In a wide-ranging interview with The Courier, Cr Paul Tatchell says he fears the "mum and dad" businesses in, not just the Moorabool Shire but, all regions will be the first to disappear once the full economic impact of the pandemic is realised.

It comes as Moorabool remains the one municipality in regional Victoria which has seen an increase in COVID-19 numbers this week, sitting on 13 active cases on Wednesday.

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Cr Tatchell says he believes the proximity to hotspot regions like Melton and Wyndham, and a high transient population, were the contributing factors to Moorabool's recent spike in infections.

"I think a lot of it is because 60 per cent of our population are working outside the shire," he said. "That makes it extremely hard to patrol.

"There's no doubt a few mistakes have been made, but Moorabool really is a pathway.

"You can almost guarantee the problems are on the peripherals where the borders cross over. We were good for a couple of months, but we've seen a bit of a spike recently. I think as a whole, country people have been pretty sensible about everything."

Mayor David Edwards said nine of the 13 cases were in the Bacchus Marsh postcode.

"The postcode data does help, but what we'd really like to know is where, so we know areas we should avoid," he said.

"The Bacchus Marsh postcode only takes up about 10 per cent of our whole area, but probably you're looking at 60 per cent of the population there."

Cr Edwards said he held particular concerns for outlying communities.that rely on local support for essential services.

"For us, social issues, remote areas, isolation, severe depression, these are all issues we are only just seeing the start of," he said.

"It's something council might have to explore further, how do we get counsellors to these people? I expect we'll see a whole heap of social issues over the next 12 months."

Cr Tatchell said his biggest fears weren't the infections, rather the flow-on effects on many local businesses that he fears may never return.

"I think the fall-out will be fairly dramatic," he said.

"A lot of these businesses simply don't have the ability to recover quickly. That's a real concern.

"At the end of the day, businesses will need to sit down and say 'right, the pandemic has cost me $100,000 or $200,000' or whatever it is, and work out if their business is worth that, and if not, then decide if they continue on.

"Once the working poor are in recession, what happens to the real poor?

"Personally, I've never had so many phone calls from people in distress wanting some advice. I've had so many people call me just to talk to their kids. As a councillor, I've never seen something like that before."

Cr Tatchell said he felt this was a perfect storm of issues which probably wouldn't reach its peak until early next year.

"Personally, I think a federal government should set a charter and states fall into line," he said.

"Right now we have a lot of mixed messages. When you have 16 per cent working for the government, and then 14 per cent unemployment and then a tax receipt problem you have issues.

"It's a perfect storm and the federal government needs to act to make sure the three issues don't collide at the same time. If you are going to stimulate the economy, you don't stimulate government, you stimulate the private sector. If the pandemic is still going during the first quarter next year, understand that many businesses won't be there."

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