Victoria's COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar is confident Victoria has passed the peak of its Omicron outbreak.
Victoria has recorded 34 more COVID-19 deaths.
The number of people in hospital after contracting the virus has fallen to 752, down from 768 yesterday.
Of those patients, 82 are in intensive care units, including 29 on ventilators.
There were 12,157 new cases reported yesterday.
Of the new cases, 6,569 were detected by rapid antigen tests (RATs) and 5,588 by PCR test results.
It brings the total number of official active cases to 66,648, down from the 73,886 reported a day earlier.
Mr Weimar said health authorities had anticipated fluctuation in daily figures as students returned to schools.
"We do think we're past the peak at this point in time," he said.
"It will be interesting to see [how] the next few weeks go as we see probably greater levels of movement around the community."
Mr Weimar said the slightly higher number of cases over the past two days could attributed to students being tested as they returned to school.
"We're seeing an increasing proportion of the positive rapid antigen tests we're seeing coming in every day being people under the age of 20, so presumably [there is] a significant linkage into our school-age population," he said.
Mr Weimar the state had now received 23 million of the 200 million rapid antigen tests it ordered several weeks ago.
Of the tests received so far, 6 million had been given to schools to be passed on to students.
Former AMA vice president Stephen Parnis said health workers were encouraged by the downward trend in hospitalisations.
"What I would say is there is some comfort in the fact that we are on the downhill stage of the Omicron wave, with some trepidation about numbers going back up again because of schools reopening," he said.
Premier Daniel Andrews yesterday confirmed discussions were underway about a staggered return to elective surgery, but a date for that to begin had not yet been confirmed.
Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy questioned why the Code Brown was still required across Victoria's hospitals.
"No more excuses. I think Victorians are over the excuses about why elective surgery can't resume," he said.
"It has resumed in NSW. It never stopped in almost every other state.
"Why elective surgery is still cancelled is beyond me."
