Ballarat residents are rushing to get their fourth COVID vaccine dose after eligibility rules changed this week

From the minute the announcement was made expanding eligibility for the second booster, or so-called winter dose, to those aged 30+ the phones began ringing at the UFS vaccination clinic.

UFS primary care operations manager Danielle Trezise said clinic staff had gone from doing 30 to 40 vaccinations a day last week to a fully-booked 250 jabs a day this week.

"It was a huge response and the phone started ringing as soon as the announcement was made," Ms Trezise said.

Last week the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation recommended a fourth vaccine dose for adults aged 50 and over, and expanded eligibility for the winter booster dose to adults aged 30 to 49, noting "however the benefit for people in this age group is less certain".

"We've gone back into full swing with six vaccination rooms running all day when we previously had one or two running that were not fully booked," Ms Trezise said.

UFS and other community pharmacies also reported strong demand for boosters doses.

Ms Trezise said those newly-eligible booking in for their booster were a real mix of those aged 30 to 50, and older.

"They are the people with kids back at school, and a lot work in health care but were not otherwise eligible for a fourth dose but now they are if they're over 30. They are people with families, with kids at school, older parents or grandparents in aged care and they want to protect themselves and others," she said.

A fourth dose for those eligible can be given three months after their previous booster, or three months after a COVID infection if it has occurred since the third dose.

On Thursday Ballarat recorded 230 new COVID cases, bringing the total active case number to 1140 - the highest in a month as the third Omicron wave arrives.

Ballarat is one of 13 local government areas across the state with a COVID infection rate of more than 1000 cases per 100,000 population.

"The message is if you are eligible you should have another vaccine dose," Ms Trezise said.

"A fourth vaccine dose is the best protection for you, your family and the whole community. We have shown that high vaccination rates really do work; yes there's still COVID but the rate of hospitalisation compared to the number of people with COVID is still quite low."

On Thursday there were 17 COVID positive patients at Ballarat Base Hospital.

Ballarat residents have been eager to receive their COVID vaccinations since they were first introduced more than a year ago, with one of the highest rates of vaccination in the state.

According to the Federal Government's Operation COVID Shield report, Ballarat is in the top 10 of Victorian local government areas for the percentage of people who have had their third COVID vaccine.

As of July 11, 79.4 per cent of eligible Ballarat residents had received three doses of COVID vaccine, compared to 77.7 per cent of people in Bendigo, and 77.1 per cent in Geelong.

The fourth dose was approved in a bid to help stem infections as new Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5 become the dominant strains in a third Omicron wave sweeping through the state.

This third wave of the Omicron variant is expected to peak in August.

Ms Trezise said while there had been initial concern about having enough vaccine supply to cater for the increased demand, extra supplies of COVID vaccines had been secured.

"We did have some concern about supply just because we have to order two weeks in advance ... but we have been able to secure plenty of doses so there's no concern now," she said.

Several walk-in patients to the UFS vaccination clinic earlier in the week had been turned away because of supply issues, but Ms Trezise said walk in vaccinations were now available though bookings were preferred and must be made at pharmacies.

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Appointments at the UFS vaccination clinic in Dana Street are available from mid next week.

The clinic was able to quickly scale up the number of vaccination appointments available following the change in eligibility.

"A lot of our staff were casual and were working across pharmacies and various sites offering flu vaccines, so they have been redeployed to COVID vaccinations now the free flu program has finished," Ms Trezise said.

"It's great we had that workforce of nurses that couple support us through the flu vaccinations, helping pharmacies and medical practices, and now they're back doing the fourth dose COVID vaccines."

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