Ballarat is ahead of the national average in first doses with 88.4 per cent of the population aged 15-plus having had at least one jab. The Australian average clocked 80 per cent first doses on Monday.

This comes as Ballarat records one of its single biggest new case loads, seven infections, on a day that Victoria broke the national record for new COVID cases, 1763.

Three new COVID cases have also emerged in the Pyrenees Shire.

The only way out continues to be vaccines with La Trobe Valley set to come out of lockdown, despite recording nine new COVID cases and a total active infection tally of 67 people - a tally about 3.5 times higher than Ballarat.

Victoria's health department deputy secretary Kate Matson said La Trobe's lockdown lift was partly due to a large portion of linked cases, but also a sharp increase in vaccination uptake of six percentage points, which was higher than state jab growth the past week.

Grampians Public Health Unit medical director Rosemary Aldrich said the COVID landscape was reaching a stark reality.

"In my view, a person will either be vaccinated or get COVID. Don't wait to get COVID," Associate Professor Aldrich said.

"We don't know who ends up in ICU with COVID and who doesn't. It's almost impossible to tell. We know that COVID makes everything worse but even somebody with COVID who has had no medical conditions at all can still be very heavily affected and have long-lasting effects.

"So please, come forward because getting vaccinated is still our best defence against COVID."

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Ballarat Health Services acute operations director Ben Kelly has flagged the BHS Base Hospital's near-inevitable position to become a streaming hospital in caring for an overflow of metropolitan COVID cases.

Mr Kelly said BHS was yet to receive formal advice on this, but major hospitals in Geelong and Bendigo had already been called upon.

Mr Kelly assured BHS was constantly reviewing plans and prepared for COVID needs changes for the region, and in the bigger state picture, both in the hospital and in-home care programs.

All Ballarat seven new cases are from known infections. Associate Professor Aldrich said all cases were linked to paths in Melbourne. She cautioned there could be hundreds of authorised workers from Melbourne, who could unknowingly be infected but, once here, spread so far appeared to be contained to households.

Grampians Public Health Unit remains concerned with unexplained COVID spikes in wastewater linked to Winter Valley and Sebastopol. Any primary close contacts in isolation and anyone with the slightest symptoms in these areas are urged to get COVID tested immediately.

Moorabool Shire, which is set to come out of lockdown on Friday, recorded two new COVID cases but both are in Bacchus Marsh.

Associate Professor Aldrich said it was too premature to speculate on whether Ballarat, or surrounding local government areas, would need further lockdowns because this depended on how community spread was playing out.

She particularly called on hesitant residents aged 60-plus who had been holding out on vaccines to not wait any longer now they had access Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. These mRNA vaccines became available to the 60-plus cohort via pharmacies and general practitioners from this week.

This comes after what Associate Professor Aldrich said had been an "incredibly unfortunate" plateau in AstraZeneca vaccinations for this age group for so long.

Moderna is also available in pharmacies for children as young as 12 and the Pfizer interval has been halved to three weeks in state run hubs.

Committee for Ballarat chief executive Michael Poulton said the first-dose rate for the region was going strong but fully vaccinated meant two doses and it was vital everyone ensure they were on schedule for follow-up full protection.

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All COVID vaccines can have a couple weeks' lag for full protection to kick in.

Mr Poulton said Ballarat's health bodies played a key role across the Central Highlands in helping to ensure the state got beyond an 80 per cent full vaccination target.

He said the advent of Pfizer and Moderna access through primary care providers could allow more room for pop-up plans to forge ahead in jabbing harder to reach pockets of the community.

"This is a race for the whole of Victoria. At the end of the day, it's about getting as many jabs in arms as quickly as possible," Mr Poulton said.

"For the community to be able to partake in the things the community wants to partake in, we need to be vaccinated."

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