UPDATE
12.04am
Victoria has revised the spacing between the first and second AstraZeneca dose from 12 weeks to six weeks.
11.55am
Chief Psychiatrist Neil Coventry said the COVID pandemic was a time of uncertainty.
"We're all feeling to some extent confused and very uncertain about the future," he said
"This is a very normal reaction to an un-normal situation we're experiencing."
Dr Coventry said most people would be able to cope, but some people were really struggling.
He emphasised help was available and people should reach out to those who need extra help.
Dr Coventry said the mental health of children, teenagers and families was really being impacted.
He had three messages he wanted to tell these people.
Dr Coventry said children and parents need to feel positive that children are resilient and will mostly be able to cope with the situation.
He stressed parents can do things to help their children like maintaining a normal routine and talking to children about how they are coping.
Lastly, he stressed help for both children and families was available.
He advised in the first instance parents should reach out their child's school and GP, while headspace and other services were available.
Dr Coventry said he was concerned the impact on children and teenagers could be overlooked.
The Royal Children's Hospital has seen an increase in young people presenting with mental health conditions such as self harm, depression, anxiety and aggression.
RCH Director of Mental Health Ric Haslam said there had been a notable rise in anxiety and depression in young people across the state including regional areas.
Trusted and reliable information is available on the Royal Children's Hospital website to support parents and recognise their child might be struggling.
11.45am
Acting CHO Prof Ben Cowie said today's numbers and geographic spread show why the state must slow the virus down as much as possible while working towards vaccination targets.
He said of the 1029 active cases said 192 cases are in those aged under nine, 57 were in people aged 10 to 19, 243 in people aged 20 to 29 and 183 in people aged 30 to 39.
Professor Cowie said the 13 new cases found in Shepparton were the result of day 13 testing.
"The Shepparton community do continue to do the hard yards of isolating," he said.
Professor Cowie said thousands of tests would be conducted in coming days and additional resources had been sent to Shepparton.
11.30am
13 of today's 176 Victorian cases are linked to the Shepparton cluster, while one in originated in Greater Geelong.
Health Minister Martin Foley said Victoria was almost halfway to meeting its target of 1 million doses.
It comes as the state recorded 176 new cases of COVID-19.
61 people with COVID are in hospital, 20 in ICU and 30 on a ventilator.
Of the new cases 83 are linked to known clusters while the origin of the remaining 93 remain under investigation. 1029 cases are active in Victoria, of which three originated from hotel quarantine.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Last night Victoria tightened the border bubble, removing Greater Bendigo, Greater Shepparton, Benalla, Buloke, Loddon, and Yarriambiack on the Victorian side and Broken Hill and Edward River on the NSW side.
Earlier in the day Mr Andrews had said one of the reasons the government was considering reopening regional Victoria was because the border with NSW was closed.
"As it stand now the position in NSW, in regional NSW, is very different to the position in regional Victoria. They've got quite a few Sheppartons going on at the moment," he said.
"And the reason I will be able to stand up here next week and hopefully announce an opening up and end to lockdown in regional Victoria is because we are not letting people from NSW, or at least very few of them, come in."
Yesterday NSW recorded 1116 new cases of COVID-19.
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Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
Digital journalists with The Border Mail.
