There have been 104 outbreaks of viral gastroenteritis in child care centres up to February 23 this year, compared to a five-year average for the same period of 63.

Victoria's Department of Health confirmed one of the outbreaks has been in Ballarat.

Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton said childcare workers, children and their families all had a role to play in limiting the spread of the virus.

"Gastroenteritis can spread quickly through settings such as early childhood education and care services, where children play and interact closely with each other and their carers and can readily spread their bugs," Professor Sutton said.

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"It is important that early childhood services have good hygiene practices in place and to respond quickly with thorough and appropriate cleaning and disinfection if any children become ill."

Professor Sutton warned that the alcohol-based sanitisers people have become accustomed to using throughout the pandemic offer less protection against the bugs that cause viral gastroenteritis.

Handwashing with soap and water, and keeping children home until 48 hours after they recover, is the best way to stop the spread.

"A good old-fashioned scrub with soap and warm water is the best way to remove the gastro virus from our hands and prevent passing it on to infect others," he said.

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The increase numbers follow a surge late last year which saw 56 outbreaks in the six weeks to mid-December. At the start of 2021, after a COVID lockdown was eased, 389 outbreaks were detected in childcare settings to the end of April - four times higher than average.

Many other sporadic cases also occur in child care and schools that are not attributed to outbreaks but can spread quickly through families.

Prof Sutton said viral gastroenteritis was highly infections with symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, abdominal pain, headache and muscle aches. Symptoms can take up to three days to develop and usually last one or two days, sometimes longer.

Infants or children in early childhood services or schools, as well as staff who develop vomiting or diarrhoea should stay at home for at least 48 hours after their symptoms have stopped.

Anyone recovering from gastroenteritis should avoid visiting hospitals, early childhood services and aged care facilities to avoid spreading the infection.

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