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Having witnessed Hannah Green's landmark golf victory against men last month, Momoka Kobori, Cassie Porter and amateur Kelsey Bennett are threatening to follow her example.

Young New Zealander Kobori shares the lead with Queenslander Bryden Macpherson after they shot opening five-under 64s in the $200,000 TPS Hunter Valley tournament at Cypress Lakes on Friday.

The Webex Players Series mixed gender tournament was reduced to 54 holes due to the NSW downpours that made play impossible on Thursday.

Rookie pro Porter is in a five-way tie for third at three under, one behind Queensland's Aaron Wilkin.

And Bennett is a further shot back, tied ninth.

Kobori is no stranger to mixing it with the men having won a 36-hole Whitford Park Pro Am on New Zealand's Charles Tour last January and has consistently placed highly throughout the Webex Players Series.

She was tied for ninth at TPS Victoria, tied for fourth behind Green at TPS Murray River and shot 67-66 in the final two rounds at TPS Sydney to finish tied for 11th.

"It was amazing to see Hannah win at Cobram a few weeks ago," Kobori said of Green's breakthrough.

"It's so good to see quite a few of us girls doing quite well in the TPS events the past couple of months. It's definitely good motivation for all of us."

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Image: Yuki Shimazu, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

National cabinet is moving to scrap quarantine requirements for all COVID-19 close contacts as soon as possible, with urgent health advice being sought.

Australian leaders also agreed to a transition away from PCR testing for healthy people with mild respiratory illnesses, and instead promote voluntary self-isolation for this group while symptomatic.

Both moves are being reviewed by the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.

Australians could also find out in a matter of weeks whether they need to receive a second COVID-19 vaccine booster ahead of a predicted winter surge in infections.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said advice from Australia's leading vaccine advisory group could come through by the end of the month on whether a fourth dose would be recommended for people over 65.

Mr Hunt said it was more likely than not a fourth dose would be needed for some groups of the population ahead of winter, when a spike in both COVID and flu infections is forecast.

"I can't pre-empt the decision but ... they are potentially going to recommend a second booster, which would be potentially the start of an annual program for people 65 and above," Mr Hunt told reporters in Canberra.

"We're expecting that advice from ATAGI within the next three weeks, if not earlier."

It comes as the government announced $2.1 billion to prepare for the current winter, which was agreed to by national cabinet on Friday.

The plan will involved $1.2 billion to help protect residential aged care and disability care sectors, $356 million to protect vulnerable population groups and a further $571 million for vaccines.

Mr Hunt said a scheme which provided free rapid antigen tests for concession card holders would be extended until the end of July this year.

So far, more than 5.5 million people have collected the free tests, with 20 million tests distributed among concession card holders.

The health minister said despite a rise in COVID cases being predicted, infections were unlikely to reach the highs seen during summer at the peak of the Omicron wave.

"We saw an absolute peak in Omicron cases and we're not expecting anything at those levels," Mr Hunt said.

"COVID infections are a little bit like a bouncing ball - the highest bounce is likely to have been in January and then will progressively decrease over time, but there will be a bounce as it goes into winter."

Despite concerns of a new Omicron sub-variant being detected, deputy chief medical officer Sonya Bennett said preparations had been made to deal with new strains.

"What we've learnt over the last few years is we now have a range of tools in the toolkit ... so we now have adequate and ready access to rapid antigen tests and adequate access to treatments for those at risk," she said.

"We know that public health and social measures need to be implemented in the worst-case scenario."

There were a further 30 COVID-19 deaths reported on Friday, including 10 in Victoria, seven in NSW, eight in Queensland, three in the ACT - including one historical case - and one in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

There were 14,034 new cases in NSW, 6811 in Victoria, 5005 in WA, 4327 in Queensland, 2503 in SA, 1129 in Tasmania, 791 in the ACT and 273 in the NT.

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Image: https://stocksnap.io/photo/face-mask-GIYMJAASOJ (free image)

Victorians are being encouraged to flock to pop-up COVID-19 vaccination hubs at Bunnings stores across the state to lift third-dose rates ahead of winter.

The state government on Friday announced the hardware chain will host 20 temporary clinics at various Melbourne and regional Victorian sites from next week.

"Come down, get your snag, get your tools and get a vaccination," Health Minister Martin Foley told reporters from a Bunnings site in Melton.

"What we need to do, particularly as we're heading towards the winter season, is to keep those vaccination levels up as high as we possibly can.

"There are some communities where we know we need to do more to lift those vaccination rates (in) some of the outer suburbs, some of the regional centres and some communities with culturally and linguistically diverse (people)."

The first hubs will open in Wodonga, Keysborough and Melton East on Wednesday.

About 53 per cent of residents 16 and over from the City of Melton, 52.3 per cent from the City of Greater Dandenong, and 65.6 per cent from the City of Wodonga have had three vaccine doses to date.

Other pop-up clinics are planned for the Queen Victoria Market, Swan Hill Food and Wine Festival and annual Elmore Tractor Pull in coming weeks.

Victoria currently has 61.9 per cent of adults vaccinated with three doses, ahead of mandatory vaccination rules kicking in for key workers.

After being pushed back, the deadline is approaching for aged care, disability, emergency service, meat processing, quarantine and food distribution workers to get their third jab.

From 11.59pm on Saturday, workers in those industries - including contractors, volunteers and students on placement - will need to have received their third dose to continue working.

Healthcare workers who received their first jab before September 12 are also required to have received their third vaccine by Sunday.

Victoria recorded 6811 new COVID-19 cases and a further 10 deaths on Friday.

The health department confirmed four of the deaths occurred in February, while three happened in January.

The number of Victorians in hospital declined overnight by three to 185 patients, with 27 people in intensive care and three requiring ventilation.

There are 46,263 active cases in the state.

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Photo: A pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Bunnings Mt Gravatt in Brisbane, Sunday, October 17, 2021. (AAP Image/Albert Perez)