The 26 new locally-acquired are all linked to the current outbreaks

While the number is the highest Victoria has seen this year, 24 of the 26 cases were in quarantine throughout their entire infectious period.

The state's health department said there were 43,674 test results received on Wednesday.

It also reported five people were in hospital with COVID-19 in Victoria, including one person in intensive care.

Meanwhile, the state's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says Victoria would be facing a "world of hurt" in coming weeks if authorities had not immediately locked down the state.

Twenty-two new local cases were reported in Victoria on Wednesday, the state's highest daily total of the current outbreak.

But Professor Sutton says he suspects the state would already be dealing with 200 to 300 cases if it had not entered lockdown a week ago, citing the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant.

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"It is a variant that takes off from dozens to thousands of cases within just a matter of weeks," he told reporters on Wednesday.

"If we'd locked down today, instead of when we did, we would get thousands of cases in the next couple of weeks. We'd be in a world of hurt ... over coming weeks if we hadn't done what we've done."

Prof Sutton said he believed community transmission had peaked but expected more household cases to emerge.

See the exposure sites here.

He also warned the number of people in intensive care could grow, given the severity of the delta variant.

There are currently five people in hospital with COVID-19, including a man from Barwon Heads in intensive care.

Some 18,000 primary close contacts are self-isolating across the state, while the number of exposure sites has grown to more than 380.

Prahran Market in Melbourne's inner southeast is yet to appear on the government's official exposure site list but has been shut for deep cleaning after a positive case visited on Saturday between 9.40am and 11.15am.

The market said the health department has declared the entire building a tier-one exposure site, meaning anyone who visited during the time period must get tested and quarantine for 14 days.

- with Australian Associated Press

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