Melbourne, May 28 (IANS): The Australian state of Victoria on Friday asked the federal government for additional defence personnel to help its coronavirus response.

"We will be putting a formal request through for additional Australian Defence Force (ADF) staff. The request will be for around 160 ADF staff for at least the next fortnight to assist our authorised officers in door-knocking," said the state's Acting Premier James Merlino.

Merlino told the press on Friday that with the additional ADF staff pairing up with authorised officers, the state could effectively double its capacity to conduct door-knocking on positive cases and primary close contacts, which are "really important work over the next few weeks", Xinhua news agency reorted.

"The Commonwealth are looking at this and I want to again thank the Commonwealth for their efforts in supporting Victoria in any way that we need," he said.

Merlino's remarks came as the state entered the first day of a seven-day lockdown from midnight Thursday.

It is also the fourth lockdown the state experienced since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Merlino said the government would work on business financial support package in the coming days in this "more difficult" period, as it was expected that the lockdown would impact on families, business and broader communities.

As of Friday, Victoria has recorded four new local cases, which are all related to current outbreak, bringing the total number of active cases to 39.

A record number of 47,462 tests were processed on Thursday, along with a rising demand for COVID-19 vaccinations and forward bookings.

Citizens aged 40-49 years will be able to access to the Pfizer vaccine at state-run vaccination sites, while more than half citizens will be eligible to receive either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca Covid jabs from Friday.