Cr Hudson urged everyone to make the most of free COVID-19 test kits, now available in a partnership with the state government, to monitor symptoms.

This comes as people return to work and families prepare to go back-to-school in the first summer without COVID-19 restrictions in three years.

Ballarat had 95 new COVID-19 cases reported last week, but this figure from Victoria's health department relies on people who test positive to self-report this to the department. This active case tally is in stark contrast to Ballarat's 621 active COVID-19 cases - the highest rate in the state - leading into the Christmas long weekend.

Victoria's chief health officer Brett Sutton had warned deaths and hospitalisations would soar with high transmission via large family gatherings in the holiday season.

While Victoria's average daily cases have decreased 38.3 per cent, with the state's latest health department reporting 4912 new cases, COVID-19 deaths have been on the rise. There were 156 recorded Victorian lives lost due to COVID-19 last week.

"There continue to be positive signs the sustained peak of the November-December wave has passed," Professor Sutton said on Friday. "...An increase in reported deaths was expected following recent periods of high transmission in the community."

IN OTHER NEWS

Victorians are still urged to mask-up when unable to social distance, to ensure vaccinations are up to date, to keep indoor spaces well ventilated, to stay home with cold or flu-like symptoms and, if eligible, to access anti-viral medication via a general practitioner.

Anyone with symptoms or concerned about COVID-19 exposure should take a rapid antigen test.

City of Ballarat will offer two free RAT kits to individuals - four to eligible people at high risk - per visit from Sebastopol Library. This will continue until June.

"As a city, Ballarat has always banded together and done an amazing job in doing our best to keep ourselves, and others, as safe as possible," Cr Hudson said. "Now that everybody is eligible to receive the free [RATs], I encourage everybody to do their part in the fight against COVID."

RATs will no longer be handed out at Victorian schools and students and staff will primarily need to access tests from council-run sites, which in Ballarat is the Sebastopol Library.

Nearby, free RATs have been accessed at The Well in Smythesdale (Golden Plains), Beaufort and Skipton community centres (Pyrenees), Ballan council offices (Moorabool) and Maryborough and Dunolly libraries (Central Goldfields).

A mixed group of Omicron sub-variants continues to circulate in Victoria. The XBF strain has accounted for 35 per cent of new Victorian infections but the variant running rampant in the United States, dubbed XBB.1.5, has been almost non-existent in Victoria.

Have you tried The Courier's app? It can be downloaded here.