Children aged three to five will be able to get free rapid antigen tests, with Victoria expanding its voluntary school COVID-19 testing program to early childhood services.
The state recorded 20 COVID-19 deaths and another 9785 infections on Tuesday, an increase of more than 1500 from the previous day's tally.
The fresh cases include 7216 from rapid antigen tests and 2569 from PCR tests, bringing the number of total active cases in the state to 58,449.
While Victorian primary and secondary students are currently asked to take twice-weekly RATs, the same recommendation has only applied to staff in early childhood settings.
Premier Daniel Andrews on Tuesday announced the voluntary testing program will be rolled out to children aged three to five who attend childcare services.
In the next two weeks, 1.6 million rapid antigen tests will be delivered to services, beginning with sessional kindergartens and then early childhood services, including long day care, family day care and occasional care.
"It's all about giving parents peace of mind, it's all about trying to support every family," Mr Andrews told reporters on Tuesday.
As with school settings, the program will be voluntary but highly recommended.
Families will be provided with medical guidance on how to easily administer the nasal tests to young children and get a result within 15 to 30 minutes.
"Not every child will easily participate in this program. For some kids it's fine and quite easy. For others kids less so," Mr Andrews said.
Since Victorian primary and secondary schools went back for term one last week, 7046 students and 925 staff have tested positive.
"That's 0.7 per cent of students and 0.84 per cent of staff," Education Minister James Merlino said.
Victoria's schools surveillance testing regime, which was near identical to NSW's program, was scheduled to run for at least the first four weeks of term one and involve the use of 14 million free RATs.
Mr Andrews said supply from the state's RAT stockpile won't be a limiting factor in whether the schools testing scheme will be extended.
"It's more about whether the advice is there is a sufficient prevalence of cases to justify doing it," the premier said.
The state government will also consult with the Commonwealth on a potential extension, as the costs of the tests are being split 50/50.
Meanwhile, Victoria's hospitalisations have fallen by 63, to 575 patients on Tuesday, down from 638 reported on Monday.
Of these, 72 are in intensive care and 30 are in need of ventilation.
About 46 per cent of Victorians over 18 have received a vaccine booster dose after 15,870 of them were administered at state-run hubs on Monday.
