The virus was the 34^th leading cause of deaths across the nation last year, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics' annual death snapshot.

This was largely driven by the dangerous Delta wave, which arrive mid-last year and took hold until Omicron surged past in the holiday period.

There were 1122 COVID-19 deaths registered in Australia last year. By the first of September this year, lives lost to COVID-19 had surged to 11,441 since the pandemic began.

Confirmed COVID-19 deaths hit peaks in January (1610 deaths) and February (1007) this year with another surge in July (1265).

Ballarat health officials have maintained the number can be hard to determine, depending on what other health factors and illness must be considered.

While Grampians Health confirmed in early June that 17 residents had died from COVID-19 this year and fewer than 10 had died last year.

Ballarat's COVID-19 death rate per capita had been typically lower than other regional centres, which Grampians Health public health expert Rob Grenfell at the time attributed to the city's high immunisation rates.

ABS mortality statistics director Lauren Moran said people who died with COVID-19 last year had a higher tendency for pre-existing chronic heart issues compared to the first year of the pandemic when the most common pre-existing condition in COVID-19 deaths was dementia.

Deakin University epidemiology lead Catherine Bennett said there was still a lot to learn about other COVID-19 impacts such as long-COVID and the relatively newly coined medium-COVID, in which some people have elevated risks and inflammations for two to three months after their initial infection.

"You've got a risk everyday," Professor Bennett said. "In the background, the exposure risk is still high."

Professor Bennett said vaccination remained vital protection against the virus, including warding against long and medium-COVID and hospitalisation.

Australia's first Omircon-specific vaccine came into play last week as a booster jab.

More than 80 per cent of eligible Ballarat residents, aged 16-plus, had received a third COVID-19 jab by the end of September, national vaccine data shows. Fourth dose data is not available but the extra jab is open to people aged 30-plus and for at-risk people.

Meanwhile, other respiratory-related deaths remained low last year but alcohol induced deaths were up 5.8 per cent.

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