The head of a south-west Victorian council says a ring of steel around Melbourne should be re-introduced if the latest coronavirus outbreak continues to worsen.
Victoria's Department of Health says there are now 15 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 detected in the state.
Eleven new cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, six of them overnight.
New restrictions were introduced in Greater Melbourne overnight, including mandatory mask-wearing while indoors and new limits on public gatherings.
However regional Victoria has also been put on notice, with two exposure sites listed in Central Victoria late Tuesday night.
The Glenelg Shire in south-west Victoria wants the state government to protect border communities any way it can, even if it means the return of the contentious 'ring of steel'.
Bring it back
The Glenelg Shire relies on consistent travel across the Victoria-South Australia border, which is a major road freight route as well as key source of local industry for cross-border towns.
Mayor Anita Rank said a lot of those towns cannot fathom another round of rolling border closures.
"If we start to have outbreaks, we need to go back to the ring of steel so that we can contain the virus," Cr Rank said.
"We most definitely don't want to see a lockdown, because it would have an affect on businesses who were just starting to return to normality.
The South Australian government last night shut its border to Victorians that have visited a tier one or tier two exposure site.
All of the up-to-date exposure sites can be found on the DHHS website.
Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton is convinced the testing and tracing of all primary close contacts and their contacts will "mitigate the risk of transmission".
Cr Rank said small business were only just getting back on their feet following the last round of lockdowns.
She said event organisers were among those starting to worry.
"We're getting close to a long weekend in June, and there are lots of events that are actually on the calendar," she said.
"I think over the next 24 hours, we'll get more information.
"One of the good things coming out of the COVID pandemic is the communication that is received, and we get good communication very quickly."
