Jeroen Weimar visits Albury Wodonga Health, which will restart elective surgery after code brown

Up to 75 per cent of activity will resume at regional hospitals from midday on February 14, however Albury Wodonga Health is yet to confirm to what level their operations will resume.

Interim chief executive Janet Chapman said the impending lifting of the code brown, enacted on January 18, was welcome news.

"It does indicate that this incredible pressure that we've had on the health system, the number of cases, are reducing and it is meaning that we can move to a little bit more of a business-as-usual environment," she said.

"That said, we still have a number of people in our hospital (and) we still have a number of staff who are furloughed.

"We're very excited that we can start to think about resumption of elective surgery.

"We don't want to start it all up and then have to stop again because we don't have the staff, or we've got too much demand from COVID ... it has to be done in a really calm, considered way.

"We're very aware that people have missed out on the care that they need and we're very aware that people are waiting."

Victoria's COVID Response Commander Jeroen Weimar said his message to residents, including those in Albury whose home state did not call a code brown in hospitals, was: "I know it's been a frustrating and difficult time".

"We will of course work very closely with Albury Wodonga Health to manage that slow transition process; it won't all start again on Monday afternoon," he said.

"Obviously for any New South Wales residents, they're in the same boat as Victorian residents ... both states are under a lot of pressure.

"As we continue to get on top of the Omicron wave, we expect to see more elective surgery in the weeks ahead."

The COVID chief visited AWH's vaccination hub to thank staff and meet with the executive about their COVID management and needs.

Mr Weimar said the state government would advise down the track if ATAGI's change of definition of fully vaccinated to three doses would be reflected in Victoria's mandates and restrictions.

"I would urge all the remaining half the community that has not yet had their third dose to get it done," he said.

"It's a really important thing to do ... we have lots of capacity; over 3000 bookings are available here at Wodonga over the next seven days."

Nearly 150 new COVID cases were recorded across the catchment of AWH and public health executive director Lucie Shanahan said it was important that people suspicious about a negative rapid antigen test seek a PCR, given the ongoing spread in the community.

"Whilst I think we're all sitting far more comfortably with what we're seeing on a day to day basis (than in January) ... I'd just like to emphasise that we are continuing to see well over 100 cases every day reported across our region," she said.

"Our PCR testing site in Wodonga is averaging about 60 tests a day at the moment, so we certainly have really rapid capacity to be able to support people.

"As we thought ... we're seeing a fairly consistent number of people requiring hospitalisation each day.

"We did have a peak that we saw about a week and a half ago, where had up to 16 people admitted across Albury and Wodonga hospitals ... it may have been very admitted because of COVID-19 or they were admitted to hospital for another reason and happened to have COVID as well.

"We have unfortunately had a couple of deaths in the last couple of weeks within Albury hospital of NSW residents that we've seen reported ... we pass our sincere condolences on to the families."

The COVID-19 ward opened in partnership with Ramsay Health in an unopened area of the Border Cancer Hospital is the primary area where COVID-positive patients are receiving care, in isolation and negative pressure rooms.

Health authorities are planning again for a spike in cases in winter, and although the Red Hot Summer Tour is locked in for March 26 at Gateway Lakes, there is still no confirmation of whether the Lakeside rapid antigen test collection site will move.

Ms Shanahan said it would certainly continue operation into February and March.

"We know how challenging it is for the community when we do get an outbreak and people are looking for rapid access to PCR testing," she said.

"We can quickly scale that site up and get it back to being a PCR testing site if that's what we need to do (but) we're also cognisant that it's a venue highly used by the community for other events.

"We'll continue conversations with Wodonga Council.

"Across both Albury and Wodonga, we're aware of a number of sites where large scale drive through testing sites can be stood up."

Mr Weimar, who was last on the border in November when the Lakeside clinic testing centre was opened, said it had been value-for-money despite moving to a rapid antigen test pick-up site.

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"I know the team at Lakeside absolutely worked their socks off and we're so glad to have had that site up and ready well in time for that for that big surge we saw over Christmas and New Year," he said.

"It's been a really appropriate investment ... we continue to use it very actively.

"We'll continue to to look at how we run our testing network over the future months.

"We expect further waves of COVID to come through our state."