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Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a new Surveillance Testing Program that will see all medium to large employers in the meat, poultry, seafood processing and supermarket and refrigerated distribution sectors submit a quarter of their workforce to coronavirus testing each week.
Mr Andrews said the program "will make sure we leave no stone unturned in tracking the virus."
Victoria's public and private aged care workforce will also be subject to semi-regular testing, Mr Andrews said.
Public hospitals will test public aged care employees, with the regional workforce tested once a month, or 25 per cent of the workforce per week.
"This program achieves three things. It finds coronavirus cases that exist, it validates there are no cases, given how infectious this virus is and how vulnerable aged care residents are and it allows us to monitor compliance with COVID safe plans," Mr Andrews said.
After participating in the Surveillance Testing Program, employees are not required to self-isolate, however if they have a positive result, they will need to isolate immediately.
More than 17,000 Victorians presented for coronavirus testing since Tuesday.
Thirteen new cases of coronavirus were recorded in the past 24 hours statewide, with no new cases in regional Victoria.
The 14-day rolling average of new cases in regional Victoria is 0.3 new cases per day.
Forty four Victorians are in hospital receiving treatment for coronavirus, of which six are in intensive care and three of those six people are receiving ventilator treatment.
Earlier
VICTORIA'S COVID-19 cases have risen by 13 since Tuesday, the second consecutive day in double digits after a drop into single digits.
Another four Victorians have died from the virus.
Just one active case of the virus remained in central Victoria on Tuesday, in the Macedon Ranges.
OTHER NEWS:
No new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in regional Victoria on Tuesday.
Ten new cases were reported on Tuesday, all within metropolitan Melbourne. Three were connected to aged care outbreaks, seven were under investigation.
It was double Monday's new case numbers of five, the lowest number of new cases reported on any one day since early June.
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