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VICTORIA's chief health officer says the new COVID-19 cases were to be expected after the state's hotel quarantine program restarted earlier this week.
Five new internationally-acquired coronavirus cases were confirmed on Saturday.
The positive cases in hotel quarantine were a man in his 30s, a man in his 50s and three women - one in her 20s, one in her 30s, and another in her 50s.
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There were no locally-acquired COVID-19 cases for the 43rd consecutive day.
Professor Brett Sutton said Victorians should not be alarmed by Saturday's case numbers.
"These positive results were to be expected," he said. "All arrivals are tested if they show symptoms, as well as at day three and day 11 of their 14-day quarantine.
"Evidence from our earlier hotel quarantine program showed that just over one in every 100 returned travellers tested positive during their quarantine period.
"The likelihood of a positive case will vary depending on which country someone has arrived from, but we would expect to see at least a similar rate of positive cases being diagnosed in the coming weeks."
Earlier
THERE are five new COVID-19 cases in Victoria, but they are all in hotel quarantine.
Department of Health and Human Services data released on Saturday showed all of the active cases were acquired overseas.
There were no new locally-acquired cases.
The last day a new coronavirus case was recorded in the state was October 29 when two were reported.
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The state's last active case was on November 22.
DHHS also reported there have been no coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24 hours. There have been 820 Victorians who have died from the virus.
In the past 24 hours, 8737 people were tested for coronavirus.
The latest data came as Victoria's border permit scheme with South Australia was removed on Saturday.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton made the decision after South Australia recorded 10 days without a new coronavirus case.
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