Despite regional Victoria boasting less than 10 per cent of the state's all-time COVID-19 cases and with active cases trending downward, an emergency medicine specialist said there is no room for complacency.
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Dr Stephen Parnis lived and worked in Bendigo from 2007 to 2009 and the former vice president of the Australian Medical Association said Bendigo is well served by a "wonderful hospital", and that the pandemic is far from over.
"Generally speaking, regional areas are more susceptible to being overwhelmed if the pandemic got out of control," he said.
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"We dodged a bullet with the first wave and I think we are doing well in our fight against the second wave."
Bendigo's medical workforce has strengthened in the past decade and that puts the community in good hands, Dr Parnis said.
"The medical and nursing professionals in Bendigo are more qualified, more experienced and exist in greater number than during time there.
"I had a wonderful couple of years in Bendigo and I'm delighted to say Bendigo Hospital is a different beast to when I lived there.
"At the AMA, I played a role in pushing very hard for the new hospital not to be second best under any circumstances."
Dr Parnis now works across three hospitals in metropolitan Melbourne and said the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in his medical career, which spans more than three decades.
"We have seen epidemics in the past such as Swine flu and we heard of SARS, but that never visited our shores," he said.
"I was the federal vice president of the AMA when the Ebola crisis hit West Africa.
"These have all caused us concern but I could never have anticipated the power and devastation to our daily lives rendered by coronavirus."
Dr Parnis, a self confessed history buff, said the synergy that exists between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1919 Spanish flu is striking.
"The closure of state borders and the need for masks, I'm astounded at the number of parallels," Dr Parnis said.
"The pandemic has reinforced some things that I took for granted -that I am part of a team and I consider my colleagues at the hospital part of a wider family.
"It's not a cliche, but we care about each other's wellbeing, life events, needs and vulnerabilities very, very deeply."
