Victoria COVID commander Jeroen Weimar sympathised with Albury-Wodonga residents contending with different rules, information and policies on either side of the border during the pandemic during his visit for the opening of the new Lakeside testing clinic in Wodonga on Friday.
Mr Weimar said he'd seen the issue play out in multiple communities along the Murray River, including in Mildura and Echuca-Moama.
"I absolutely sympathise," he said.
"I can absolutely appreciate the frustrations."
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"Anytime you come into a border community the inevitable discrepancy and changes of approach between two sides of the border, we absolutely see it here in Albury-Wodonga ... but I think there is actually an excellent level of cooperation, particularly between local agencies."
Mr Weimar said NSW and Victoria had been learning from each other throughout the pandemic and he pointed to the Rapid Antigen Testing kits that were being given out in Albury schools.
"As of Monday across all Victorian schools we'll be starting a pilot of using Rapid Antigen Testing particularly for those children who are exposed to a positive case in a school setting," he said.
"The pilot I think will be around 10 to 20 schools and it will run for a couple of weeks and then it will open up more widely to all schools in Victoria.
"This is to primarily support schools who have younger students who cant be vaccinated at this time."
Mr Weimar said the aim of the program was to support students to be able to safely and quickly return to school.
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Victoria Ellis
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
