Four new COVID-19 cases have been uncovered among a family in Melbourne's north.
Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed two more people had returned positive coronavirus test results, adding to the two other cases revealed earlier on Monday.
Health authorities were alerted to the cluster after a Whittlesea man presented for testing on Sunday.
He and an asymptomatic male relative from a separate household both tested positive.
A woman and young child in the family of the Whittlesea man have also been confirmed as COVID positive.
Mr Foley said there was no indication the COVID-positive family members were linked to any exposure sites visited by a Victorian man who contracted coronavirus in hotel quarantine in South Australia.
The department last week admitted it had listed the wrong supermarket as an exposure site during the outbreak earlier this month.
Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley Source: AAP
People had been warned of potential exposure at Woolworths in Epping a fortnight ago, but the department on Friday said the man had shopped at Woolworths in Epping North, three kilometres away.
Mr Foley said the cases were a reminder the pandemic had not gone away and testing would continue to be vital to tackling it, as would mask-wearing on public transport and using QR codes at venues.
“I urge all Victorians to be cautious because we are coming into winter, the highest risk period of transmission in our community. There are things that we can and all have to be doing to keep ourselves safe and keep our community safe,” he told reporters on Monday afternoon.
Mr Foley said there were no plans for a lockdown yet.
“Victorians have sacrificed more than anyone else and we have learned a lot about the distribution of the virus. What we want to do is get just possible that the epidemiological picture as to whether cases are, where the contacts are, and then work out from there,” he said.
Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said it was important to get vaccinated against the virus and failure to do so would likely result in more outbreaks.
“We will always be at risk until we have high vaccination coverage,” he told reporters.
Earlier on Monday, federal Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly urged as many people as possible to get vaccinated.
Prof Kelly said it was important to look for incentives and that he was open to novelty measures such as cash lotteries and product discounts seen overseas.
"All of these things are potentially on the table," Prof Kelly said.
"At the moment, we know there is some hesitancy, particularly in the 50 to 69-year-old age group. We are rolling out extremely well in the over 70s. So there is something we need to consider there."
There are fears the vaccine rollout has been hampered by complacency and concerns among older Australians in relation to the AstraZeneca jab. The drug has been linked to a small number of extremely rare blood clots.
Despite the remote risk, cabinet minister Simon Birmingham is urging people not to wait for alternative jabs to arrive.
"Australians aged over 50 who have concerns or hesitancy should sit down and talk to their GP," he said.
Prof Kelly has written to all GPs with the latest advice on vaccine side-effects.
He has not joined Department of Health boss Brendan Murphy in blaming sensationalist media reports for the vaccine hesitancy.
One potential vaccine incentive faces stiff opposition.
Scott Morrison wants vaccinated Australians to be able to travel across state borders irrespective of lockdowns.
About 3.6 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have so far been administered across the country, through a mix of AstraZeneca and Pfizer jabs.
The number of vaccinated disability care residents has been revised up to 5,888 from fewer than 1,000 a week ago.
During parliamentary Question Time, Mr Morrison conceded that the pace of the rollout in the disability sector has been slow, adding that earlier statistics had made the situation sound worse than it actually is.
"I don’t think we are making enough progress quickly here. I don’t think we are.
"This [the statistics] relates to NDIS in residential settings, Mr Speaker. So that is 8,400 doses that have been delivered in that setting for some 5,875 people.
"These numbers indicate far higher than the figure , is that people living with a disability find themselves able to access vaccinations in a range of different settings and we are ensuring by direct contact with those in these settings, Mr Speaker, that we can better target the delivery of those doses to them.
He said action is now being taken to accelerate the vaccine rollout in the disability sector.
"The minister for the NDIS and I have met together with the health minister and the team administering these vaccinations, oversighting to see the in-reach services better targeted."
The overall national number for vaccinations is still well short of what the government was hoping for, but the rollout could soon receive a shot in the arm.
The government is promising two million doses of Pfizer will arrive in Australia each week from the start of October.
This could see every Australian who wants protection from COVID-19 fully immunised by the end of this year.
With SBS News.
