THE number of active COVID-19 cases in the Mildura local government area has eased slightly, despite another 74 new cases being reported on Thursday.

There were 772 active cases in the LGA, 27 fewer than the previous day, as Mildura Base Public Hospital spent its first full day under Code Brown emergency conditions, adopted to streamline operations in the midst of the worst wave of infections for the entire pandemic.

The Victorian government declared a Code Brown emergency for all Melbourne hospitals and six in the regions on Tuesday, as the system feels the strain of high numbers of admissions and staff shortages caused by infections and close-contact isolation.

One of the other affected regional hospitals is Bendigo Health, which has been the main source of pandemic patient-load support for Mildura.

The Mildura hospital opted into the emergency status to give it more flexibility ahead of the peak of Omicron-variant infections.

Another 15 people with COVID have died in Victoria, which reported a total of 20,000 new confirmed or probable cases on Thursday.