COVID-19 infections across the region as of Wednesday January 19 saw Warrnambool with 82 new cases among 642 active cases. Southern Grampians had 17 new cases and 209 active, Moyne Shire 19 new cases and 207 active, Corangamite Shire 27 new cases and 195 active and Glenelg with 10 new and 195 active cases.

However these could be double with RAT results not yet counted in local tallies.

It comes as Portland District Health invoked its own emergency directive for non-urgent surgeries.

Executive medical service director and acting chief executive Kaushik Banerjea said that from Monday, January 24, PDH would temporarily limit theatre cases to urgent procedures.

"This means all emergency surgery and urgent elective surgery will continue but non-urgent surgery will be temporarily deferred," he said. "These changes are in line with the issues and changes across the state, due to increased COVID-19 cases."

While not directly impacted by the state code brown emergency for metropolitan and major regional hospitals, Dr Banerjea said PDH was being proactive.

"We're not mandated to call a code brown but in preparation for what is expected, we wanted to be more proactive so we started by cutting non-urgent surgery."

The code brown is expected to last four to six weeks and PDH expects the theatre reduction will be enforced for a similar time.

"We will review the situation on a weekly basis."

PDH usually does about 30 surgical cases a day with around 80 per cent in the non-urgent category.

He apologised for any inconvenience and concern caused by the deferral but said PDH and other health services needed to cope with staff reductions due to COVID-19 and more demand for care.

One Warrnambool resident was surprised when she was handed a rapid antigen test at South West Healthcare's PCR testing site at Deakin University on Wednesday.

The woman reported being handed the home test kit instead of receiving a swab despite presenting to the clinic with COVID-like symptoms.

A South West Healthcare spokeswoman said the Deakin site received some RATs this afternoon from the state government but assured the community PCR testing was also available.

"Once the RATs have been used we will revert back to 100 per cent PCR until we can secure more," she said. "It's important that the community understand that those tests are available if you need them."

The service also apologised to families affected by a vaccination booking bungle on Wednesday.

A south-west mother expressed frustration when she turned up to the Warrnambool Vaccination Centre with her four children to be vaccinated, only to be told the appointments no longer existed.

"A phone call would have been nice though instead of finding out when we got there with four children," she posted online.

SWH said there was an error in the state booking system with January 19 being wrongly listed as a day for pediatric vaccines.

"SWH wasn't able to notify individual families to the error, as we did not have the information to do so.

"We put a post on our Facebook page to alert families, and a number of people came forward and we were able to assist them to cancel their booking and make another.

"SWH apologise unreservedly to any families who have been inconvenienced by this error, and we empathise with their frustration."

A booster blitz will kick off from tomorrow, with SWH now vaccinating people three months after their last dose.

More staff have been deployed and additional bookings available for the community over the next week following the changes to the vaccine booster interval announced by the state government today.

Steady supply means SWH can now vaccinate up to 700 people a day.

Chief executive Craig Fraser urged people to get their booster shot, with experts saying Omicron is 10 times more likely to reinfect somebody than Delta.

"Getting a third dose is the best thing we can all do to protect our community," Mr Fraser said.

"A booster dose will help maintain protection against COVID-19, help our region to remain open and to support community, business and schools to continue operating in a COVID safe way.

"Two initial COVID-19 vaccine doses are very effective at preventing infection and serious illness. Evidence suggests that this protection against COVID-19 gradually decreases over time, particularly from six months onwards.

"A COVID-19 third dose helps prevent waning immunity against COVID-19."

Mr Fraser said SWH would continue accepting patients from Barwon Health following its inclusion in the state-wide code brown alert issued from midday today.

He said any patients unable to be accepted by Barwon would be transferred to SWH.

"SWH remains a streaming hospital," Mr Fraser said.

The inundated service has not yet requested any assistance from SWH.

"SWH are managing the challenges of the Omicron wave well so far," he said. "It's been difficult, we have had to put measures in place to change the way we operate and staff have returned from leave early to help back fill their colleagues.

"But we are certainly not at the same level of stress as metropolitan hospitals at this point. The service is being tested - but it is manageable."

COVID-19 positive patients in the Glenelg Shire region are being transferred to the COVID wards in Warrnambool and Geelong.

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