Victorian health authorities say the new Omicron BA.2 sub-variant is showing up in half of wastewater tests in Victoria, suggesting it's quickly becoming the dominant COVID-19 strain.
Victoria has recorded eight COVID-related deaths and 9,426 new cases.
It is the highest daily count of new cases in Victoria since 9,391 infections were reported on February 10.
It takes the total number of active infections to 42,250.
The majority of new cases are being detected through rapid antigen tests, which are not able to identify the variant of the infection.
However, Victoria's COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar said there was strong evidence the new sub-variant was contributing a high number of the new cases.
"Those numbers are starting to trickle up again and if we look at the sequencing we're doing, we're now seeing BA2, the sub-lineage, in around half of our wastewater sequencing results," he said.
Health Minister Martin Foley said new daily case numbers were increasing by about 10 per cent on a week-by-week basis, with BA.2 the likely contributor.
"In the space of a few weeks we've seen the Omicron BA.2 variant go from pretty much nowhere to be seen to the initial reports of at least half of cases," he said.
Health experts believe the BA.2 variant is around 25 to 30 per cent more infectious than BA.1, based on recent data.
The University of Melbourne's Professor Nathan Grills said hospitalisation figures would remain the key statistic in charting the BA.2 outbreak.
"I think we'll have to watch quite closely over the coming weeks, hospitalisations will be the important thing to watch," he said.
"The numbers in hospital may increase, but the overall severity of Omicron BA.2 is no different to Omicron BA.1."
So far, there has not been a significant rise in hospitalisations, despite the rise in case numbers.
There are 201 coronavirus patients in Victorian hospitals, up from 197 a day earlier.
Of those people, 24 are in intensive care units and six are receiving ventilation.
Victoria University public health expert Maximilian de Courten said it was too early to consider reintroducing some COVID-19 restrictions because of the new variant.
Professor de Courten said home testing kits were not able to determine which variant a person had contracted.
Professor de Courten said health authorities would have "one eye on the speedometer" when assessing whether the growth in cases was putting more pressure on hospitals, which he said did not yet appear to be the case.
"If that would change then certainly we would have to revise our strategy of loosening the public health protection measures," Professor de Courten said.
Mass vaccination centre to close next week
The government has announced that vaccinations will no longer be offered at the Royal Exhibition Building from March 23.
The centre was one of the initial mass vaccination hubs set up in early 2021.
Mr Weimar said the centre had only been handling vaccination numbers in the high tens or hundreds in recent days.
"Over 70 per cent of the vaccinations that take place every single day are rightly happening at the 2,000 or so GPs and pharmacies that are set up to provide vaccinations," he said.
The government said more than 120 pop-up vaccination clinics would be opening over March, with a focus on areas where third dose uptake had been low.
That includes the local government areas of Hume, Brimbank, Dandenong, Melton, Moreland, Casey and Darebin.
Nearly 63 per cent of Victorian adults have now received three vaccine doses and 94 per cent of those aged 12 and older have received at least two.
Of the new cases, 7,401 were detected through rapid antigen tests, and 2,025 through PCR tests.
