More than half of Ballarat residents are now fully vaccinated, but one of the city's strongest voices in the vaccination race says more can still be done.
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According to the latest data released by the federal health department, 50.1 per cent of Ballarat residents aged 15 years and over have received two doses of a COVID vaccine while 76.8 per cent have received at least one dose.
However, Ballarat is still behind other regional centres with Geelong currently at 81.2 per cent first dose and 53 per cent fully vaccinated and Bendigo at 79.2 per cent and 53 per cent.
In terms of nearby local government areas, Hepburn Shire is leading the way with 57.2 per cent of its population fully vaccinated and 80.2 per cent receiving a first dose, closely followed by Pyrenees Shire at 52.3 per cent and 76.3 per cent.
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The City of Ballarat is still ahead of Golden Plains Shire at 47.6 per cent and 75.7 per cent and Moorabool Shire at 44.4 per cent and 77.7 per cent.
Ballarat has been lagging behind some of its regional counterparts with 3.2 per cent of the population receiving its second dose last week, compared to 3.6 per cent in Horsham and 3.4 per cent in Bendigo, but was ahead of Geelong which had just 2.8 per cent of its population receiving a second dose.
Ballarat is also ahead of both the national vaccination rate, which stands at 47 per cent fully vaccinated and 72.1 per cent first dose, and the Victorian rate of 44.1 per cent and 72.6 per cent.
Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton said while the city was making steady progress, it could still do better.
"I think with the arrival of Moderna and the additional capacity to administer vaccinations through pharmacies and GPs of Moderna, we need to and we can rapidly accelerate towards 80 per cent plus," he said.
"If I look at the last 14 days, there's been a six per cent increase; in the last seven days, there has been a 3.2 per cent increase, so we made up for what was an ordinary week two weeks ago, but I would still describe it as steady and I think we need to do better than steady."
While Ballarat's vaccination rate is increasing, Mr Poulton said it was being overtaken by counterparts in Victoria and nationally and the rollout should be extended.
"If I look at Warrnambool and seeing the things that are happening down there, they are a smaller community but 56 per cent double dose, that's a fantastic effort," he said. "If I look at Hobart, it's 61 per cent double dose so we can do better and I think we can do better in terms of a Victorian context and also do better in terms of a national context.
"We've been relying on people coming to vaccination centres and we need to continue to have that as part of our armoury but now, with extra supply, we've also got to get out to workplaces, get out to hard-to-get communities and get into schools when schools open up again."
The latest statistics come as the Victorian government outlined its roadmap out of COVID restrictions which is strongly focused on the population crossing vaccination rate thresholds, targeting 80 per cent fully vaccinated to lift many restrictions and bring down the metro-regional border currently in place.
However, University of Melbourne epidemiologists believe 80 per cent might not be enough to avoid future lockdowns.
Professor Tony Blakely said vaccinating 90 per cent of the population down to the age of five could still result in lockdowns being used 14 per cent of the time.
"What the modelling shows is that at 80 per cent of adults vaccinated, life won't be tickety-boo next year. We need to do more than that," he said.
"Sometime early next year, probably, we'll get to 90 per cent. As people see their friends get incentivised because they see their friends getting sick, or as people realise that if they go to the pub or the community sports centre they need to be vaccinated."
It comes as updated Doherty Institute modelling, underpinning a national reopening plan, predicts stay-at-home orders will be needed with double-dose rates of between 70 and 80 per cent.
Its initial advice compared outbreaks seeded with 30 cases. But the institute has now taken into account scenarios with hundreds and thousands of cases.
Its epidemiology director Jodie McVernon said conclusions about the 70 and 80 per cent vaccine goals remained robust under the updated model.
But 'medium' public health safety measures should be retained during the transition between the targets in places like NSW and Victoria where new daily cases are in high numbers.
That includes staying at home except for essential purposes, retail and hospitality opening with density limits, working from home where possible and closed or graduated return to schools.
- with AAP