People who live on the Victoria-NSW border will now need a permit to travel between states.
Premier Daniel Andrews says residents of the cross-border community local government areas will need to obtain a permit to state-hop from 6pm on Friday.
He said the permit system would track who was entering Victoria from NSW and make it easier to rapidly get information to contact tracers and to monitor for compliance.
"It is not good enough to limit movement. We need to know who is moving," Mr Andrews told reporters on Wednesday.
"If this virus can get from Sydney to Byron Bay, to Armidale, then only a fool would think it couldn't get to Albury. It absolutely can. We need to go beyond a bubble. We need to have permits."
Mr Andrews says if the virus gets into the southern NSW communities, there is "every chance" it will spread into Victoria.
Victoria recorded 20 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, all of which were located in metropolitan Melbourne, while NSW recorded 344 cases and announced a week-long lockdown for Dubbo, almost 400 kilometres northwest of Sydney.
Several other NSW regional areas are already in lockdown, including the Hunter, the Northern Rivers, which takes in Byron Bay, Tamworth and Armidale
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton said he wanted border communities to be able to "go about their business safely".
"We want to reduce the risk and we want to be able to respond appropriately should any incursion into the border communities occur," he said.
The permit system will apply for the next 14 days and replace the licence checks currently in place.
Residents of the border towns can travel between states for for six reasons including medical care, compassionate purposes, work, education, playing sport or getting vaccinated.
