Bendigo spokesman for the Australian Hotels Association Ray Sharawara said on Thursday he had ordered 200 tests for the Shamrock Hotel at a price of about $10 each.

Almost one-third of the executive board of the AHA were COVID-19 positive on Thursday when an emergency meeting of the organisation was held via teleconference.

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Mr Sharwara said they voted in favour of lobbying the government to pay for RATs going forward and reintroduce monetary support for the industry.

"We are sympathetic to the problems the government has got, especially with the hospital situation, but we need help as well right now,'' he said.

"One hotel has 38 staff who have tested positive and are off work in Melbourne. Three out of our 10 executive board members has COVID-19. All of those three are double-vaxxed.

"They're going to be OK - they're already on the road to good recoveries. We wish that absolutely everybody would get vaxxed."

Mr Sharawara said the board would make a formal approach to government ministers to request a support package that would include cash payments to businesses and money for the RATs.

"We are being restricted by government decree. There are caps back on our capacity levels,'' he said.

"We anticipate the situation will worsen and the numbers will keep increasing so the need for support is not going away.

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