to leave home, the five-kilometre travel limit for exercise and shopping and compulsory masks indoors and outdoors.
Victorians were given less than four hours' notice of the lockdown because an outbreak occurred at a restaurant on the eve of the last lockdown and authorities were keen to avoid a similar situation.
Financial support
The Victorian and federal governments have also announced another $400 million worth of grants for businesses hit by the state's sixth lockdown.
The package includes automatic payments to almost 100,000 small and medium businesses including sole traders, with money available for firms that have missed out on other government support.
Meanwhile, 15 protesters were arrested after they rallied against the lockdown in Melbourne's CBD overnight.
Police say the rally was driven by serial protesters, who posed as aggrieved business owners and community members.
Some 29,631 test results were processed on Thursday and 18,901 Victorians received a vaccine dose at one of the state-run hubs.
