Many are heartbroken over the news that four babies are among the latest cases of coronavirus to be confirmed in Victoria.

Three of the babies are under 12 months of age and the fourth baby is a year old. According to Victorian Health Minister Jenny Mikakos, all babies will be kept at home in isolation to recover with their families.

She also stressed that it’s not believed that this is a cluster of cases in a childcare centre.

“It’s known that one of the cases acquired the infection overseas. There is a thorough investigation under way in relation to how these children acquired COVID-19,” she said.

“I should stress it's not believed that this is a cluster, so it doesn't appear that this is one childcare centre, one group of children all known to each other.”

The young cases mean that there are now five pre-school aged children confirmed to have COVID-19 in Victoria, according to Mikakos.

She also added that it was believed that none of the children have any underlying medial conditions and it was thought that they would not suffer severe symptoms based on children being infected with coronavirus overseas.

Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has emphasised that the risk to children is extremely low and deaths were not likely.

“Overwhelmingly for children, especially those nine years and younger, the illness of COVID-19 is very very mild and deaths are virtually unheard of, so that should be a reassurance to any parent of young children,” he said, according to Yahoo! News.

“Clusters haven’t been reported in Australia, we’re still looking into this, but it doesn’t appear to be a cluster and the risk to these children is extremely low.”

Sutton reminded the public that it is still important to remain “alert” to the potential risk of children transmitting the infection to adults, but explained that instances of this had yet to be reported in Australia.