Victoria records more than 40,000 coronavirus cases

Data from the Department of Health released on Sunday showed about half of the new cases were from rapid antigen tests.

Another four people have died from the virus and its complications.

A total of 752 spent Saturday in hospital with COVID-19, while 104 people received intensive care and 23 patients were on ventilators.

It came after the state hit a record-high 51,356 cases on Saturday.

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Health Minister Martin Foley said Victorians should expect high COVID-19 case numbers for the next few days as the backlog of positive rapid antigen tests were reported.

"What it means is it has now given us a realistic idea of transmission in the community," he said. "We knew there was undiagnosed cases out there.

"What we now know is that the figure for cases in the wider community is more accurate than we had previous to just taking the PCR figure tests."

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"This is in many respects exactly what we wanted to happen and we thank all of those people for reporting their COVID status to us.

"Nobody wants COVID, nobody wants the Omicron variant, but it is so important for responding and keeping people in touch with services and support

"It will necessarily take a few days to bed down this new system."