All Victorians will be required to wear face masks from Monday amid record breaking coronavirus infections, as the NSW government refuses to rule out a hard border closure.
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Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced the statewide measures on Thursday after 723 cases and 13 deaths were recorded in a 24 hour period.
All people will be required to wear facial coverings outside of their homes from 11.59pm on Sunday.
Greater restrictions have also been placed on council areas near Melbourne which do not extend to the North East.
Albury MP Justin Clancy spoke to Gladys Berejiklian on Wednesday and did not rule out a hard border closure when speaking on Thursday.
"Whilst we didn't talk about the hard border closure, obviously today's data coming from Victoria is extremely confronting," he said.
"It's as a result of that data that those conversations start arising.
"This is dynamic.
"This is a virus that confronts the globe.
"I don't think anything would be ruled in or out at this stage."
Mr Clancy said discussions about a border rescue package for businesses continued with an announcement due shortly.
More than 600,000 vehicles have crossed from Victoria into NSW since the closures were announced on July 8.
Mr Andrews said the decision to mandate masks in regional areas came after coronavirus numbers increased outside of Melbourne.
"Our tolerance for numbers in regional Victoria is very low because the numbers are low and we want to keep them that way. That's why we are taking what are essentially precautionary measures," he said.
"We'll be working with school in the intervening period to get masks for secondary schools next week, we'll be working with venues that remain open."
He said areas with zero cases were included to save the confusion of having different rules across different municipal boundaries.
People who refuse to wear a mask risk a $200 fine.
Those seated at hospitality venues will not have to have their mask on, nor those working alone on farms, but they will have to wear them when they interact with other people again.
Thursday's mask announcement led to an increase in customers at Border fabric stores.