A COVID-19 tracing team has been set up by Albury Wodonga Health to cover North East Victoria.
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The move means that Melbourne bureaucrats will no longer do the detective work when someone contracts coronavirus in the region.
AWH chief executive Michael Kalimnios said his organisation would contact trace for the Alpine, Indigo, Towong, Wangaratta and Wodonga council areas.
"Until now, when a positive case was identified, the Department of Health and Human Services managed the contact tracing process from Melbourne," Mr Kalimnios said.
"This intensive process involves the identification, assessing and managing of people who may have been exposed to the infected person.
"The change will enable faster response times and treatment by utilising the local resources and pathways that AWH has in the community."
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Victoria has been criticised for having a centralised regime, rather than a regional structure for contact tracing, like NSW uses.
From March, Murrumbidgee Local Health District has been responsible for COVID-19 tracking in the Riverina, a task it was equipped to do, given its role includes monitoring notifiable diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
The move follows NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian citing the lack of disease control and monitoring as a reason for closing the border with Victoria.
Border MP Justin Clancy, who on Thursday will host the secretary of NSW Health Elizabeth Koff, the boss of chief health officer Kerry Chant, in Albury, welcomed the contact tracing step.
"Certainly we would encourage it, in that it instills some confidence in terms of COVID in North East Victoria," Mr Clancy said.
Mr Clancy said it was timely given Ms Koff would be seeking a greater insight into Border systems.
Member for Benambra Bill Tilley said having contact tracers for the North East should bolster efforts to reduce border clamps.
"We have to plan ahead, the threat of this virus is on our doorstep and as we've seen in other parts of the world, elimination appears unattainable," he said.
"So we need to be able to reopen businesses, remove restrictions, get to our jobs and school with this virus and having a well-resourced, contact tracing team must be part of that solution."
