A North-East mayor has pleaded with the Victorian government to maintain the status quo with the border bubble configuration to help businesses on the road to recovery from earlier COVID-19 lockdowns.
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Border communities arrangements have been under review since the border closed to NSW except the council areas in the bubble in that state on New Year's Eve.
Confusion was heightened on Sunday when member for Murray Valley Tim McCurdy posted on social media that the bubble had shrunk to local government areas fronting the Murray River only.
Mr McCurdy deleted the post, but in a follow-up post, he said: "Border bubble confusion continues, at this stage it appears the border bubble is still under review, therefore the current size remains until further notice."
Wangaratta is in the border bubble, but doesn't front the Murray River, and the city's mayor Dean Rees hopes nothing changes on a day when new case numbers in Victoria and NSW were three and eight respectively.
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"I've had about 25 calls today from concerned locals just asking if I had heard anything," Cr Rees said.
"We've been assured it's business as usual at the moment.
"Businesses are just starting to get back on their feet.
"With the border closure people may look to come to the beautiful holiday areas of the King Valley, Myrtleford and Bright areas, given they can't get up into NSW.
"But as long as we don't start getting people from the hot spots of Melbourne deciding they want to come up here."
The Victorian government was contacted for an update on the border bubble review.
There are currently 32 active cases in Victoria.
Albury Wodonga Health has conducted more than 1000 COVID-19 tests since Friday.
The Wodonga racecourse testing site was re-opened at the weekend to meet the huge demand for testing from Victorians returning from NSW via Albury-Wodonga.
It has closed until further notice.
Acting Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has again defended the decision to close the border to NSW.
"When you receive that (medical) advice it is incumbent upon the government to move as quickly as possible and to give that advice to the Victorian community," she said.
"Yes, I do acknowledge it provided for a very difficult 24 or 36 hours for people looking to return from various parts of NSW."
It was also revealed 1500 people had applied for exemptions to return to Victoria following the closure.
"Anybody who finds themselves in NSW who believes they have an important reason to get back to Victoria is invited to apply for an exemption," Victorian COVID-19 Response Commander Jeroen Weimar said.
"That does not mean you will be granted an exemption, we will only be grating exemptions to those who have a genuine medical, emergency, family, hardship reason."
Late Sunday, the government confirmed 117 exemptions have been granted to enter Victoria for reasons such as end of life circumstances or to attend a funeral.
The State of Emergency in Victoria will be extended to January 29.
The Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton has made the recommendation to the Health Minister Martin Foley in consultation with the Police and Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville and the Commissioner for Emergency Services Andrew Crisp.
