Victoria has seen a sharp uptick in COVID-19 infections with 2738 cases and four deaths reported on Tuesday.

It’s a new single-day record for Victoria, well above the previous record of 2297 reported on October 14 this year.

The number of active cases has also risen again to 17,821 after 66,683 people were tested.

The number of active cases had fallen by nearly a thousand on Monday, to 16,467.

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Fewer people are now in intensive care — down from 80 to 69.

Hospitalisations are also down from 368 to 361, bringing the seven-day average of 373.

There are 33 people on ventilators, down from 38.

The rise in cases comes as it’s revealed Victorian testing commander Jeroen Weimar fought to protect contact tracing data from being shared.

Worksafe Victoria sought contract tracing and hotel quarantine details from the state’s health department during an investigation into Victoria’s second wave outbreak last year.

But in closed Victorian Supreme Court hearings, protected by suppression orders, the request was challenged by the department.

Mr Weimar said to his knowledge no information had ever been divulged.

“I believe if the community were aware of the Authority’s attempts to obtain contact tracing information from the department for purposes other than contract tracing, there would be concern within the community about the security of their information and therefore a high risk that some cases may not be candid with contract tracers,” Mr Weimar wrote in a sworn affidavit in June.

“If that were to occur it could have a devastating impact on the state’s ability to control this outbreak and any future outbreak, and put hundreds of lives at risk.”

WorkSafe charged the health department in September with 58 breaches of occupational health and safety legislation over alleged hotel quarantine failures that have been blamed for the state’s second wave outbreak in 2020.

Acting Premier Jacinta Allan said the health department had taken court action to protect personal health information.

Opposition leader Matthew Guy said the data should remain secret.

“We were told it wouldn’t be accessed for anything other than private health. It should not be used for anything else,” he said on Tuesday.

– AAP