Two new COVID cases have been recorded in Hamilton, linked to a country music event held at the Hamilton Golf Club on Sunday November 14.

The two new cases are household contacts of a positive case who attended the event.

The total number of COVID-positive individuals linked to the occasion now stands at 36.

UPDATED: 1.00pm

Further detail regarding a positive COVID-19 case at Brauer College was released to parents and students on Saturday.

In a statement, principal Jane Boyle confirmed the school was not required to close and cleaning and contact identification would take place this weekend after a confirmed COVID-19 case attended on Monday November 22 and Tuesday November 23.

The statement said all education contacts would be required to get an immediate standard PCR test. If the test were to return a negative result, the student could return to school, with evidence of the negative result.

An additional update is expected on Sunday afternoon.

EARLIER:

One new COVID case was recorded in Warrnambool overnight, while Victoria's chief health officer today outlined a series of measures to help manage an emerging virus variant.

South West Healthcare said the city's new COVID infection was under investigation by the Public Health Unit and took the total number of active cases in Warrnambool to two.

Elsewhere, the active tally stood at:

There were no new exposure sites listed overnight.

It comes as a Warrnambool student from Brauer College tested positive on Friday night, prompting a call for the school and wider community to get tested.

The Standard expects to receive an update on the situation from principal Jane Boyle this afternoon.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Meanwhile, the state government today outlined a series of measured responses to manage the Omicron variant while health authorities scramble to understand its implications and transmissibility.

The response - part of a nationally-coordinated effort - includes 72 hours of home or hotel quarantine for all international arrivals, including their household contacts.

Victorian health minister Martin Foley said the steps were "modest and cautious".

"It's to ensure we can buy ourselves some time to understand the full implications of the Omicron variant of concern in order to make sure we keep Victorians safe and continue to stay open," he said.

While Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton warned Victorians to "expect more hospitalisations", he assured the state was "not back to square one".

"This is not back to the beginning or back to square one by any means," Mr Sutton said.

"The vaccination coverage we've got is absolutely more than useful - it's absolutely critical in protecting us and will, I'm sure, provide protection against this variant as well. We just need to understand how much.

"What we know about Omicron is really not enough. The key questions are is it more transmissible and how much more transmissible is it. It certainly has seemed to spread more rapidly across South Africa - it has become the predominant variant in that country already in a short period of time so it is likely to be a more transmissible variant.

"Then there's the big question on whether there's a vaccine escape with this variant. It will probably take some weeks to find out. We know some vaccinated variants have gotten this already, but that's true of Delta as well."

We have removed our paywall from our stories about the coronavirus. This is a rapidly changing situation and we aim to make sure our readers are as informed as possible. If you would like to support our journalists you can subscribe here.