While the state recorded 603 new cases, Ballarat's total active cases increased by one to 18 on its sixth day of lockdown.

However, Ballarat's GovHub building will become a central focus of the city's fight against COVID over the coming days.

There is some concern after the new case was identified in a government employee working at GovHub and the entire building is expected to be added to the exposure list as a tier one site for most of last week.

Another GovHub worker, who resides in Melbourne, has also been identified as a confirmed case as both worked in the building while infectious.

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It is expected that GovHub will be listed as a tier one site for Monday to Friday of last week and as a tier two site for other times outside of business hours during the week.

Ballarat Health Services and Grampians Public Health Unit infectious diseases doctor Aaron Bloch said contact tracing was under way and the next 24 to 48 hours were critical.

"We detected these cases last night and have already begun that contact tracing process in terms of mapping the movements of our cases within the building and rapidly identifying their contacts and isolating them," he said on Tuesday.

"The next step will be getting their testing underway and we'll be keenly seeing what the testing is looking like for other staff members at GovHub. The next 24 to 48 hours will be critical to see if we have any further onward transmission at that site and we certainly hope that won't be the case but we will have to wait and see."

The concern comes as Ballarat is anticipating whether or not it will be released from its seven-day snap lockdown as scheduled.

BHS acting chief executive Melanie Robertson said while the health provider did not determine lockdowns, it did provide information to inform that decision and factors included the new cases and ongoing wastewater testing.

"We now have a tier one exposure site. We're unwrapping what that means and the contract tracers are hard at work identifying all those people and all those exposure sites as quickly as possible," she said.

"We need to get people to testing sites, we need to isolate those people and we need to continue to get people vaccinated.

"There's also the new wastewater detections in Redan and Delacombe that's additional information to us, so we know that we still have COVID positive people in our community that we haven't yet identified."

Dr Bloch said about 30 close contacts had been identified for the first GovHub case, but the second will see that number top 100.

Dr Bloch said it was concerning to have a case at GovHub so close to the scheduled end of the lockdown.

"We're always keen to have less cases and less exposure sites and particularly, as we move towards the end of this week of designated lockdown, it is a little bit concerning to have this pop up towards the end of the week," he said.

"We are encouraged by the fact that our cases have come forward quite quickly for testing on the onset of symptoms, they've done all the right things, we're working really closely with the GovHub.

"With GovHub, it's a little bit of a different situation. This isn't someone going to the local Woolworths and getting a positive test, this is within a defined workplace, but I would imagine we might have more cases from this work site. If we can contain them to that work site though, that's a real positive."

Three new cases were also identified in Moorabool Shire on Tuesday, but Dr Bloch said they would not have any bearing on the assessment of Ballarat's outbreak.

The Courier contacted the Department of Health and asked whether Ballarat would be released from lockdown and when the community would learn its fate, but did not receive a response before deadline.

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