COVID-19 testing numbers in Ballarat have risen slightly in the wake of a hotel quarantine worker testing positive to the deadly virus on Sunday.
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The city's sole public screening site in Errard Street North was almost booked out on Monday after the state government confirmed new exposure sites in Melbourne's north-west suburbs.
UFS chief Lynne McLennan, whose organisation runs Ballarat's fever clinic, said staff were expecting a "small trickle" of people with health department directives to be tested but predominantly those being tested in Ballarat were residents with symptoms.
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Ms McLennan reiterated this showed Ballarat people were still doing the right thing and getting tested with even the slightest cold, flu or hayfever-like symptoms.
The Ballarat clinic tested 120 people at the weekend after averaging 110 to 130 people daily last week. Those tested last week included travellers from Perth ahead of the AusCycling National Road Championships criterium in Sturt Street on Friday night.
Ms McLennan said there was also starting to be an increasing number of families presenting for testing, now school was back in session. She said this was as predicted based on experience from on-site learning's return - and the propensity for more cold and flu like germs to spread.
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The UFS testing clinic is only for people with cold, flu or hayfever-like symptoms, unless a person has a health department directive to be tested.
Ms McLennan said the positive hotel quarantine worker's case, in sticking to protocol, highlighted once more how precarious a situation it still was in Victoria. She said it was vital to keep up physical distancing, hand hygiene, masks and testing under health department guidelines.
Ballarat remains on schedule for the city's first COVID-19 vaccinations by the month's end.
In Ballarat, the Pfizer-BioTech vaccine will first be given to frontline healthcare workers, those working in the emergency department, intensive care unit, respiratory clinics, COVID-19 testing sites and paramedics. This will also extend to age care residents and staff in public facilities.
Grampians Public Health Unit, based within Ballarat Health Services, will oversee the roll-out from Ballarat to Nhill.
To book a COVID-19 test in Ballarat, phone 4311 1571. Appointments are by booking only.
