From Friday, it is mandatory that workers in health care services must have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

"Our current number is just over 99 per cent of our staff are either double vaccinated, had a single dose or have a booking to receive their first by Friday," said BHS executive director People and Culture Claire Woods.

"We are fairly consistent with the overall Ballarat numbers which are more than 95 per cent (first dosed) at the moment but we have got more than 88 per cent who are already double-dosed."

There are fewer than 25 staff who have yet to have at least one vaccination because they have decided not to be vaccinated, or are still unsure whether they want to.

"We are talking to those people on case by case basis because there are still some people who are genuinely unsure and would like more time," Ms Woods said.

"Those people who have made made a decision not to be vaccinated, we try to be respectful with them because in reality that's a big decision for someone who works in health care to make because they are not going to be able to work in any health care organisation in Victoria or NSW.

"We encourage them to reach out to our employee assistance program to understand what their options are and a number of them have indicated seeking support from representation and union.

"It's a big decision for people to make when you hold strong views and all we can really do is support people as they make this decision."

Another small number are staff on long-term leave such as maternity leave whose vaccination status has not yet been followed up, but will be when they return to BHS.

And a handful of older staff who were planning to retire but do not want to have the vaccination have decided to start their retirement early.

Workers in health services who have not had at least one vaccination dose are not permitted to work.

"They can't attend for work at the moment. That doesn't mean their employment is terminated but the effective date within the (government) directive for employees to be double dosed is December 15," Ms Woods said. "There will be individual discussions between now and then around what they want to do and the decision they are making."

But most staff were quick to take advantage of vaccinations for health care workers particularly after seeing the impact of COVID cases on colleagues in Melbourne and overseas.

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"About a third of our staff had their first vaccinations as as early as they could so it really shouldn't be a large task for all our staff to be fully vaccinated by December 15," Ms Woods said.

"We are very fortunate in Ballarat ... we haven't had a huge impact from COVID, but the people who work here know people in Melbourne who have been exposed to a lot of COVID cases.

"My sense is that because we've been so fortunate, they've said let's do the right thing and get vaccinated early to put all precautions in place."

A new temporary COVID-19 testing site has been built at the Creswick Road car park to replace the drive up testing site at Marty Busch Reserve in Sebastopol which is now closed. The new site, likely to remain in place until early 2022, will operate daily from 9am to 6pm.

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