Victoria has recorded five local cases of COVID-19 in the reporting period to midnight.
The cases include the two infections announced yesterday found in men who live inside a Southbank residential complex.
The Department of Health confirmed the three new cases were linked to current outbreaks.
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It comes as a bulk of residents inside the Southbank townhouse complex were yesterday forced to lockdown after being linked to the new infections.
Kings Park Apartment Complex on Dodds and Wells streets in Southbank has been listed as a Tier One exposure site, meaning anyone who was at the complex between June 2 and June 14 at any time must quarantine for 14 days and get tested.
Epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws told Today authorities had to act promptly following the discovery of the cases.
"We shouldn't be taking this lightly. I can only congratulate Victoria for shutting down when it did," Professor McLaws, from the University of NSW, said.
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"It feels extreme. But if they (the cases) are very well connected, and it's an apartment block where a lot of people may socialise and know each other, it may well be important to do, like they did in North Melbourne last year.
"It's unpalatable but it is necessary."
Professor McLaws said authorities had to determine if the cluster was from the Delta or Kappa variant but both were "incredibly hard to contain".
The state's two new COVID-19 cases are men who live in separate apartments adjacent to the other positive cases.
The cases were identified yesterday afternoon following a testing blitz set up for the townhouse complex on Monday where more than 200 residents were tested.
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Health authorities say the complex is a place they're most concerned about in this outbreak.
Professor McLaws said the new cases show how important it is for restrictions to be eased gradually together with a vigorous vaccination drive for younger Victorians.
"Restrictions need to be lifted really slowly and vaccination numbers need to be lifted," she said.
"The most important group at the moment is the 20- to 39-year-olds.
"They are the ones that carry most of the risk of infection. Therefore, most of the risk for transmitting it."
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The Southbank townhouse cluster now sits at six cases after it was revealed on Monday a man caught the virus from an Arcare Maidstone Aged Care worker who lived in the same building.
Primary close contacts will expand from the original 61 residents to about 200, who will also be asked to lock down for the next 14 days.
The complex has just over 100 apartments and has "multiple access points" into the building.
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