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A large number of grand final parties at the weekend are partly to blame for Victoria's huge surge in coronavirus infections, health officials believe.

Victoria has recorded a staggering 1438 new COVID-19 cases, exceeding 1000 and breaking its daily infections record.

COVID-19 Commander Jeroen Weimar said "ongoing transmission in households" was behind the spike.

LIVE UPDATES: Victoria's case numbers climb by more than 500 in a day

His comments came soon after Premier Daniel Andrews implored Victorians to "do the right thing" and adhere to restrictions following a startling spike in cases. 

A further five people have died with coronavirus in the state.

"We've seen over the last few weeks ongoing transmission in households, between households," Mr Weimar said.

"What is different about the numbers today, the activity five or six days ago was quite different. 

"The contact tracers tell us that there have been significant numbers of social gatherings on Friday and Saturday, over the long weekend – grand final parties, other social gatherings, barbecues, backyard visits. This has generated significant caseload." 

Mr Weimar said a third of Victoria's new cases were directly due to social gatherings. 

"People have dropped their guard, and decided now it's the grand final weekend, it's the long weekend, we deserve a bit of a payback, we deserve a nicer time," he said.

"And that has now translated into additional 500 cases.

"We can see it not only in the contact tracing interviews but also in our mobility data, traffic data."

Mr Weimar described today's cases as a "significant setback" in the roadmap out of lockdowns.

"If this trend is continued, if we see similar case numbers over the coming days, then we'll go from just below the mean on the Burnet projection.

"We were tracking favourably, we'll jump to the worst." 

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Mr Weimar implored people to think of the state's healthcare workers slammed under pressure in hospitals when considering breaking restrictions.

"If we are seeing continued spread, it will have grave implications for our nurses, ambulance workers, for our hospitals and for people who need care," he said.

"This outbreak still remains within our hands. We still have so much left to play for."

He also urged those who illegally attended an AFL grand final day party or event last weekend to get tested.

"Because you don't know whether someone there was harbouring the virus, and we now have at least 500 people who we know have had that experience. There will be many hundreds more who went through some kind of social activity. 

"We need to make sure if you're positive, you can protect and isolate yourself and not spread it further."

Cases 'go up faster if people don't follow the rules'

The Premier said the state's jump in COVID-19 cases is more than a 50 per cent increase from yesterday's infections. 

"They go up faster if people don't follow the rules," he said.

"They go up faster if people are out visiting each other in their homes. 

"If people continue to visit each other in their homes, they will bring the virus with them, they will spread the virus."

Mr Andrews said the case numbers were "higher than they needed to be".

"I ask people with an absolute sense of respect and an acknowledgment it's hard and it's been a very long journey. But we can see to the end now. Let's all of us make the best decisions and not contribute to more virus.

"It's only a matter of weeks now. And then the lockdown will be off."

Warning hospitals will get busier

Today's five deaths include a woman in her 70s and a man in his 80s from Whittlesea, a man in his 70s from Moreland and a man in his 60s and another man in his 90s from Hume. 

Mr Andrews said hospitalisations would continue to climb as virus cases surge in the state.

"That's the price of us opening up, our hospitals are going to get very busy," he said.

"Let's not make their work any harder by making poor choices."

Victoria has officially ticked over its 80 per cent first-dose vaccination milestone, with vaccine figures sitting at 80.3 per cent.

Pfizer gap to narrow in Victoria

Victoria will change its Pfizer vaccination first and second dose interval from six weeks to three weeks at state hubs.

Victorians were already eligible to get their second Pfizer dose after three weeks at GPs, but the premier said following "certainty of supply" the state was able to bring forward the interval period at state-run clinics.

The booking system will reflect the change from the evening of October 3 and Victorians will be able to book an earlier appointment from October 4. 

Victoria will receive a further 88,000 Moderna vaccine doses at the weekend which will bolster the state's vaccine rollout. 

Mr Andrews said he would not rule out vaccine trucks or buses parking at the end of streets in areas where vaccination rates were low. 

"We'll go door-to-door if we have to," he said. 

The premier said he would do everything possible to avoid reaching more 40,000 active cases like in New South Wales. 

"We'll do everything we can to avoid that."

'A big jump'

Earlier today, infectious diseases paediatrician Professor Robert Booy said the startling figure was a "big jump" but modelling had predicted Victoria's case numbers to surge.

"Generally they overestimate and sound more glum than reality, but this time they got it right," Professor Booy said.

"They said we were heading to 1500. They said the peak might be 2000 or thereabouts.

"It is disturbing. You can't help but wonder whether the civil disobedience that happened last week is feeding directly into this huge jump.

"Also people having parties as well – not just civil disobedience in the streets. But people in their own homes having large parties when they shouldn't be."

Australian Medical Association vice president Chris Moy told Today the large spike in cases was "extremely scary" particularly given Melbourne's hospital system has come under siege with COVID-19 patients.

READ MORE: Melbourne supermarkets struggling to run as staff forced into isolation

https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1443343547994763266

"Although they are only one day's numbers, they are extremely scary, particularly with all the reports about the overall health system which is the critical thing," Dr Moy said.

"Hopefully, as more vaccinations happen, the numbers will start to plateau, as they have in New South Wales."

Dr Moy said the protests which took place in Melbourne last week were "extremely worrying" as thousands of people had gathered in close proximity, which had the potential of a super-spreading event.

"Those protests particularly were extremely worrying in terms of the fact that so many people were close together, and the unrestrained nature of them," he said.

"We have already seen the cases within the actual union officers."

The case number spike is not far off New South Wales' peak of 1603 cases.

There were 34,323 vaccine doses administered yesterday and 65,497 test results received.

Victorians stranded in NSW permitted to return

Victorians stranded in high-risk areas of NSW will be allowed to return home under an expansion of the home quarantine trial from today.

But those planning to cross the border into Victoria must be fully-vaccinated against COVID-19 and have returned a negative coronavirus test 72 hours before they leave NSW.

Victorian residents will then have to quarantine in their homes for 14 days.

It comes as cases surge across Victoria, with one paramedic describing the emergency department conditions as "already apocalyptic".

Thousands of Victorians are expected to begin returning home from today after being stuck in NSW for months.

Previously, only Victorians who had been stuck on the New South Wales side of the border bubble had been allowed back into the state.

Speaking about the expansion of the home quarantine trial last week, Premier Daniel Andrews described Sydney as "an extreme risk zone".

He said Victorians wanting to come back must adhere to the rules, with technology to keep track of people's movements.

READ MORE: Officer suspended amid probe into Flinders Street Station arrest video

"That home quarantine is serious, it is not a matter of when you feel like it, it will be a proper 14 days and there will be various mechanisms to check on people," he said.

Warning of 'apocalyptic' hospital conditions

Doctors have called for an after-hours COVID-19 health hotline to help deal with an expected rise in hospitalisations and calls to Triple-Zero.

Health officials have been given welfare briefings urging front-line workers to "prepare psychologically" for a difficult few months as Victorians emerge from lockdown, reports The Age.

The hotline would help to field calls from patients and suspected cases, to give people an option other than calling triple-zero.

A paramedic told the publication the healthcare workers had been told to brace for a surge in patients when lockdowns ease.

"They basically told us to prepare psychologically because most of Victoria's going to think 'this is great', meanwhile as a healthcare worker, it'll feel like a war zone," he said.

"I just can't fathom it. Some of the hospitals in Melbourne are already apocalyptic."

Yesterday it emerged Victoria's healthcare system was working at its slowest rate ever as it deals with "extraordinary demand" caused by COVID-19.

Victoria's Australian Medical Association president Dr Roderick McRae has described Melbourne's hospital system buckling under pressure as a "dire" situation.

"It is almost like we are living in parallel universes," he told Today.

"Everybody at every stage of the Victorian healthcare system is using the word crisis. Other people are looking for a game of tennis."

Dr McRae said the system had already been under "extreme strain for many, many months" on the back of decades of under-investment.

"So we now have the circumstance that you wait a long time for somebody to answer Triple-Zero, you wait a long time for your ambulance, the person in the ambulance waits a long time to exit the ambulance and get into the Emergency Department."

Ambulance Victoria Executive Director Clinical Operations and Associate Professor Mick Stephenson said the health system was used to a heavy workload, but it was being slowed down significantly by the virus.

"We've got extraordinary demand in the system at the moment," he said.

"This is the slowest the health system has ever worked because of COVID-19."

The associate professor said paramedics were dealing with 250 to 300 patients a day who were suspected of having COVID-19, with about 150 turning out to be positive.

Widespread news coverage of the Gabby Petito case, who was found dead in western Wyoming, helped searchers in an unrelated case find a man's body not far away, officials have said.

A team with a search dog looked for four hours on Tuesday before finding the body of a man matching the description of Robert 'Bob' Lowery, according to a Teton County Search & Rescue statement.

Mr Lowery, 46, of Houston, went missing August 20. The man's body was found on a steep, wooded slope in the area of Teton Pass in western Wyoming.

READ MORE: Victoria records staggering 1438 new COVID-19 cases, five deaths

How the man died wasn't immediately clear. Authorities notified Mr Lowery's family while awaiting confirmation the body was his.

News coverage of Ms Petito, 22, who went missing on a cross-country road trip and whose body was found near Grand Teton National Park on September 19, sometimes mentioned Mr Lowery's disappearance. That prompted at least two people to call authorities with information about Mr Lowery, searchers said on Tuesday.

Mr Lowery was wearing a black baseball cap with a gold letter "P" and spotted in hotel camera images carrying a black duffel bag with the Nike logo. Searchers in the area of a popular canyon trail said they found a bag matching that description with the body, far off the trail.

READ MORE: Other missing people need attention, Gabby Petito's dad says

The bag contained a tent and sleeping bag, Mr Lowery's sister, Leigh Lowery, told the Jackson Hole News & Guide.

"He was just a sweet, sweet kid," his sister said.

READ MORE: Queensland restrictions tightened after six new COVID-19 cases

The Teton Pass-area canyon where the man's body was found is about 72 kilometres from where Ms Petito was found. Ms Petito's parents reported her missing on September 11 after she didn't respond to calls and texts while she and boyfriend Brian Laundrie visited national parks in the West.

Ms Petito's death has been classified as homicide, meaning she was killed by another person, but medical examiners in Wyoming haven't disclosed how she died.

READ MORE: What we know about Gabby Petito's final days

Mr Laundrie faces federal charges in Wyoming of unauthorised use of a debit card. He used a Capital One Bank card and someone's personal identification number to make more than $1,000 in unauthorised withdrawals or charges while Ms Petito was missing, authorities alleged.

Authorities have not said whose card Mr Laundrie allegedly misused.

Mr Laundrie is being sought by authorities as a person of interest in Ms Petito's case.

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New South Wales has recorded 941 new local cases of COVID-19 and six further deaths.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has flagged that some restrictions set to be lifted in December could be brought forward to when the state reaches the 80 per cent double-dose vaccination milestone.

"I want to foreshadow, whilst we won't announce anything today, that the Government is considering bringing some things forward to 80 per cent double dose," she said.

"They won't be major things but there will be tweaks."

LIVE UPDATES: No NSW-Queensland border bubble changes

More than 86.7 per cent of people over 16 in NSW have had a single dose of the vaccine and 62.9 percent have had two doses.

The premier said those changes would be announced once the state reached the 70 per cent double-dose figure.

There are now 1090 people being treated in hospital for the virus and 213 in intensive care.

READ MORE: 'Disturbing' peak Victoria is heading towards

Of the six people have died with COVID-19 in NSW in the past 24 hours, three people were in their 70s, two were in their 80s and one person was in their 90s.

Four of the six were not vaccinated, and two had received just one dose.

Two were from south-western Sydney, one from western Sydney, one from south-eastern Sydney, one from north-western Sydney and one from the inner-west.

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'We can't stuff it up'

Ms Berejiklian has urged residents not to be careless once the first lockdown restrictions are lifted when the state reaches the 70 per cent full vaccination milestone next month.

"This is something no state in Australia has done, and we can't stuff it up," she said.

"We need to tread carefully."

She said a 70 per cent vaccination rate could not guarantee the safety and wellbeing of all NSW residents.

"It still means that 30 percent of 16 and overs are still unvaccinated," Ms Berejiklian said.

"Please enjoy the new freedoms, but please do them cautiously."

Lockdown extended for much of regional NSW

The news comes as stay-at-home orders are extended until October 11 in a number of regional areas.

Bathurst, Bourke, Central Coast, Cessnock, City of Broken Hill, Dubbo, Eurobodalla, Goulburn Mulwaree, Kiama, Lake Macquarie, Lithgow, Maitland, Newcastle, Port Stephens, Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional, Shellharbour, Shoalhaven, and Wingecarribee are impacted.

Residents in the Snowy Monaro LGA will be placed into a snap lockdown from 3pm today for a week.

Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant warned of a rise in cases in regional areas.

READ MORE: Victorian paramedics warn of 'apocalyptic' conditions in hospitals

"We urge everyone in regional areas to take the opportunity to get vaccinated as quickly as possible, but also to please keep presenting if you have any symptoms of COVID," Dr Chant said.

"In Illawarra, there were 82 new cases and in Hunter we're seeing an increase in cases to 82 new cases."

COVID-19 has been detected in sewage in Tweed Banora Point, Gunnedah and South Grafton in northern NSW, Gulgong in western NSW, Dareton in far west, and Moruya and Thredbo in southern NSW.

NSW to keep funding its share of JobSaver

Meanwhile, the New South Wales Government has announced it will fund an extension of the JobSaver COVID-19 financial support programme for small and medium businesses.

The move comes after the Federal Government announced it will end its pandemic financial support for NSW businesses by the end of October – when the state is set to reach 80 per cent full vaccination.

This morning NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said the state government will continue to fund its 50 per cent share of JobSaver until November 30.

Schools to return a week earlier

Ms Berejiklian confirmed school would return in person a week early because of the speedy rate of vaccination.

Kindergarten, year 1 and year 12 will now go back on October 18, a week after Greater Sydney's lockdown is due to end.

Year 2, 6 and 11 students will return on October 25, while the remaining grades will begin classroom learning on November 1.

"We didn't realise … how quickly New South Wales residents would take up the opportunity to get vaccinated," she said.

"This is a safe way of resuming schools but the staggered approach will remain in place."

She said all teachers working in person will be required to be vaccinated.

Ms Berejiklian touted the rapid take-up of vaccines among teenagers in recent weeks.

Speaking on Today earlier this morning, infectious diseases expert Professor Robert Booy said high vaccination rates among students will help to keep outbreaks at bay.

"We are going to get so much less transmission in schools over the next month because of better uptake, especially in teachers, but also in teenage boys and girls as well, of vaccination," he said.

And rapid-antigen testing may prevent whole schools from closing if a positive case was detected, he said.

READ MORE: NSW's three-stage roadmap to freedom explained

"If you can isolate the cases to just one bubble, one classroom, that could be the maximum you shut down, and if you can catch them before they even come to school with rapid antigen testing, it might only be that child and the child next to them who don't come and the rest of them keep coming to school," Professor Booy said.

"The whole point of rapid antigen testing is keeping kids at school.

If there is an outbreak, which will occur from time to time, there will be smaller and then larger shutdowns as needed."

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