There have been big jumps in regional COVID cases but health authorities believe lockdowns and vaccinations can stabilise the numbers.
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Ballarat has recently come out of a snap lockdown and Moorabool is due to come out of a week long lockdown on Friday night.
Ballarat recorded seven new cases on Monday on a day that new cases broke the national record and the city now has 19 active cases.
Four of these were recorded for the 3350 postcode of central Ballarat and surrounds. Two were recorded in 3355 the postcode covering Wendouree and one for 3356 covering Sebastopol and Delacombe
The Pyrenees shire which has long been COVID free has also recorded three new cases in the 24 hour period.
The Moorabool shire also recorded two new cases, both in the 3340 postcode area of Bacchus Marsh.
Health Department deputy secretary Kate Matson said the national record of new COVID cases for a single day announced today (1763 cases) also included significant numbers in regional Victoria.
"Cases are also growing as a total proportion, in regional Victoria, 86 new cases in regional Victoria yesterday," Ms Matson said. "And there are 555 active cases outside Metropolitan Melbourne. This includes 16 new cases in Greater Geelong, a total of 61 active cases. 15 new cases in Mitchell Shire, where there 120 active cases. 14 in Shepparton a total of 67 active cases.
But the health leaders believe nine new cases in La Trobe where there is a total of 67 active cases has been answered with a lockdown and an increased vaccination uptake means they will be able to lift the lockdown there as planned.
"Pleasingly, due to the lockdown enacted a week ago, cases have not taken off at a great rate. The cases we've seen are primary linked," Ms Matson said.
"The few cases we believe are unlinked, we believe, will be linked to linked cases in previous communities, which is why we're going to be able to lift the lockdown at midnight tonight. It's also partially due to the great response to vaccination in La Trobe. It's grown 6 percentage points to 79.3% coverage over the past week.
"That 6 percentage points is above the state average for growth over the past week, and those increased vaccination rates are again one of the reasons we feel more confident to be able to lift the lockdown."
Moorabool vaccination rates also grew 5.2 percent for first does and 5.5 percent for double does but at 53.9 percent for fully vaccinated its is still trailing Ballarat's figure of 57.4 percent.
It comes after the Premier presented two recovering COVID cases in an effort to communicate how serious the illness is and the urgency of the collective effort.
"But it's always good to hear from ordinary Victorians - their stories are powerful. " Mr Andrews said.
"Their stories are, I think, a great motivation if you needed one to go and get vaccinated. There are appointments available. We want to 70% double-dose as quick as we can, then 80%. Be open, be free, normalise this. We know it'll be a tough time for our health workers and our health system, but there's no alternative."
Will Smith was training more than 12 times a week as a top-level college athlete in the United States when the young Victorian man was struck down with COVID-19.
The 24-year-old got sick in March 2020 after returning home to Melbourne from Boston, where he had spent four years on Northeastern University's rowing team.
He described the initial phase of the illness as "incredibly frightening".
"The feeling of straining against your own body, trying to expand your lungs against this invisible force, struggling to breathe," Mr Smith told reporters on Tuesday.
He isolated at his family home, allowing his mother and stepfather to avoid contracting the virus.
His symptoms were mild enough to avoid hospital and get cleared after a couple of weeks.
But the former Caulfield Grammar student is still grappling with the long-term effects.
"Long-COVID is real ... it's not a place you want to be," Mr Smith said.
"Months after my diagnosis I still couldn't walk around the block without getting light-headed, needing to lie down, struggling to breathe. I had such debilitating fatigue that I sometimes couldn't even get out of bed."
He said long-COVID involves periods of remission, interspersed with intense flare-ups.
A relapse can be brought on by something as simple as walking the dog or kicking the footy - more than 18 months after first contracting COVID-19.
"I'm still nowhere near normal," he said.
Yesterday there were also four more deaths in Victoria.
Ballarat had 14 active cases as of late Monday. New cases identified for Ballarat at the weekend were linked, and new exposure sites across the city have been confirmed.
The health department confirmed the statewide case figure on Tuesday, following five days of new four figure infections.
It has pushed the number of active infections in the state to 14, 368.
More than 62, 189 Victorians were tested for the virus in the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, while vaccinations were administered at state-run sites.
There were also 35, 253 vaccines administered.
Ballarat had two new cases announced yesterday and several new exposure sites were added but tier two exposure sites were unlikely to be listed after several days due to an inundation of the health department contract tracer team.
Ballarat Health Services in a media statement said there was likely to be a rise in cases as the state moves towards living with COVID-19. BHS reiterated this made vaccinations for those aged 12-plus increasingly important as was people continuing to check in with QR codes and maintain social distancing, masks and hygiene.
Anyone who has visited a contact exposure site is urged to get tested immediately and isolate: until negative results are returned for tier two and for 14 days if tier one.
READ MORE.
Construction workers in Melbourne and other locked-down areas including Moorabool have been able to return to worksites on Tuesday, as long as they follow strict safeguards and have had at least their first jab.
The industry-wide mandate, and other restrictions brought in to curb transmission, sparked a protest outside the CFMEU's Melbourne headquarters on September 20, the day the state government announced the sector would down tools for a fortnight-long reset.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said tens of thousands of construction workers had since come forward to meet the first-dose requirement, but could not say what proportion of the industry is now vaccinated.
"I haven't asked the question," he told reporters on Monday.
Professor Sutton believes the building industry is ready for Tuesday's restart, having learned a "hard lesson" and reflected on compliance issues with masks and tearooms.
"We can absolutely turn it around," he said.
The return to work comes as Victoria reviews 14-day isolation requirements for close contacts in schools as some regional students headed back to classrooms on Monday.
Prof Sutton confirmed close contact isolation protocols for COVID-positive cases at schools were changing and would depend on the level of exposure and vaccination status among student and teachers.
"The (exposed) class will be the most at-risk contacts, obviously, but other classes won't necessarily need to quarantine at home," he said.
"We certainly won't have the entire school quarantining for a full 14-day period."
Victoria reported 1377 new local cases - the fifth day in a row of four-figure infections - and four deaths on Monday, taking the toll for the current outbreak to 53.
Education Minister James Merlino said 33 VCE students from COVID-19 hotspots were among the new cases, after 8000 were tested in the lead up to Tuesday's repeatedly rescheduled General Achievement Test.
The students are being contact-traced and will not be able to sit the GAT, but can take their exams at a later date.
The state government also announced repurposed dental vans will be rolled out to administer COVID-19 vaccinations, boosting rates in the state's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Where can I get tested: Click here to see where you can get a COVID test.
The first dedicated van will this week stop in locked-down Greater Shepparton, which has the largest Indigenous population in Victoria outside of Melbourne.
Some 65 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Victoria have received at least one dose.
That rate is higher than other states but lower than Victoria's broader population, with 82.8 per cent of residents 16 and over having received their first shot and 52.5 per cent fully vaccinated.
When Victoria hits 70 per cent double-dose vaccination of its 16-plus population, the state's sixth lockdown will end, with restrictions due to ease further at 80 per cent.
The indicative dates for reaching the 70 per cent (October 26) and 80 per cent (November 5) targets are "more or less the same" as initially forecast, Prof Sutton said.
Melbourne became the world's most locked-down city on Monday, chalking up 246 days living under stay-at-home orders to surpass the record set by the Argentinian capital of Buenos Aires.
Prof Sutton said the pandemic had been an "awful crisis" but impacted Melbourne more than other Australian cities, citing the sluggish vaccination rollout as partly to blame.
"That is the vulnerability that means you have to have a lockdown to manage potentially catastrophic numbers and catastrophic numbers of deaths," he said.
- with AAP
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