Victoria records 134 new virus cases as Melbourne prepares to go into lockdown

Victoria has recorded another spike in virus cases as five million prepare to go into intense lockdown for at least six weeks.

Victoria has recorded 134 new virus cases, as total infections for the state rise to 2942.

A massive number of cases, 123, remain under investigation, while 11 were linked to contained outbreaks, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said this morning.

A total of 75 infections are related to the nine locked-down public housing towers.

One million COVID-19 tests have been conducted since the start of the pandemic, while 41 Victorians remain in hospital and seven in intensive care.

It comes as more than five million Victorians prepare to enter a second phase of stage three restrictions at midnight, with metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire locked down for the next six weeks.

Residents will only be allowed to leave their homes for four reasons — grocery shopping, caregiving, daily exercise, and school or work.

School holidays in Victoria will be extended by a week, but all VCE students will return to face-to-face learning on Monday, with other students warned of a possible return to remote learning.

Police will perform random checks on vehicles travelling outside of metropolitan Melbourne, with number plate recognition technology also to be relied upon.

Traffic banked up for kilometres as police check vehicles coming into Albury from Wodonga. Simon Dallinger/NCA NewsWire

Motorists have been scrambling to cross the Murray River from Victoria into NSW as the border between the two states was closed overnight.

Albury-Wodonga faced traffic queues of up to two hours this morning as NSW police stopped every vehicle to check for a permit.

Panic buying also returned to major supermarkets across the state as new lockdown measures come into force.

Just a day after they were scrapped, Coles and Woolworths reinstated buying limits across Victoria as shoppers raided shelves.