At a council meeting on Wednesday, Cr Harris - who has been an emergency doctor in Ballarat for many years - voiced his concerns about both the speed of contact tracing and planning to deal with outbreaks in care homes.

He has called for contact tracing to be devolved to hospital areas.

Describing the DHHS as "over-stretched" and "underpowered", he said they were unable "to provide a lot of the services we would have thought would be essential for the protection of our community."

"The contact tracing for our region has been deficient. Ballarat Health Services has done its best to plug that gap but it had increasing frustrations with dovetailing into the central effort," he told fellow councillors in the publicly broadcast meeting.

Cr Harris said he had become increasingly concerned through his observations on the council's Municipal Emergency Planning Committee.

He is part of a sub-committee - called the Health Protection working group - which includes Ballarat Health Services and local DHHS representatives.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOUR SAY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE

He was also sharply critical of measures to address outbreaks in places like care homes, saying there was no consistent plan "to push the button and get a coordinated response."

"They've had six months to get this right really. It hasn't been done right and they need some reform."

He refrained from criticising either Daniel Andrews or the chief health officer Brett Sutton, saying: "I feel the Premier and the chief health officer in terms of how they have managed things, our levels of preparedness, and their communication with the public, has all gone well.

"But I feel they are in a giant map room that is running completely efficiently but not having the foot soldiers on the ground.

"The battalions they are moving round are paper tigers. It's about time we have to point this out.

In a follow-up conversation with The Courier on Thursday, he said: "[THE DHHS] don't seem to have the capacity. We have found that for outbreaks regionally, DHHS has taken too long to contact trace."

Last Friday, Premier Daniel Andrews said there would be contact tracing teams based in the regions, starting in Geelong, then setting up in Ballarat, Bendigo and Latrobe Valley.

However, Cr Harris argued the hospital authorities in each area would be best placed to lead the contact tracing efforts.

"The DHHS has been found wanting," he said. "We need them to make some decisions."

While Cr Harris is known for his outspoken criticisms of state government, he said he hesitated before speaking out this time.

"None of us wanted to get in the DHHS's way during a pandemic," he said.

The issue has only become apparent, he said, since the latest cases began to be recorded in the city - saying the initial positive cases in February and March were mostly returned travellers and "relatively simple" to manage.

"We presumed they had the expertise and left them in the role," he said.

He told The Courier that the subcommittee group, through the City of Ballarat CEO, sent a letter to the Chief Health Officer last week "expressing concerns about the timeliness of contact tracing centrally and its interoperability with local health service tracing."

The letter also outlined concerns about outbreak management plans, in particular for non state nursing homes and special accommodation facilities.

"We are yet to receive a serious response," Cr Harris said.

Ballarat registered its first positive COVID-19 case for almost two months on July 16.

Statistics released by the DHHS on Thursday afternoon showed Ballarat currently has a total of 11 active cases, while Moorabool Shire has six and Golden Plains eight.

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW