The news comes on a day when Victoria registered a record spike of new cases, with 317 further instances of the infection reported overnight.

Ballarat has now seen a total of 12 cases since the epidemic began, with just the one new case registered as active.

The last positive case confirmed in a resident of the Ballarat council area before today was in mid-May.

There was also another positive case in Golden Plains. It now has four active cases, while Moorabool has two.

The tally has been increasing slowly but significantly in regional areas. On Tuesday, two active COVID-19 cases were confirmed following testing in the city - the first near Ballarat for some time.

Neither had their address in the Ballarat municipality but both are understood to have been tested at the Lucas clinic to the south-west of the city.

The Courier understands both infected people work in Melbourne where they each contracted the virus from known sources.

Ballarat Health Services has released the following statement:

"The active case has not needed to come to hospital, and is being cared for at home.

"The welfare of our community, staff, patients, residents and clients continues to be at the forefront of our response to COVID. We will continue to enforce strict infection prevention and control measures, along with visitor restrictions and screening at all BHS sites.

"It remains extremely important that anyone with even the mildest of symptoms be tested for COVID. (See details at the bottom of the page).

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While Melbourne and Mitchell Shire are in lockdown, people are still able to commute between these areas and the rest of regional Victoria for work and study.

It was perhaps always just a question of time before the recent upsurge in COVID-19 cases eventually reached the region.

Ballarat had been the last major regional city in the state to be without a registered active case of the virus.

There have been cases over the past several days registered in Bendigo, Geelong and Warrnambool.

MORE ON CORONAVIRUS

Across the state two men in their 80s have died, bringing the total deaths in the state to 29 and upping the national toll to 113.

The previous national daily record was Victoria's 288 last Friday. Victoria has had a total 4750 confirmed cases since the pandemic began.

For more information on COVID-19, visit: https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/coronavirus.

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