The NSW Premier has announced a new border region will be created from Friday, extending 50 kilometres each side of the NSW/Victoria border and taking in Victorian towns as far south as Beechworth.
The announcement extends the current border region, which allowed travel of up to 2.5 kilometres into land on each side of the border by permitted residents.
The move opens up travel opportunities for those who hold a residents’ permit to attend work, school or for other essential services.
“Pleasingly, having obviously heard the sustained concerns of the community, and seeing the rates of infection in Victoria decline, from this Friday the border community will be extended to that initial 50km on either side of the border,” said Ms Berejiklian.
“Service NSW and the community has a few days to adjust to that,” she said.
“We wanted to make sure, that unlike previous changes, we gave as much notice as possible so people would be able to start planning ahead.
“Of course, any movement outside the border communities comes with additional restrictions, but in terms of people being able to tend to their daily life without unnecessary stress, we hope that from Friday life will change in a positive way for people.”
The Premier said that there had been in excess of 1.2 million movements to and from NSW/Victoria border communities in the last six weeks.
The changes will come into effect at 12.01am on Friday, September 4.
NSW has recorded 13 new coronavirus from 14,815 tests in the latest 24-hour reporting period. Of the new cases, two are returned travellers in hotel quarantine and 11 are locally acquired. Seven of the new cases have been linked to the Sydney CBD cluster, which now stands at 41 cases.
