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There is growing expectation Victoria's seven-day lockdown will be extended beyond its Thursday deadline as the number of community-acquired COVID-19 cases continues to grow.

The state's latest lockdown is scheduled to end at 11.59pm on Thursday, June 3.

However, The Age reports senior government ministers met overnight for a high-level briefing from health authorities about extending stay-at-home orders.

A source close to the government, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the newspaper Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton's team was leaning strongly toward recommending a lockdown extension.

The state recorded three new locally-acquired cases on Tuesday, taking the outbreak total to 54.

There are now more than 300 COVID-19 exposure sites where Victorians could have come into contact with the virus.

Victoria health authorities have revealed concerning details about "stranger to stranger" transmission of the virus that contributed to the snap seven-day lockdown.

COVID-19 testing commander Jeroen Weimar singled out Melbourne shopping centres as venues of most concern where transmission may have occurred through "very fleeting contact".

"They don't know each other's names. That's very different to where we have been before," Mr Weimar said.

With this in mind, authorities are not ruling out an extension of the lockdown past the original seven days.

Health Minister Martin Foley would not confirm whether the state's current lockdown would be extended or if a ring of steel would be established between Melbourne and regional Victoria, but did not rule out the possibility.

"We do not know if there's going to be an extension or not," he said.

"As the Acting Premier pointed out yesterday, there is every prospect that things might get worse before they get better … and the aged care settings are quite troubling," he said.

READ MORE: Victoria to start five-day vaccination blitz for aged care workers

"Yes, we are making significant inroads to our contact tracing, through our support from millions of Victorians who are following the rules and doing the right thing, that is helping all of our processes, but we are not yet in a position to make that call.

"As soon as we do have those recommendations from our public health teams, we will make those announcements."

There are no longer any mystery cases in the state, with every case being linked to either the City of Whittlesea, Port Melbourne or Arcare Maidstone Aged Care.

All of the cases link back to the South Australia hotel quarantine breach.

Professor Sutton said on Monday that extending Victoria's current snap lockdown was a "day-by-day process".

"It has been a rapidly moving virus and the transmission that has occurred in those high-risk settings has been very substantial," Professor Sutton said.

"So we have to take it as a day-by-day prospect.

"With more numbers today coming through and those really concerning settings, especially in aged care, we are neck and neck with this virus and it is an absolute beast."

Under current lockdown conditions, Victorians cannot leave their home except for five reasons, including going to work, getting vaccinated or exercising.

All residents must stay within five kilometres of their home for shopping and exercise.

Face masks must be worn indoors and outdoors when leaving the house.

Victorians may also leave home to visit their intimate partner, their single social bubble buddy, or in an emergency – including those at risk of family violence.

You can get up-to-date information from the Federal Government's Coronavirus Australia app, available on the App Store, Google Play and the Government's WhatsApp channel.

Beyond Blue's Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service is a 24/7 service free of charge to all Australians. Visit the site here or call 1800512348

For coronavirus breaking news alerts and livestreams straight to your smartphone sign up to the 9News app and set notifications to on at the App Store or Google Play.

The Federal Court has rejected a challenge to the Commonwealth government's extraordinary international travel ban preventing most citizens from leaving the country so that they don't bring COVID-19 home

Libertarian group LibertyWorks argued before the full bench in early May that Health Minister Greg Hunt did not have the power to legally enforce the travel ban that has prevented thousands of Australians from attending weddings and funerals, caring for dying relatives, and meeting newborn babies.

LibertyWorks lawyer Jason Potts argued Australians had a right to leave their country under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Australia had ratified.

READ MORE: Branson warns stumbling vaccine rollout 'risks Australian economy'

But the three judges ruled that submission was based on the "erroneous premise that the right is absolute".

LibertyWorks' lawyers also argued such a biosecurity control order could only be imposed on an individual rather than an entire population.

The order could only be imposed if that individual had symptoms of a listed human disease, had been exposed to such a disease or had failed to comply with travel requirements, they argued.

The judges ruled that that interpretation of the law would frustrate Parliament's clear intentions when lawmakers created the emergency powers in the Biosecurity Act in 2015.

"It may be accepted that the travel restrictions are harsh. It may also be accepted that they intrude upon individual rights," the judges said in their ruling.

"But Parliament was aware of that."

READ MORE: Melbourne visitor with COVID-19 sparks health alert in NSW

Australia is alone among developed democracies in preventing its citizens and permanent residents from leaving the country except in "exceptional circumstances" where they can demonstrate a "compelling reason".

LibertyWorks President Andrew Cooper said he was considering an appeal to the High Court.

"We are very disappointed in the judgement today," he said in an email.

"We continue to believe that the outbound border closure is defective in law and, perhaps more importantly, unjust on human rights grounds.

"We must remind ourselves also that often things that are legal are not necessarily just.

He had expected hundreds of thousands of Australians to fly within weeks if he had won.

"While Europe and most of the world open up their borders, only North Korea and Australia stubbornly continue with strict controls over their citizen's ability to leave their country," Mr Cooper said.

Critics of the emergency order argue it is harshest for the 30 per cent of Australians who were born overseas.

The government says tough border controls have played an important part in Australia's relative success in containing COVID-19 spread.

Surveys suggest most Australians applaud their government's drastic border controls.

The Australian published a survey last month that found 73 per cent of respondents said the international border should remain closed until at least the middle of next year.

The ABC last week reported its own survey had found 79 per cent of respondents agreed the international border should stay shut until the pandemic was under control globally.

Critics of the travel restrictions argue decisions on who can travel and why are inconsistent and lack transparency.

Esther and Charles Baker, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish couple from Australia's second-largest city, Melbourne, were twice refused exemptions to fly to New Jersey to attend their youngest son's wedding in June last year.

They appealed to the Federal Court, citing religious and cultural reasons among their exceptional circumstances. But a judge dismissed their case and ordered the couple to pay the government's legal costs for their challenge.

A person at the centre of a coronavirus cluster in Perth had been allowed to attend a wedding in India. He was not infected in that country but rather during the required 14-day hotel quarantine upon his return.

Authorities said he was infected by a traveller in another room on his floor and that the virus was carried in the air.

Melbourne began a seven-day lockdown on Friday due to a separate cluster that by Tuesday had grown to more than 50 cases.

New South Wales authorities have issued a health alert for venues in several towns on the south coast and Southern Tablelands after someone who unknowingly had COVID-19 visited from Melbourne.

The person appears to have visited the service station attached to the Big Merino and stayed in a campground in Jervis Bay during a visit on May 23 and 24. 

Several other venues in Goulbourn, Jervis Bay, Hyams Beach and Vincentia are affected, including a supermarket, a cafe and a bakery.

READ MORE: Will Victoria's lockdown be extended?

https://twitter.com/NSWHealth/status/1399678116730052611

Anyone who crossed paths with the coronavirus patient at any of the following exposure sites must contact NSW Health, get tested and isolate until they receive further advice.

May 23

• Cooked Goose Café, Hyams Beach (formerly Hyams Beach Café), 10am-12pm
• Green Patch campground, Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay, all day
• Coles Vincentia Shopping Village, 12-1pm

May 24

• Shell Coles Express Big Merino, Goulburn Monday, 10-11.30am
• Trapper's Bakery, Goulburn, 10.30-11.30am
• Green Patch campground, Booderee National Park, Jervis Bay, until 9am

The list is likely to be updated as contact tracers investigate the Victorian's movements.

NSW Health said the person reported the onset of symptoms on May 25 and was tested on Monday, May 31.

They had already returned to Melbourne on May 24, before Victoria's lockdown kicked in, NSW Health said.

Authorities are spinning up increased testing capacity nearby, including a drive-through pop-up clinic in Huskisson, as they ask anyone who lives in Jervis Bay or has visited since May 22 to be "especially vigilant for the onset of even the mildest of cold-like symptoms".

READ MORE: Victoria COVID-19 exposure sites spiral past 300