Moyne Health chief Jackie Kelly said she supported Moyne Shire Council's call for the state government to ease some restrictions that would allow 50 people in venues in regional areas.

"We haven't had the same experience of coronavirus in the south-west and it just helps our community get back on track, for the mental health and social isolation side. It has affected their mental health," Ms Kelly said.

"We would like to see it happen as soon as possible. We have to be flexible, if we do see cases of COVID we will have to go back to restrictions."

But a state government spokeswoman told The Standard the Chief Health Officer's advice remained to delay an increase to gathering limits in businesses and community facilities.

"We know these restrictions have been difficult for a lot of businesses and families, especially those in regional Victoria who have lost valuable tourism dollars," she said.

"But 241 regional Victorians have had coronavirus, and our case numbers are higher than they've been in more than two months.

"We understand Victorians are frustrated, but we can't let this get away from us. We must act while we can."

Moyne mayor Daniel Meade moved a motion supported 5-1 by councillors this week to ask the Premier to ease restrictions in regional areas and keep people contained to outbreak areas in Melbourne.

He said afterwards the motion followed a "change in sentiment" this week as a promised easing of restrictions was delayed due to outbreaks in Melbourne.

"Stats show that there has been no cases in the region for such a long time and the feedback I had been getting from the community had changed from understanding to frustration," Cr Meade said.

"After Sunday I felt a real change in sentiment from the community."

But Warrnambool Medical Clinic's Dr Phil Hall said easing restrictions in regional areas was "not going to work".

"People come out of the city and go to the country and spread it anyway," Dr Hall said.

"If the political leaders and health experts are giving different advice then the population gets confused.

"We seem to be hurting unnecessarily but the politicians are looking at the big picture and you have to be guided by those decisions.

"Even though the risk is low currently it doesn't mean it won't happen. We can expect there will be an outbreak at some point in the future."

Deakin University's Institute for Health Transformation's epidemiologist Catherine Bennett said restrictions remained critical in coming weeks due to the likelihood of school holiday travel.

"Given the next two or three weeks are critical, I wouldn't ease restrictions if that precluded visitors and particularly if the cases numbers go down in Melbourne we still want that window of caution," Professor Bennett said.

"It only takes one person to potentially infect other people in a local restaurant and pub then you have cases in the areas and would have to go backwards."

She said the economic argument for opening up regions would not necessarily help businesses fully recover.

"It's a false economy if you like, because if you open up you are restricting the people who can come into your town. Stick with it and you can have visitors and you are not putting your local community at risk," Professor Bennett said.

"The next few days will tell us. We are going to see more cases because the department is so aggressively contact tracing. We will be very thorough in finding anyone. So expect to see consistent numbers of cases.

"If what we are doing now works, then in two weeks you would hope to see a decline, then we can look at where we are at what we can do restriction wise and whether we can move more safely into that previously proposed relaxation."

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