Dozens of final-year Victorian students have tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of returning to classrooms to sit a statewide, annual test.
Victoria reported 1377 new local cases - the fifth day in a row of four-figure infections - and four deaths on Monday, taking the toll for the current outbreak to 53.
Education Minister James Merlino said 33 VCE students from COVID-19 hotspots were among the new cases, after 8000 were tested in the lead up to Tuesday's repeatedly rescheduled General Achievement Test.
"We may not have found these cases otherwise, so that goes a long way to help us hold the GAT as safely as possible tomorrow," he told reporters on Monday.
The students are being contact traced and will not be able to sit the GAT, but can sit their exams at a later date.
Regional Victorian students in prep to grade two and year 12 returned to face-to-face learning on Monday under the first part of a staggered plan.
It comes as Victoria prepares to roll out repurposed dental vans to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to boost rates in the state's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
The three vans are part of the Victoria's 'Smile Squad' dental fleet and will be staffed and run by Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and mainstream partners.
The first dedicated van will hit the road this week, stopping in locked-down Greater Shepparton, which has the largest Aboriginal population in Victoria outside of Melbourne.
More than 65 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a lower rate than the broader population - 82.8 per cent of Victorians 16 and over have received their first jab and 52.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.
When Victoria hits 70 per cent double dose vaccination coverage of its 16-plus population, the state's sixth lockdown will end under the state's roadmap before restrictions ease further at 80 per cent.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said the indicative dates for reaching 70 per cent (October 26) and 80 per cent (November 5) targets were more or less the same as initially forecast.
"It is literally a vertical line looking at the vaccination coverage," he said.
Melbourne became the world's most locked down city on Monday, chalking up 246 days living under stay-at-home orders across six lockdowns to surpass the record set by the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires.
Professor Sutton said the pandemic had been an "awful crisis" for the world but impacted Melbourne more than other Australian cities, citing the sluggish vaccination rollout as partly to blame.
"It's a reality that we are lagging among OECD countries with vaccination rollout. That is the vulnerability, that means you have to have a lockdown to manage potentially catastrophic numbers and catastrophic numbers of deaths," he said.
There are 498 Victorians in hospital battling the virus, up 22 from Sunday, with 96 people in ICU and 59 requiring a ventilator.
More than 67,789 Victorians were tested for the virus in the 24 hours to Monday morning, while 30,985 vaccinations were administered at state-run sites.
Active cases across the state have grown to 12,711.
