While Melbourne remains in lockdown, Ballarat and the rest of regional Victoria was released on Tuesday, creating a split between the two areas for the first time since the June lockdown.

Regional divisions will also be working with metropolitan police to place patrols around the city's outskirts to ensure compliance with the restrictions.

Key to the response is the automated number plate recognition technology fitted to highway patrol cars.

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The technology automatically scans the licence plates of vehicles on all four sides of the highway patrol car and presents the registration and licence details within seconds, alerting members when vehicles are coming from Melbourne into the regions.

Ballarat Highway Patrol Senior Sergeant Stuart Gale said the operation was similar to the ring of steel which was in place last year, but without the static checkpoints.

"It's actually a combined effort, so it's highway patrol and uniform, so an all-of-division response to that," he said.

"We'll be using the patrol vehicles to patrol all roads in that area. We'll be kind of concentrating in our area, including the Western Highway, the Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road, all those link roads associated around the area.

"Those fringe towns like Bacchus Marsh and that, they'll certainly be patrolling those areas looking for breaches as well.

"It's not a highway patrol-only response, it is a combined effort utilising members from across the division and this will be utilising highway patrol vehicles because they have the technology to assist us."

Senior Sergeant Gale said the operation was effective the last time it was used in the June lockdown.

"It was certainly effective. It allows us to be targeted in our response and to pick out those vehicles that are breaching," he said.

"We'll certainly have 24-hour coverage over this. All shifts, AM, PM and night shift, we'll have a response from every shift.

"We've scrambled to get those resources in that area and we've got those resources in place as we speak now and they will continue as long as this lockdown is in place."

People caught attempting to leave Melbourne and enter regional Victoria could face fines of more than $5000.

The operation comes as Premier Daniel Andrews announced Melbourne would remain in lockdown for another week after the state recorded 20 new locally acquired cases of the virus, including five mystery cases.

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