The NSW Premier flagged the possibility of opening the border after regional Victoria recorded successive days without any new coronavirus cases.
Ms Berejiklian said she was monitoring the situation closely in Victoria and said she may consider excluding people from Melbourne initially.
“I do want to make sure that we don’t have those border checkpoints for a day longer than we need to,” she said.
Victoria’s peak medical group said it was now safe for NSW to reopen to regional Victoria while tourism groups also welcomed Ms Berejiklian’s comments, saying they provided some hope for the immediate future.
Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh said all residents of regional Victoria should be allowed to travel to NSW.
Rural Councils Victoria deputy chair Jenny O’Connor, and mayor of Indigo Shire in the state’s north-east prior to the current council election, said it was safe for Ms Berejiklian to open up to regional Victoria because numbers were so low.
“I would urge her to look at the numbers, at the fact we’ve been able to keep regional Victoria almost COVID-free, certainly in our area,” she said.
“We are at a point where we need to start on the long road to recovery.”
Ms O’Conner said much of regional Victoria has no reported COVID-19 cases and believed they should be allowed to travel into NSW.
On Tuesday the rolling 14-day average fell to 1.6 cases in regional Victoria with just 23 active cases. The last time regional Victoria recorded any new infections was on September 17 when a single case was reported.
The Indigo Shire Council and Federation Council local government areas have remained COVID-19 free for over five months since before Easter.
The final and fourth step of Victoria’s Roadmap to COVID normal for Regional Victoria will come into effect on November 23 or even possibly even sooner if the entire state records no new cases for 14 days.
The fourth step allows for interstate travel along with other relaxed measure such as entertainment indoors and outdoors with density caps, hospitality venues being able to seat groups of 20 indoors with a cap of 50 patrons, 20 visitors to a home at one time and weddings and funerals will be allowed to have up to 50 people.
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